# Does "lspci" scan the ISA Bus? [SOLVED]

## Bob P

i know this may sound silly, but does the "lspci" command scan everything on the ISA bus as well as what's on the PCI bus?  or should i be looking for another command?

I'm trying to build a router out of an old box and some PNP ISA 10-base-T ethernet cards.  The lspci command accurately reports any PCI cards on the system, and it reports the ISA/PCI chipset on the motherboard, but its not reporting the ISA LAN cards or the ISA sound cards.  Interestingly, all of the PNP ISA cards are reported by the BIOS at bootup.

I'm just wondering if there's a reason that the ISA cards aren't being recognized.  Fwiw, the BIOS recognizes them, the SuSE installation program recognizes them and installs them, but the Gentoo Live CD won't recognize them at bootup:

```
* Starting input hotplugging                                                    [ ok ]

* Starting PCI hotplugging                                                      [ ok ]

* Starting USB hotplugging                                                      [ ok ]

* No Network device auto-detected
```

In addition, I can't find them using the lspci command.  

The ethernet cards are Intel EtherExpress Pro/10+ (PNP) adapters.  

The sound card is an ESS ES1868

fwiw, Gentoo's dmesg does find them:

```
# dmesg | grep isapnp

isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...

isapnp: Card 'Intel Pro/10+ or compatible adapter'

isapnp: Card 'ESS ES1868 Plug and Play AudioDrive'

isapnp: 2 Plug & Play cards detected total
```

So I guess I have a couple of questions:

1.  Is support for Intel 10-base-T ethernet cards absent from the kernel on the Live CD?

2.  Can Gentoo auto-detect ISA PnP devices?

3.  What's the best way to scan for them in Gentoo?  (other than grepping dmesg).

TIA!

----------

## HPRichard

hi,

lspci scans PCI only, but not (E)ISA. This is due the architecture of PCI where the cards report themselves to the bus controller, which ist not the case with (E)ISA. In (E)ISA the CPU/driver/ect has to know the Adresses of the different cards (most times because the user reports them to the system). PnP is a workaround of this limitation.

Linux in general (and Gentoo Linux in specific) can auto-dedect ISA-PnP cards using the isapnp driver (CONFIG_ISAPNP) in the kernel. At the time you modprobe isapnp (or was ist isa-pnp? I have it built in) all drivers for the detected cards are loaded automagically if they exist. (This worked for me with NE2000 and 3Com Etherlink III cards)

Your dmesg shows that isapnp has dedected your cards, so you probably lack of drivers, or something is going wrong with them. Does dmesg show further messages regarding the Intel Pro/10+?

----------

## Bob P

 *HPRichard wrote:*   

> Linux in general (and Gentoo Linux in specific) can auto-dedect ISA-PnP cards using the isapnp driver (CONFIG_ISAPNP) in the kernel. At the time you modprobe isapnp (or was ist isa-pnp? I have it built in) all drivers for the detected cards are loaded automagically if they exist. (This worked for me with NE2000 and 3Com Etherlink III cards)
> 
> Your dmesg shows that isapnp has dedected your cards, so you probably lack of drivers, or something is going wrong with them. Does dmesg show further messages regarding the Intel Pro/10+?

 

dmesg doesn't show any further messages regarding the Intel Pro/10+.  

looking at the kernel, there do appear to be two driver options for 10/100 cards:

< > EtherExpress Pro/100+ support

< > Intel Pro/100+ support

unfortunately, neither of these drivers appear to function with the ISA EtherExpress Pro/10+ ISA adapter.

fwiw, i do have "<*> ISA support" enabled under the kernel heading for bus devices.

i've checked the  Intel website and I've found the drivers download page for this card.  Unfortunately, LOTS of Windows drivers are listed, but no linux drivers are listed.  The cards to work with Windows, but they don't work at all with Gentoo linux.

are these cards totally incompatible with linux, or am i just looking for drivers in the wrong place?  i'm hoping that there's got to be a linux driver for this card somewhere...

----------

## lookinin

Hi bob, I recently had to get a built in isa sound card working, and had no luck with the kernel isapnp... I disabled that, and I emerged isapnptools and followed the directions and it came right up... only caveat was that I had to load the module for my sound after the isapnp init script (*local.start), since the modules init wants to run first.

----------

## HPRichard

Then we have to find out which driver we really need.

What is written on the ICs of the card? Does it, for example, say i82595 or Intel 82595? Then you will want to try EtherExpressPro support/EtherExpress 10 (i82595) support for example.

