HP Pavilion ze4400, PCMCIA, NdisWrapper, and Kernel woes

jhayden · 08-07-2004, 09:39 AM

I have an HP Pavilion ze4400 Laptop running Slackware 10. I have been using the 2.6 kernel series for quite a while. It seems as though the yenta_socket module in the 2.6 and 2.4 kernels can't detect and set the irq of the cardbus controller on this machine correctly. When using the yenta_socket module, linux will do anywhere from oops to kernel panics when inserting PCMCIA cards.

I therefore compiled a 2.6.7 kernel without any PCMCIA support at all. I read somewhere to then install the old i82365 modules, which have been replaced with yenta_socket in the kernel, from the pcmcia-cs source code. I download the pcmcia-cs 3.2.5 source code and did a make config. I was trying to install the drivers into a 2.6.7 kernel compiled with no PCMCIA support. I got some error about 2.5 kernels and later must have PCMCIA support compiled in the kernel to install these drivers. Ok, so I decided to try a 2.4 kernel. I compiled a 2.4 kernel with no PCMCIA support. I then installed the drivers from the pcmcia-cs source without error. I rebooted and PCMCIA came up just fine.

Now, I was trying to get my PCMCIA working because I had a Belkin F5D7010 802.11g WiFi I was trying to get working. Broadcom has provided no Linux drivers for this BCM4306 chipset. It has, however, been reported to work well with NdisWrapper. I downloaded NdisWrapper and installed it. Someone said the drivers on the NdisWrapper website didn't work for this card. So, I installed the Windoze driver from the OEM CD with

Code:

ndiswrapper -i

Everything's looking good, so I popped in the card and did an

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

to make sure it was detected properly. Nope!

Code:

# ndiswrapper -l
pcilib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci/02/00.0
Unable to read 64 bytes of configuration space.Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5  hardware NOT present
# lspci
pcilib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci/02/00.0
Unable to read 64 bytes of configuration space.00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc AGP Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc PCI Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 01)
00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]
00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem]
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller
00:10.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:11.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 PMU
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility U1

Ok, so I took this error message (pcilib: Can't open...) to google and found out I should try using a 2.6 kernel to get this to work. At this point I also tried my Dazzle SmartMedia Card Adapter. It loaded up perfectly as /dev/hde. So, PCMCIA is working, but not with this WiFi card.

I decided to just try compiling another 2.6.7 kernel with PCMCIA support with yenta_socket. Upon bootup, the PCMCIA services started up fine. I then popped the Wireless card in again and did a

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

Wow! It's showing up as being present. I did a

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

, the power LED on the card came on, and kernel panic. That's not going to work.

And finally, I tried compiling a 2.6 kernel with PCMCIA support, but no yenta_socket support. I then tried installing the pcmcia-cs drivers into it. After doing a make config of pcmcia-cs, it says:

Code:

** Your kernel is configured with PCMCIA driver support.  Therefore,
** 'make all' will compile the PCMCIA utilities but not the drivers.

Grrr... I *do* want the drivers installed.

As I said before my PCMCIA will not work with the yenta_socket module in either kernel, I can't get ndiswrapper (or at least this card) to work with 2.4, and I can't install the i82365 module from pcmcia-cs into a 2.6 kernel. I'm stuck.

So here are my ideas and questions.
1) Get NdisWrapper and this card to work on a 2.4 kernel with drivers installed from pcmcia-cs. Does someone know what this error means when using the 2.4 kernel with PCMCIA support from pcmcia-cs?

Code:

"pcilib: Cannot open /proc/bus/pci/02/00.0"
Unable to read 64 bytes of configuration space.

2) Get a card that has a Linux driver that will work with this 2.4 setup.
3) Is there a patch for the 2.6 kernel, so I could use the old i82365 module with it?

I apologize for this long post. If there is any info I have failed to mention, please ask.

Thanks!
Josh

jhayden · 08-12-2004, 09:20 PM

Well, I've been working on this for a week. I've read a lot in google about issues that I'm having. I partially have PCMCIA working now with Linux 2.6.7. Here's snippets of my dmesg.

