# Dell D600: Cardmgr hangs with Kernel 2.6?

## diegs

Hey all,

I'm in the middle of my Gentoo install and really want 2.6 for all the acpi  and speedstep stuff that plays nice with Centrino.  However, PCMCIA is being a pain in my butt.

I tried to emerge pcmcia-cs (3.2.4), but it wouldn't compile.  I could emerge the masked 3.2.5 and that worked, but complained that PCMCIA needs to be enabled in the kernel for >2.5.  Great.  Did that, got modules for pcmcia_core, ds, and yenta_socket.  Compiled the kernel & threw those in modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.  So far so good.  Emerged pcmcia-cs, rc-update add default pcmcia or whatnot, and reboot.

2.6.1 boots up (nicely, I like it alot) and autoloads the modules no problem.  Then when it gets to PCMCIA, it says something like Cardmgr[4000] watching 2 sockets, and hangs right there.  Crap.

So I go back in through knoppix (since I need a wireless pcmcia card to install and the livecd has a bug where pcmcia doesnt work on dell laptops) and I go to try and fix the bug in /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts.  I comment out the bad address range (0x8--something) which is known to cause problems for Dell laptops (check the knoppix wireless.opts).

Reboot, no dice.  Go back into knoppix and try 2.6.0, reboot, same thing.

Anyone know what could be causing cardmgr to freeze?  Thanks a ton guys.  Now that they have that wrapper for windows wireless drivers, I am ready to use the internal wireless and ditch windows, but I want to get my system working before I start messing around with that stuff.  Besides, I need PCMCIA eventually...

----------

## diegs

Well, I tried using Knoppix's config.opts, with no dice.  I also tried changing the ebuild to install pcmcia-cs 3.2.7.  Still no go.  The best I can do is not running cardmgr, then using cardctl to eject the built in O2 cardreader thingy I have.  Then I run cardmgr with no cards and it starts ok.  Then I pop in the wireless card, the drivers load (verified by lsmod)... but iwconfig and ifconfig can't see the thing!

Ahh!  I guess I'm going to try to run a 2.4 kernel until I have a web browser (required to install the linuxant driverloader) and then move up to 2.6.....

----------

## jourbans

I've got the same laptop and the same problem.

I can get pcmcia working just fine under the 2.4.x kernel series, but 2.6 has me beating my head against the wall.

I've also tried removing the io port range that is supposed to be a big gotcha, still didn't work.  I can load all of my modules with no problem, but then cardmgr starts and just hangs the laptop.  Feh.

A few more hours of trying to figure this out, then I'm going back to my 2.4 kernel.  *sniff*.

Are we looking at some sort of funky hardware issue with laptop you think?  If anything works for me, I'll let you know, but I'm not holding my breath.

----------

## jourbans

I got it working!  I added ISA support and PCI hotplug support in my kernel, rebooted and pcmcia started without a problem, loading my wireless nic right away.

I think it was the ISA support that was needed, despite my being almost positive there is no such thing in these laptops, but I read a post where cardmgr still needed the support regardless.  Hope this works for you!

----------

## yeffel

Party People-

I just got myself a new Lat D600 and I cant get the PCMCIA working for the life of me.  It all basically comes down when I start up cardmgr.

Even when I boot off a live cd with gentoo dopcmcia; the system crashes....

So...what do people with D600 do...

----------

## jourbans

Well, first, I'd forget about getting pcmcia working during the install, and use the built in ethernet NIC to get yourself a network connection.  From the amount of posts in the forums here complaining about pcmcia problems, I think it's safe to say that pcmcia support can often be very very flaky.  I never try to use it until after I get my system up and running...

Also, I'm not sure how much linux install experience you have, but getting it up and running well on a laptop can be daunting, especially with Gentoo.  My first experience installing Gentoo was on this D600 and it made me put RedHat on it for a few months until I decided to try again (after 5 Gentoo installs on other boxes).

You might also want to check http://www.tuxmobile.org/ for some good info and howto's on getting linux running on laptops (including specific howto's for the D600).  It's one of the first places I check for help and info.