Or are there any other remarkable Chips on it resembling to any of the network card drivers in "Other ISA cards"?

----------

## lookinin

I was thinking that once isapnptools was set up, one of the modules he was originally looking at above would work/find the card...

----------

## Bob P

Here's the card's ID info:

The PCB board number is PB 352526-002

FCCID: EJMNID-EPXISA2W

On many but not all of the cards an EPROM is present for net booting under some unknown OS.  The sticker on it says: (C) Intel 1996.  352653-001.

The main chip on the board appears to be an 82595.  The actual inscription on the chip reads:

```
S82595FX

L5414680

i (m)(c) 1989 1995
```

I've looked at the Intel website's page for identification of the Pro/10, Pro/10+ and EtherExpress cards (here), and it appears that the card isn't one of those listed.  the PCB number "PB 352xxx-xxx" is close to many of those listed, but doesn't quite match any of those listed.  :Confused:   Although this board number is not exactly listed on the Intel site, the Gentoo Live CD's dmesg output does ID the card as an Intel Pro/10+ or compatible card.

I saw a post elsewhere in which a user mentioned support for this 10-base-T card under the vanilla-sources kernel.  

I am using the gentoo-dev-sources kernel. It appears that support for the 10-base-T version of this card is absent from the gentoo-dev-sources kernel, but support for the 100 Mbit version of this card is present in the gentoo-dev-sources kernel.  Unfortunately, the 100 Mbit driver doesn't work with the 10 Mbit card.  :Sad: 

I have never looked into the vanilla-sources kernel, so I cannot yet verify the report about support for the card in a different kernel.  Is it commonplace to find drivers that exist in some of the flavors of gentoo kernels, but not others?

----------

## lookinin

Maybe this is useful - from gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.10-r6

```
EtherExpressPro support/EtherExpress 10 (i82595) support (EEXPRESS_PRO)

   Location:

    -> Device Drivers

     -> Networking support

      -> Network device support (NETDEVICES)

       -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)

        -> Other ISA cards (NET_ISA)

   Depends:

    NETDEVICES && NET_ISA
```

 *Quote:*   

> CONFIG_EEXPRESS_PRO:
> 
>    If you have a network (Ethernet) card of this type, say Y. This 
> 
>    driver supports intel i82595{FX,TX} based boards. Note however 
> ...

 

----------

## Bob P

 *lookinin wrote:*   

> Maybe this is useful - from gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.10-r6
> 
> ```
> EtherExpressPro support/EtherExpress 10 (i82595) support (EEXPRESS_PRO)
> 
> ...

 

that is very interesting.  i have opened "make menuconfig", and my currently installed kernel is Linux Kernel v2.6.10-gentoo-r7.  surprisingly, the "Other ISA cards (NET_ISA) option is NOT available under -> Ethernet (10 or 100 Mbit)!

----------

## Bob P

wait a sec -- i still have the gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.10-r6 kernel slotted on my system, so i ran its "make menuconfig" to try compiling in the driver you recommended.  surprisingly, it isn't there.  the configuration screen for -> Network Device Support -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) in kernel 2.6.10-r6 looks just like it does in 2.6.10-r7;  there is no sign of an option like -> Other ISA cards (NET_ISA).

were you looking at the actual kernel configuration menu, or were you looking at the documentation?  those options you mentioned aren't in the kernel config menus for my x86 kernels.  :Question: 

----------

## lookinin

The actual menuconfig... I'm emerging 2.6.10-r7 right now... but I think it's just something you didn't enable.  Can you post your config and I'll try it? (guess that's not real practical if they don't have networking enabled  :Smile: )  And/or try the "/" trick while in menuconfig... enter eexpress