Code:

# dmesg | less
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: IRQ9 SCI: Level Trigger.
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGPB._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 6 *10)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 7 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 6 10) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 6 10) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 6 10) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 7 11) *10
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs *3 4 6 10)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs *5 7)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKU] (IRQs 3 4 6 10) *9
ACPI: Embedded Controller [EC0] (gpe 24)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKU] enabled at IRQ 10
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] enabled at IRQ 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] enabled at IRQ 3
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 0000:00:10.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
...
Linux Kernel Card Services
  options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:00:0a.0 [0000:0000]
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x04b8, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000821
natsemi dp8381x driver, version 1.07+LK1.0.17, Sep 27, 2002
  originally by Donald Becker <becker@scyld.com>
  http://www.scyld.com/network/natsemi.html
  2.4.x kernel port by Jeff Garzik, Tjeerd Mulder
eth0: NatSemi DP8381[56] at 0xeebda000, 00:0b:cd:a5:13:43, IRQ 11.

As you can see, the CardBus and Ethernet are both routed to IRQ 11. I decided to check Windoze and it shows up the same way. Here's part of an lspci output with the Belkin wireless card in the machine.

Code:

# lspci -v
...
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller
        Flags: bus master, stepping, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
        Memory at 2df00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
        Memory window 0: 2e000000-2e3ff000 (prefetchable)
        Memory window 1: 2e400000-2e7ff000
        I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
        I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
        16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
...
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 0024
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 90, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at 8c00 [size=256]
        Memory at e0003000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
...
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Belkin: Unknown device 7010
        Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 11
        Memory at 2e400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8K]
..

I have read reports of PCMCIA working properly on this machine with the 2.6 kernel and the yenta_socket module. I'm still getting kernel panics when I try to modprobe ndiswrapper.

Code:

# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5  hardware present
# modprobe ndiswrapper 
Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler, not syncing.

The system then hangs. I did a fresh slackware install on an extra partition, and turned off most all services in /etc/rc.d including ethernet card and hotplug and it still hangs. I have to do a hard power down by holding the power button down for a few seconds.

This is what happens in dmesg when I insert my SmartMedia card reader into the PCMCIA.

Code:

cs: memory probe 0x0c0000-0x0fffff: excluding 0xc0000-0xcffff 0xdc000-0xdffff 0xe4000-0xfffff
irq 11: nobody cared!
 [<c01071ba>] __report_bad_irq+0x2a/0x90
 [<c01072ac>] note_interrupt+0x6c/0xa0
 [<c010749e>] do_IRQ+0xde/0xe0
 [<c0105a68>] common_interrupt+0x18/0x20
 [<c0107144>] handle_IRQ_event+0x24/0x70
 [<c010742e>] do_IRQ+0x6e/0xe0
 [<c0105a68>] common_interrupt+0x18/0x20
 [<c01183f0>] __do_softirq+0x30/0x80
 [<c0118466>] do_softirq+0x26/0x30
 [<c0107485>] do_IRQ+0xc5/0xe0
...
 [<c01058fb>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb

handlers:
[<eebad850>] (yenta_interrupt+0x0/0x40 [yenta_socket])
[<eec10780>] (intr_handler+0x0/0x110 [natsemi])
Disabling IRQ #11
hde: Memory Card Adapter, CFA DISK drive
ide2 at 0x100-0x107,0x10e on irq 11
hde: max request size: 128KiB
hde: 32000 sectors (16 MB) w/1KiB Cache, CHS=500/4/16
 hde: unknown partition table
ide-cs: hde: Vcc = 3.3, Vpp = 0.0

This is when I have an exlcude irq 11 option in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts, which explains the irq 11: nobody cared! message. It was recommended that exclude irq 11 be set for this laptop. I can then mount it with mount /dev/hde /mnt/pcmcia.

I have also tried booting with pci=noacpi, which caused CardBus to be routed to IRQ 5. After I updated the BIOS, with pci=noacpi, CardBus routes to IRQ 10. I read about some laptop that had IRQ problems and they had hacked some kernel source files to reroute the IRQs. The files were arch/i386/pci/irq.c and arch/i386/kernel/dmi_scan.c. I tried this to reroute the CardBus to various IRQs but that didn't work either. It basically checked the dmi values found in dmidecode for this model of laptop and disabled ACPI IRQ routing, and manually set the CardBus IRQ.

I really have no clue what I'm doing, as I'm still relatively new to GNU/Linux. If anyone could point me in a direction to try, that'd be greatly appreciated. I'd be willing to try anything at this point. I can't figure out if the problem is with this laptop, IRQ (which I still don't understand fully) issues, PCMCIA/CardBus, ndiswrapper, this Belkin card, me, or any or all of the above. If anyone has any kind of advice for me, please give it to me.

TIA!
Josh

wiresquire · 08-18-2004, 12:03 AM

This might help.