PCMCIA newbie question :)

[DylanReid]

I'm very new to linux and have just installed Mandrake 8.1 on my laptop. I have two PCMCIA cards (one Linksys ethernet, and one Orinoco wireless card).

What I'm confused about is how to install the drivers for them. First of all, does my distrobution support PCMCIA or do I need to patch/recompile my kernel (something I have no idea how to do :)? If not, then do I just need to install the drivers for these cards? I'm so confused :/
If anyone could help I would be very thankful..

Thanks! :confused:

[ 10 November 2001: Message edited by: DylanReid ]

[error27]

What are the models/chipsets of the cards?

I think you can just insmod the drivers but I could be wrong.

[DylanReid]

Don't forget I'm a newbie ;P.. what's insmod?
Also.. I don't really know what the chipsets are.. I have a Linksys EC2T PCMCIA network card, and a Lucent Orinoco Silver Card

[ 11 November 2001: Message edited by: DylanReid ]

[bdg1983]

insmod is used for loading modules (insert module). lsmod will show you what modules are loaded. man insmod and man lsmod will tell you more.

If you are use KDE, then try the KDE Control Center or whatever Mandrake uses for configuring the system. Check to see if card services is active and if your pcmcia card has been detected.

Have you checked the Mandrake website for online documentation? There could be something on setting up pcmcia though I would suspect version 8.1 should at least setup the Linksys pcmcia card for you during the install.

Does ifconfig show you anything besides 'lo'? Look for eth0 and eth1.

[error27]

to see if you have a driver for the wireless one.

locate orinoco.o

aparently the other one is supported but I can't find the driver for it right offhand.

do the /sbin/ifconfig thing
also use the mandrake thing...

I would have thought they would be automatically installed as well...

[DylanReid]

Ok.. So I opened up the Mandrake Control Center and went to Network&Internet->Connection.. and I see that when I connect my ethernet card in eth0 it sees my IP and also my host, however I still can't get on the net. It says I need to configure the drivers of the card and then gives me a list of drivers, none of which are applicable to my Linksys card.. so again I'm at an impasse. Any suggestions? I mean it seems like Mandrake recognizes my card fine but it can't make that final leap to internet connection :(

As for my wireless card, Mandrake doesn't recognize it, just says that eth1's state is down.. but for now I'd just be happy to get the ethernet card working.

Thanks for any help guys, I really appreciate it!

[DMR]

It would help if you could, as mdwatts suggested, post the full output of the "ifconfig" (and "ifconfig -a") commands. Just open a terminal window, type the commands as I gave them (without the quotes), and post them here. ifconfig will give stats for all active NICs; ifconfig -a will list all recognized cards, even those that are not active. Also, please list the results given by the command "lsmod".

As far as I can determine, the Linksys card should be using the pcnet_cs driver.

[DylanReid]

Ok.. (thanks guys for helping me out with this :)), this is what I get for inconfig -a:

eth0
Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:98:67:14:98
inet addr:169.292.77.55 Bcast:169.292.77.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MUT:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:215 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:3
RX bytes:44698 (43.5 Kb) TX bytes:3138 (3 Kb)

eth1
Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:20:2D:28:3D:6c
BROADCAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0
RX bytes:0 (0 b) TX bytes:4784 (4.6 Kb)

lo
etc.. [I don't think this is important?]

Then my lsmod gives this [I will just include what looks relevant]:

Module Size Used by
wvlan_cs 25472 0
pcnet_cs 12672 1
8390 6432 0 [pcnet_cs]
ds 6992 2 [wvlan_cs pcnet_cs]
pcmcia_core 43936 0 [wvlan_cs pcnet_cs ds i82365]

So it looks like the modules for both the eth0 card (the Linksys EC2T) and the eth1 card (the Lucent Orinoco Silver) have their respective modules, wvlan_cs, and pcnet_cs, loaded.. what can I do next to get them to use the internet?

Thanks so much guys!

[ 11 November 2001: Message edited by: DylanReid ]

[DMR]

OK, let's start with the basics and work our way up from there:

-What does the output of "ifconfig" (as opposed to "ifconfig -a") give you? Depending on your configuration, it looks as though eth1 is not fully configured/initialized.

-How exactly are you connecting to the Net, and are you supposed to be using static addresses, or DHCP?

- As you have two NICs in your system, could you describe your physical network in more detail. For example: what is your Internet connection (cable, DSL, etc.). From what you've said, it seems like the Linksys is your connection to the Net; where does the Orinoco wireless fit into this?

[DylanReid]

Ok..

The output of ifconfig shows just the eth0 and lo, i.e.

eth0
Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:98:67:14:98
inet addr:169.292.77.55 Bcast:169.292.77.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MUT:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:215 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:3
RX bytes:44698 (43.5 Kb) TX bytes:3138 (3 Kb)

and lo (however, I am not at an access point currently for my wireless NIC, so this may be why it doesn't show up here)

I live in college dorms where I connect via DHCP to my local ethernet lan (hence the Linksys). My school also supports a wireless internet on some parts of campus (hence the Orinoco Silver card).

As I was looking around my system, I looked at a file called /var/lib/pcmcia/stab which is used by cardmgr for the current card and device info for each socket.. The contents of this were:

Socket 0: Linksys Ethernet
0 network pcnet_cs 0 eth0
Socket 1: Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE Adapter
1 network wvlan_cs 0 eth1

So these two devices are in fact recognized by linux.. the only problem I have now is how to actually get the connection going.. Again, thank you guys for all your help, it's really cool to know that the linux community likes to help each other out :)

Dylan