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I'm not a new linux user, but this problem has had me stumped for several days, almost a week, and I'm ready to let someone else drive. I have a Dell Insprion 8200, with an internal mini PCI card, and an external PCMCIA slot. They both show up as PCMCIA slots under linux (under cardctl status and lspci). If I boot into the knoppix CD, both of my cards are detected (they use the same broadcom 802.11g chipset, and I've managed to get them both working with the ndiswrapper in the past). They show up as separate cards under lspci. If I boot into the knoppix/debian hard disk install, only my internal wireless card is detected. Even if I disable the internal card in the bios, so that linux won't detect it, the external PCMCIA card is still undetected. If I boot into my LFS (Linux From Scratch) partition, I also am unable to detect my external PCMCIA card, It doesn't even show up under lspci. Both of the PCMCIA sockets(the internal mini-PCI and external PCMCIA) show up when I type lspci, but only the mini-PCI card is detected.
I have tried some serious hacking to get this to work. I even went so far as to yank the Knoppix S00 script from rcS.d directory and putting it in my debian hard disk install. My intention was to get it working with my debian/knoppix hard disk install, and then to change my LFS configuration to match it. I have successfully gotten my Knoppix hard disk install to work with both PCMCIA cards in the past, but for whatever reason, it's just not working this time. I also tried installing Fedora Core 1 on my the partition that I now have knoppix/debian on, and Fedora was also unable to detect my external wireless card, but did detect my internal one.
My current set up is this. I have 25 Gigs dedicated to my LFS install, and 5 Gigs that I have been using as a test partition. I can install anything that I want, and I've been using it to work out some issues with my LFS configuration, as I've been borrowing some bits and pieces from other distros in order to help set up my LFS system. Currently it has knoppix/debian on it, and I would be ok with getting it to work with debian or any other linux distro and then tweaking LFS at a later time. I'm perplexed about why it would work with the knoppix CD, but not with the hard disk install, especially after I completely ripped the Startup scripts from the CD and used it on my hard disk install.
Here is my DMESG and lspci output from my debian hard disk install(it's the same as the output I get on my LFS setup):
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Enabling device 02:01.0 (0000 -> 0002)
PCI: Enabling device 02:01.1 (0000 -> 0002)
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
Yenta IRQ list 0000, PCI irq11
Socket status: 00000000
ti113x: Routing card interrupts to PCI
Yenta IRQ list 0000, PCI irq11
Socket status: 00000000
ti113x: Routing card interrupts to PCI
host/uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1d.0 to 64
One vital clue is that my Socket status is 000000000, instead of 3000010. I've noticed that when I bootup from the knoppix CD, that the socket status is 3000010, and it's 000000000 when I boot off the hard disk. I'm not sure what it means.
As you'll notice, the Broadcom card that is in the MiniPCI slot is showing up when I type in lspci, just not the external one. They both show up when I boot from the CD. Yes, they are the same 802.11g chipset. I've managed to get them to work with the ndiswrapper last month. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance for any help.
Sorry for the blatant bump. Could someone please help. If this problem belongs in a different forum, please let me know. This is exactly the reason why I only use linux for about 1 or 2 months out of every year. The pattern, since installing redhat 4.2 for the first time 6 years ago, goes something like this:
1. Grab latest linux distro
2. Install it.
3. Admire how far linux has come since the last time you installed it, and say to yourself,"Hey, this is pretty good, maybe I could start using linux as my primary OS."
4. Get 95% of the way through configuring everything. Install all your games, get a bunch of stuff working with wine. Tweak the kernel, etc.
5. At nearly the end of configuring your machine, run into a stupid problem.
6. Spend day after day trying to troubleshoot this problem, which is something that on Windows would "just work".
7. After days, perhaps weeks of non-stop obsessive-compulsive troubleshooting, give up and return to Windows until next year.
Part of my reason for trying LFS is that I really want to understand how all this stuff works, so that I can contribute to linux as a developer. This problem defies anything that I can think of. I've tried installing different distros, different kernels, the latest pcmcia tools, etc. I've reread the PCMCIA howto about 10 times. The irony is that before I wiped my hard drive in order to install LFS, the PCMCIA worked fine. Before LFS I had a debian system that I installed from the knoppix CD. It just worked, and I didn't even think of saving my PCMCIA configuration, since I had no problems last time. This time around, I can't get it to work at all, even after reinstalling debian to see why it worked last time. I really need to get the external wireless working, since the internal wireless card on my laptop is nearly useless and has horrible range.
I can understand how you feel because I've exactly the same problem with a Toshiba P20 with Suse 9.0, in fact, i back you up all the way as each year I'm also trying to get my hands on Linux and end giving up...
Unfortunately I'm also stuck as i don't have a solution for it, but found out that by starting firstly with WIN XP (dual boot) and using the Belkin card (Broadcom 802.11g) that is my second wireless card on pcmcia slot 1 (the first is a Toshiba mini pci 802.11b on slot 0) if i do a restart after XP and enter into Suse, guess what... cardctl detects the Belkin card and i can even get it to work with ndiswrapper.
But if do a reboot on Linux, cardctl doesn't detect the Belkin pcmcia card anymore and of course can't get it back to work, unless i go into XP and do the same thing again....
I'm completely lost here, there is something on XP that is activating the card and lets it stay active. How to do it with Linux?
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