edit: here's a paste from a stock (by that, I mean no other selections had to be made) 2.6.10-r7 (sorry, it's messy) - I just went make menuconfig/drivers/network support/ethernet 10/100/Other ISA cards, and there it was...

```
 Linux Kernel v2.6.10-gentoo-r7 Configuration

 qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

  lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk

  x  Arrow keys navigate the menu.  <Enter> selects submenus --->.          x  

  x  Highlighted letters are hotkeys.  Pressing <Y> includes, <N> excludes, x  

  x  <M> modularizes features.  Press <Esc><Esc> to exit, <?> for Help, </> x  

  x  for Search.  Legend: [*] built-in  [ ] excluded  <M> module  < >       x  

  x l^(-)qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk x  

  x x[ ] Racal-Interlan (Micom) NI cards                                  x x  

  x x    Tulip family network device support  --->                        x x  

  x x< > AT1700/1720/RE1000Plus(C-Bus) support (EXPERIMENTAL)             x x  

  x x< > DEPCA, DE10x, DE200, DE201, DE202, DE422 support                 x x  

  x x< > HP 10/100VG PCLAN (ISA, EISA, PCI) support                       x x  

  x x[*] Other ISA cards                                                  x x  

  x x< >   Cabletron E21xx support (NEW)                                  x x  

  x x< >   EtherWORKS 3 (DE203, DE204, DE205) support (NEW)               x x  

  x x< >   EtherExpress 16 support (NEW)                                  x x  

  x x< >   EtherExpressPro support/EtherExpress 10 (i82595) support (NEW) x x  

  x x< >   HP PCLAN+ (27247B and 27252A) support (NEW)                    x x  

  x x< >   HP PCLAN (27245 and other 27xxx series) support (NEW)          x x  

  x x< >   LP486E on board Ethernet (NEW)                                 x x  

  x mv(+)qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj x  

  tqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqu  

  x                    <Select>    < Exit >    < Help >                     x  

  mqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj
```

Last edited by lookinin on Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:12 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## Bob P

thanks for the tip about typing "/eexpress".  i didn't know about that, and i learned something new today!   :Cool: 

when i type /eexpress in the 2.6.10-r7 config menu, this is the text output (just what you would expect):

```
 Search Results

EtherExpress 16 support (EEXPRESS)                                                                                                                  Location: 

 -> Device Drivers                                                                                                                                  

  -> Networking support                                                                                                      

    -> Network device support (NETDEVICES) 

      -> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)

          -> Other ISA cards (NET_ISA)                                                                                                                   

Depends:                                                                                                                                             

  NETDEVICES && NET_ISA     
```

maybe i need to doublecheck to see that EISA bus is actually configured on each of the effected machines.

----------

## NeddySeagoon

Bob P,

You need to enable ISA bus support in make meunconfig to see other ISA options in the kernel.

Its under Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA).

Choose ISA support (ISA)

This unhides all the ISA specific items in make menuconfig

----------

## lookinin

 *Quote:*   

> thanks for the tip about typing "/eexpress". i didn't know about that, and i learned something new today! Cool 

 

np, I learned that here on the forums too not long ago

 *Quote:*   

> maybe i need to doublecheck to see that EISA bus is actually configured on each of the effected machines.

 

I'm getting a little confused between this and your other thread - are these ISA or EISA cards? ... If they're EISA, I might be sending you down the wrong path anyway...

----------

## Bob P

[SOLVED!]  :Very Happy: 

it turns out that i had a couple of problems that were confusing me.  my main PC that i'm using as a desktop machine and to post these messages (the one in the signature below) doesn't have any ISA slots, so ISA/EISA bus options are disabled in the kernel.  while we've been corresponding, i've been looking at the kernel options in my desktop PC.  (the other PCs that I have been using as testbeds have been hit with hammers enough over the past few days that they were lying in pieces!  :Embarassed: )

i realized that by not having enabled the ISA bus on my P3, those menu options that @lookinin had recommended were not appearing.  after enabling the IDE bus in the kernel, those options promptly appeared in the Networking menus.  thanks @lookinin and @NeddySeagoon!

i've reassembled one of the testbed PCs with one of the 10-base-T Intel Cards.  as it turns out, those PCs already had ISA Bus features enabled, and sure enough, the 10Mbit EtherExpress card driver was right where @lookinin said it would be.  :Cool:   I've recompiled the kernels and rebooted, and the PC now has successfully enabled eth0.  its currently doing an "emerge --sync" and everything appears to be working perfectly!

thanks again, gents!

----------

## Bob P

 *lookinin wrote:*   

> I'm getting a little confused between this and your other thread - are these ISA or EISA cards? ... If they're EISA, I might be sending you down the wrong path anyway...

 

yes, it is confusing.  they are actually EISA cards -- they use both sections (the full length) of the EISA slot.  interestingly, the drivers are located under "Other ISA Cards" and not under "EISA, VLB, PCI and on board controllers."  

I think that the driver is filed in the wrong place in the kernel menus.  This added to the confusion on my part.  IMO it should have been under "EISA, VLB, PCI and onboard controllers", not under "Other ISA Cards".

----------