----------

## psychomemetitron

toshiba notebook fails to emerge any version of wlan-ng or pcmcia-cs under 2.6.1-mm1 with pcmcia cardbus enabled as well as pcmcia support for orinoco cards. compiled 2.4.24 vanilla sources and had success emerging wlan-ng but never pcmcia-cs. any thoughts?

----------

## jourbans

I'm not sure you'll want to even use wlan-ng.  I thought it was obsolete myself, as I've always used just pcmcia-cs to get my lucent cards working.  In fact, when installing Gentoo on an old Dell Inspiron 7000 with a Lucent card, to get the lucent card working after booting from the 1.4 LiveCD, I had to delete some wlan-ng config files so Gentoo wouldn't try to use wlan-ng to get the card working.  Deleting the files solves the problem, bring the card up as an ethX device, instead of wlan.

Of course, I'll admit I still haven't gotten the damn card to work all the time after the install, but I think that might be a problem with the card's hardware.  In any case, I haven't had the time to completely troubleshoot the problem.

Also, you might want to post you question under a completely new topic as this thread is dealing specifically with Dell hardware.  Someone with a Toshiba might be share their experience getting gentoo installed.

----------

## psychomemetitron

good idea. problem now posted under toshiba pcmcia-cs problems.

----------

## yeffel

I will then agree that PCMCIA on the Dell D600 isnt supported?  I have installed gentoo many times and this is actually the first time I have ever had a serious problem.  

Does anyone know where to go to try and see if we can get PCMCIA support on these laptops. 

On another point, how does the miniPCI load its drivers?  I plugged a miniPCI card that has worked with gentoo, but it isnt being detected?

Any pointers...

Thanks Guys

----------

## yeffel

Well I made some good progress on getting the PCMCIA working with my Dell D600. (half way)

The problem for me was cardmgr would crash my system leaving me without a PCMCIA slot.

Cardmgr still crashes my system...but I did get a PCMCIA card to work.

Using kernel 2.6, i loaded yenta_socket module; stuck my Netgear card in; and it detected my 

wireless card...and i was able to get on the internet.

the drivers for this card are still being developed...so its not stable.  

Any ideas on why this card will work, but everyything else is still a bit messed up?

----------

## diegs

ISA and PCI Hotplug support, go figure.  I guessed it'd be some missing kernel option that was dropping a dependency without us knowing, but I didn't know where to look.

I agree that PCMCIA sucks to configure.  If you need it during install, I suggest booting off knoppix (which seems to have a much better-informed pcmcia.conf) and chroot/installing from there, if you need the PCMCIA and dont' have access to a ethernet wire for your built-in.  For me it was just a matter of booting the thing with the wireless card in, doing a iwconfig eth0 essid YOUR_ROUTER key YOUR_KEY, ifconfig eth0 up, and pump -i eth0 (equivalent to dhcpcd eth0 on gentoo).  Then I'd chroot and go on my merry way.

Once I got a webbrowser installed I installed the linuxant driver wrapper and wireless drivers (I could not find a way to get around this without X and a web browser installed).  I must say it works rather well, and I think I will pay for it when the trial license expires in 3 weeks now.  I know there is a free alternative, but this thing just plain works, and works well.  The broadcom 802.11b/g wireless-lan works nicely, although it requires you to set the essid by hand last I checked.  I wish there was a tool that would let you browse all the visible essids in the area much like you can in Windows...

----------

## a2gentoo

The PCMCIA chip (O2Micro) isnt supported. well not completely.

To stop the hang. Simply remove the 16bit support in the kernel

<edit>

I have been able to stop the hang by removing pcmcia-cs and compiling the 16bit support as a module. I have an Internal wireless so I see no need for pcmcia anyway. 

If anyone can figure out how to get it running. I am interested. 

</edit>

It will boot fine after that.

chip

----------

## Proletariat

First, let me state that I'm a complete noob when it comes to this stuff and I've been working on the D600/Gentoo install for 3 days now.  The PCMCIA slot appears to be working, and all I had to do was add the yenta_socket module to my kernel by adding the line yenta_socket (minus quotes) to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.

Hope that helps someone.

----------

