# PCMCIA not working?

## LordKefka

Trying to get my WG511 wireless card working.. right now, it's not even being detected at all, so there's either something wrong with the card driver (prism54) or the pcmcia cardbus.

Is there a way to tell if pcmcia is configured properly? Well, I looked at dmesg after inserting the card, but it doesn't say anything. I'm not sure if it's because pcmcia isnt working properly, or just because it doesnt recognize the card.. Everything else seems okay, though.. pcmcia starts up fine, and cardmgr gives the usual 'watching 2 sockets' message. But after that, it doesnt seem to respond to anything.

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## gryphius

You might try using 'cardctl' to see if your pcmcia/cardbus controller can see the inserted devices.  If cardctl gives correct information, I think that means your pcmcia controller is set up ok.

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## LordKefka

ahh thanks, thats just wat I needed [=

Looks like the pcmcia slot is functioning fine. Which means I just need to get the prism54 driver working.

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## LordKefka

yarr... I've about given up on getting this driver to work. Maybe someone could help me by telling me whether or not I need to use cardmgr :/ My card (netgear WG511) is not listed on its supported cards list, but someone on these forums said I need it anyway.. Do I need it or not?

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## jfave

with it compiled into the kernel, you should atleast get power to the card.. even if it is not detected correctly.... start from there  :Wink: 

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## LordKefka

I'm not seeing the lights on the card go on. I'm assuming that means there's no power =[

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## mrklaw

LordKefka,

Were you ever able to get this working?  I've been trying to get the same card working, and have had no luck.  I haven't found any instuction  that helped me fix the problem yet either.

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## jfave

what kernel you running?

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## mrklaw

Sorry, I forgot to mention this.. I'm running 2.6.7-gentoo-r11.  I've also tried to load the modules with the livecd and had no luck

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## LordKefka

I'm using gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.7-r11

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## LordKefka

Still haxxing around w/ it... cardctl status shows when the card is inserted or not.., but ident/info have no info on the card.

```
root@adelias linux # cardctl ident

Socket 0:

  no product info available

Socket 1:

  no product info available

root@adelias linux # cardctl status

Socket 0:

  3.3V CardBus card

  function 0: [ready]

Socket 1:

  no card

```

It's strange, because the pcmcia howto guide 

http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/doc/PCMCIA-HOWTO-5.html#ss5.1

says that I should be seeing something like "unsupported card" with 'cardctl ident' but I don't even get that..

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## LordKefka

It sounds like maybe it could work if I had the proper entry in /etc/pcmcia/config, but I'm at a loss of what needs to go in there, other than the driver 'prism54'

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## LordKefka

arr.. I've found this just now

http://prism54.org/pipermail/prism54-users/2003-December/000328.html

which suggest you dont in fact need pcmcia, but rather just hotplug. So maybe I'll try stopping pcmcia and go in that direction..

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## jfave

dont know... i have both running.. let us now how it works...

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## mrklaw

LordKefka, 

What kind of computer do you have.  I get the same results from cardctl that you do.  I've got an hp Pavilion zv5000 .

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## LordKefka

compaq presario r3140, amd64

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## eisenack

I have a similar problem:

```
# cardctl status

Socket 0:

  5V 16-bit PC Card

  function 0: [ready]

```

but: 

```
 # cardctl ident

Socket 0:

  no product info available

```

I got the Allnet ALL0192 PCMCIA card with Prism chipset.

My computer is a PPC (Powerbook 17") with hotplug and pcmcia services running.

Can anybody tell me, what to do.

Where can I see which or if the card is detected?

('lsmod' shows the cardbus bridge only.) 

Thank you.

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## mrklaw

LordKefka,

I just got mine working... and I think this page should help you out.

http://www1.uop.edu/~khughes/presario-r3120us/

pay particular attention to the setpci part.. that's what fixed it for me.

I did what it said and the card loaded immediately.

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## LordKefka

That page seems to have helped a lot~ I'm now getting something with 'cardctl ident':

```
Socket 0:

  product info: "Intersil", "ISL3890", "-", "-"

  manfid: 0x000b, 0x3890

  function: 254 ((null))

Socket 1:

  no product info available
```

I tried using the info to make an entry in /etc/pcmcia/config to use the prism54 module, but I don't think it's working..

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## LordKefka

I'm getting a lot of other new stuff now, like an eth1 in iwconfig.. But still no sign of power to the card.. The lights arent on..

dmesg says that prism54 detects the card, so I may be wrong about cardmgr not working.

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## mrklaw

I don't think the lights come on until you actually initialize the card with iwconfig

eth1 is what mine shows up as.  Try doing an iwlist scan and see if you find your AP.

I've noticed that both of the lights turn off on mine when its not connected to an AP.

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## LordKefka

No, it's not finding the AP. Should it be able to find one as long as the card itself is working?

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## LordKefka

Well I'm getting closer. The green power light on the card goes on now, and iwconfig shows that it's able to find the AP.

But the card just kinda dies after a minute :/ I don't think I have the config files done properly, so maybe it'll stop dying if I can establish a connection first...

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## jfave

man, and I thought my Dell was a pain in the a$$... goodluck!

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## LordKefka

This is what dmesg has to say when I plug in the card..

PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)

eth1: prism54 driver detected card model: Netgear WG511

eth1: islpci_open()

eth1: resetting device...

eth1: uploading firmware...

eth1: firmware uploaded done, now triggering reset...

eth1: mgt_commit has failed. Restart the device

eth1: prism54_set_txpower() auto power will be implemented later.

eth1: mgt_commit has failed. Restart the device

eth1: mgt_commit has failed. Restart the device

eth1: islpci_close ()

Lights go on, firmware uploads fine, but then i get this mgt_commit error and it shuts down..

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## LordKefka

Ok, so I'm almost certain that you dont need pcmcia running - just hotplug.

I'm still trying to figure out why the card refuses to stay on for more than 2 seconds.

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## mrklaw

Well... Something else to try is to make sure you have the latest devel driver from prism54.org.  I think I installed that earlier before I found that presario page.

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## LordKefka

Well I got the latest firmware and prism54 driver just in case. It's still not working.. Now, every time I plug in the card, dmesg says this:

```
PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)

eth1: prism54 driver detected card model: Netgear WG511

eth1: islpci_open()

eth1: resetting device...

eth1: uploading firmware...

eth1: firmware uploaded done, now triggering reset...

eth1: prism54_set_txpower() auto power will be implemented later.

eth1: islpci_close ()

```

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## LordKefka

I think I got it working now. It doesn't stay on when I first plug it in, but 'iwconfig eth1 up' powers it up again and it stays on. I thought it brought up the interface automatically, but I guess not =]

I just gotta configure the network now =[

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## mrklaw

Great... I'm glad you were able to get it going.  I've been loving mine for the past two days.  Working from my front porch is so great.  Now I just need to find a better place for my access point.

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## LordKefka

Heh, actually I'll be using mine in school.

Which is frightening because I have a feeling it's going to take a bit more hax to configure the security settings =[ I'm not sure if they use WEP keys or whatever, but I'll have to figure that out I guess.

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