I have installed Mandrake 8.0 and I can't get DHCPC to work over my PCMCIA network card.

My laptop is a Compaq Armada E500.
My PCMCIA network card is a 3COM 3CCE589ET.

Static IP works.

At boot time, when PCMCIA is started, all modules are loaded and the led on my card starts to flicker. I get a high beep and after 60 secs a low beep.

I don't receive a DHCP request on the DHCP server and I don' get an IP address on the client.

Can anyone tell me how I can solve this problem ?

Many thanks.

The high beep low beep combo is explained in the PCMCIA-HOWTO included with the PCMCIA services package. Basically, what you want to hear is two high beeps. The low beep means that the PCMCIA daemon cardmgr doesn't recognize your card by the definitions in the /etc/pcmcia/config file.

Here's what you do.

First, check your boot log in /var/log/messages. You should see an error message when the cardmgr daemon tries to load. The log should also give you some important info on the card.

Next, I'd recommend going to Sourceforge and dloading the PCMCIA services package, you'll find it here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pcmcia-cs/

Dowload the package and unpack it somewhere so that you can read the PCMCIA-HOWTO located within. Lots of good info in there.

Last but not least, I wrote an article about PCMCIA confiuration on LinuxOrbit.com that you might find helpful. I installed two different laptops with Linux and PCMCIA network cards in the article. That should be a good explanation for you. Read the article "PCMCIA and GNU/Linux: It's a Snap" here:

http://www.linuxorbit.com/features/pcmcia.php3

Enjoy.

I've tried all this, but nothing works.

I've modified the ifup-script a bit and that does the job, but it's a stupid workaround I want to get rid off.

First time I call dhcpcd with a timeout of 5 secs. As soon as the daemon starts, the light on my card starts flickering.

A few seconds after the error exit (sleep 5), the light stops flickering, turns to on.

If I ask for a renew then (dhcpcd -n), I get an IP-address.

Sometimes 5 seconds isn't long enough, I retry three times in a loop.

I don't really know where to look.

I get the same effect out of the boot sequence (/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart).

It thing that that the DHCPC daemon calls my card but doesn't get it up because of some locking problem. I could be wrong, of course.