Is there a driver i need to install or something I need to enable for the PC-Express slot in slackware?

I am running an IBM T410 with slackware 13.1 64bit and when I insert a Ubiquity SR71 PC-Express card into the express slot there is no output in either the /var/log/syslog or Dmesg, nor a new interface in iwconfig.

When i put in the card its basically acting like nothing has happened? Any ideas? Do I need to ModProbe something? or install a driver or modify some kernel option???

Anyone have any good ideas?? I cant seem to find any output of any life from that express slot.

maybe you just have to start rc.pcmcia to activate the PCMCIA services
P.S. by chance, are you shitstorm's atrocity?

haha nope I am not that person...

And no go on the rc.pcmcia... It said rc.pcmcia is already loaded.... I am wondering if slackware is missing some kind of kernel module by default... ?

Oh and aparently according to the thinkpad site its a "ExpressCard/34 slot" which I guess has nothing to do with pcmcia... Grrrrrr

sorry, I got it wrong in the first place, but have a look at this (the only reference of this kind of nics under linux I've found on google): if yours has the same chipset it should work fine...
are you using a custom kernel? the standard kernel should have support for pci-express hotplug.

yea I see the same thing:

root@ghost:/home/ficti0n# locate config-huge
/boot/config-huge-2.6.33.4
root@ghost:/home/ficti0n# grep HOTPLUG_PCI /boot/config-huge-2.6.33.4
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_PCIE=m
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI=y
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_FAKE=m
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_ACPI=m
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_ACPI_IBM=m
# CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_CPCI is not set
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_SHPC=m


Only one thing is commented out.... Now do i need to load one of those to get it working??? Or are those loaded by default

Checked on that PCIE interface in google and this came up:
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/HOTPLUG_PCI_PCIE.html

Since my config says M for module, I tried this:
root@ghost:/home/ficti0n# modprobe pciehp

I got no errors but still the interface didnt come up and still no syslog or dmesg errors or output while the card was in and out or while runnning that command... I havnt messed with slackware in awhile but this seems wierd to me...

Oh also greppig out the DMESG from boot I am guessing produces this:

root@ghost:/home/ficti0n# dmesg |grep pciehp
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.4

Wait Hold up I might have it working...!!!

#lscpi
05:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)


I put the card in and booted with it already in the slot and I now have a wlan3 interface.... I am not seeing everything in kismet as I should... Only a couple access points when I know there are like 10 in range and it appears to be failing while setting channels.. But I do have an interface and I think its the ubiquity card...

Any ideas about the kismet issue??? LOL also once it runs kismet once and you kill the connection and load kismet a second time it fails to set to any channel at all and leaves a wlan3m0n interface in iwconfig instead of removing it automatically.

Error failed to set channel blaaa: Invalid arugment
Error failed to set channel blaaa: Invalid arugment
Error failed to set channel blaaa: Invalid arugment
Error failed to set channel blaaa: Invalid arugment

THose are the scrolling errors I am getting in kismet from the slackbuilds version of kismet... It did work the first time i had an AP on channel 3 and 6 but still saw failing channel errors scrolling


Any Ideas??

New problem solved... I will post it here in case the google searches find this page...

Follow the directions in the slackbuild:
"This script requires a 'kismet' group to exist before running.
The recommended GID is 234. You can create it like this: groupadd -g
234 kismet"

Then start kismet with the NORMAL USER!!! NOT ROOT


This works just fine now... woooooot


Thanks for the help Ponce!!!!


Now if I can only get my USB alpha NH cards seeing traffic I will be all set... But at least I can use those inside of a vmware image with Backtrack and should be good to go for injection attacks an patched drivers...

Well thats if vmware wants to install.. thats my next adventure