# HP Pavillion laptop - ze4101 linux pcmcia problems

## legoleg

Hi...

I have this laptop, and have Red Hat 8.0 linux dual booting with XP on it.  I would really like to have the pcmcia slot (and the mini-pci slot) working on it for the wireless NIC, but it seem to be a BIOS problem.  Any chance anyone has been able to get this to work with Gentoo possibly?  Here are some links that dont make it look too good, but may help someone hopefully figure it out.

http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~pliszka/hints/notebooks/ZE4101.html

http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0211.0/0216.html

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xa15ec1c4ceddd61190050090279cd0f9,00.html

maybe:

http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x5ce0cdec06f1d61190050090279cd0f9,00.html

If nothing else, maybe google will pick this up for someone else to play with.

Oleg

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## mikepelchy

I created that thread regarding the kernel panic on HP's forum and I was actually going to be trying to install gentoo on my laptop using the 2.5.xx kernel, but I tried booting off the livecd and got a lot of error warnings about the natsemi module used for the built-in ethernet.... so im not sure its going to work just yet... but I am definately going to be giving it a try.

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## legoleg

Post how it goes.  I really like the laptop otherwise, and itd be nice to have the pcmcia working.  If I find any more relevant info online, I'll add it here.  Thats the best I can do since I'm not much of a kernel hacker.  : )

Oleg

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## legoleg

I just tried the Knoppix CD and my mini-pci orinoco cards works!  I think it runs off the same bus or chipset as the PCMCIA slot too.  The wireless card was added after I bought the laptop.... its just one I bought on eBay.  I'm on it right now typing with a wireless connection.  If I try booting with a Compact Flash PCMCIA adapter inserted, it freezes hard.  Is there anything I could do to have the wireless card found in Gentoo or RedHat?  What would I look for on the Knoppix CD to try and bring over to them?  Thanx.

Oleg

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