PLEASE read my previous bug reports 45336 and 50482. A similar bug persists in the x86 Universal LiveCD for v2004.2. During the boot-up of the 2004.2 Universal LiveCD for the x86 platform (using the dopcmcia boot option), the Gentoo 2004.2 LiveCD fails to load the proper PCMCIA modules for the Toshiba 4020CDT laptop and the D-LINK DFE-690TXD Ethernet card. In particular, the 2004.2 LiveCD loads the i82365 module and gives an error message that the yenta_socket module cannot be found. (I looked in the /pcmcia subdirectory of the /lib/modules and can confirm that the yenta_socket module is NOT on the 2004.2 LiveCD). Later, the LiveCD provides a series of error mesasges when when trying to load the 8139too Fast Ethernet module. (It can find the 8139too module but it cannot load the module). I tried to manually load the 8139too module using modprobe but with no sucess. All the other LiveCD's from other distrubitions (such as Knoppix, Slax, SystemRescue CD etc) all proper load the rights PCMCIA modules for my Ethernet card to work. NONE of these distributions load the i82365 module but load the yenta_socket module instead. (As mentioned above, the yenta_socket module is missing off the LiveCD!) From what I can see for my pcmcia module (the D-LINK DFE-690TXD) to work on my Toshiba 4020CDT laptop, it would appear that the following modules need to be loaded: 1. yenta_socket 2. ds 3 8139too As I mentioned in my previous bus reports, there appears to be TWO bugs: 1. There would appear to be a problem with the bootup script on the 2004.2 LiveCD! Please look at SystemRescueCD (which is based on the Gentoo LiveCD). The System RescueCD does a great job in detecting and loading the right PCMCIA modules for my laptop. 2. The yenta_socket module is NOT included on the 2004.2 LiveCD. This is now the third time that I have asked thatthe yenta_socket module be included on the LiveCD. It is needed for my PCMCIA Ethernet card to work. If the yenta_socket module was included, at least one could easily manually load the needed PCMCIA modules. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Boot with dopcmcia option 2. See error message that yenta_socket module cannot be found 3. See error messages when trying to load the 8139too module Actual Results: 1. loads wrong module -- i82365 2. error message that yenta_socket module cannot be found 3. Error message when trying to load the 8139too module 4. Does not laod the ds module 5. Boot prompt appears 6 NO networking available Expected Results: The PCMCIA modules should be loaded automatically for the PCMCIA Ethernet NIC including yenta_socket, 8139too and ds modules. Here is a solution. 1. Fix the LiveCD Boot up script. You may want to consider using the script that the SystemRescue CD uses. This LiveCD is based on Gentoo and does a great job at detacting and loading the right modules for pcmcia ethernet. 2. PLEASE INCLUDE the yenta_socket module on the next release of the Gentoo LiveCD (2004.3)!
Recently, I tried using the 2004.2 Universal x86 LiveCD on a new Toshiba P30 Pentium IV computer. The results are the same. The PCMCIA is not properly detected and setup. When I try the System Rescue CD (which is based on Gentoo), it properly detects and sets up the PCMCIA card on the new Toshiba laptop. It should be noted that even on this new Pentium IV laptop, the yenta_socket PCIC driver module is used NOT the i82365 PCIC driver module. (But the new 2004.2 LiveCD does not even have the yenta_socket module on it!). When booting up using the System Rescue CD in the new Toshiba P30 computer, You see the message that the "i82365" module failed .. now "trying alternate PCIC module: yenta_socket". In my view that is how the script in the Gentoo 2004.2 LiveCD should work. It would appear that the all the Toshiba laptops require the yenta_socket PCIC driver module. It is also interesting to note that the 2004.2 LiveCD fails to detect and load the proper wireless NIC driver for the Toshiba P30 laptop; whereas the System Rescue CD does.. Hmm.. It looks like the System Rescue CD is the BEST liveCD for Gentoo right now. Since you can easily customise the System Rescue CD and add you own files or programs, one could burn the System Rescue CD with the tarballs from the Gentoo Live CD to create a GENTOO LiveCD that works. (Alternatively one could can just use the System Rescue CD with the "cdcache dopcmcia" boot options. After it has booted up one can issue the following commands: umount /mnt/cdrom # NOW ejecy the System Rescue CD and insert the Gentoo LiveCD mount /mnt/cdrom # continue with Gentoo installation. It should also be noted that it is also a lot easier to create, resize etc partitions using the QtParted Partition Magic Clone on the Sytem Rescue CD. IMHO, QTParted is much better than FDISK Of course it would be better if the Gentoo Live CD worked in the first place. As I mentioned before, why don't you use the boot-up scripts used in System Rescue CD? It is based on Gentoo LiveCD. And these scripts seem to work great! I do hope you look and System Rescue CD and see how the auther was able to make Gentoo properly detect and load PCMCIA modules. The System Rescue CD homepage is at www.sysresccd.org.
The problem stems from not having enough user testing to properly get everything working. When I asked for testers, I got little to no response. What that means is that we only get to test on the VERY limited set of hardware which I own. Second is user expectations are skewed from the actual expected results. There is NO reason to use dopcmcia on any laptop *except* for one which is booting from a PCMCIA CDROM. I will be very sure that this is well documented on 2004.3, as it seems to be a matter of confusion for many users. Now, on earlier -test releases, yenta_socket was working perfectly. I am not sure what exactly changed, so I will look into it.
Also, what if you boot from the SMP kernel? Does it work then?
I have been away. I apologize for the delay in responding to your questions. Yes, the x86 2004.2 LiveCD loads the right PCMCIA modules when I use the SMP kernel. It loads the following modules for PCMCIA: 1. pcmcia_core 2. ide_cs 3. ds 4. yenta_socket 5. 8139too (This is for my Ethernet NIC card) 6. mii (Appears to be used by 8139too) I do hope you get PCMCIA working properly with the NON SMP kernel. If you need beta testers, please let me know. I would be happy to try out a new beta version of the 2004.3 LiveCD for PCMCIA support. Rob P.S. I am using the 2004.2 LiveCD and links to write this message!
Oh by the way, I am very puzzled by your comment "There is NO reason to use dopcmcia on any laptop *except* for one which is booting from a PCMCIA CDROM. " I think you are assuming that the laptop is using a built in Ethernet port. (Most of the NEW laptops do use a built in Ethernet port. But many of the older laptops like mine do NOT have an Ethernet port. I had to add one using a PCMCIA Ethernet card that plugs into the laptop's PCMCIA card slot). With the Gentoo v1.4 or System Rescue CD (which is based on Gentoo LiveCD), I MUST use the dopcmcia boot option in order for the LiveCD to properly detect and load the PCMCIA card manager and my PCMCIA based network card. If I do NOT use the dopcmcia boot option, my network card is NOT detected.. So I can see at least TWO occasions where a laptop user will NEED to use the dopcmcia boot option when booting the Gentoo LiveCD: 1. The laptop uses a pcmcia based CD-ROM or other drive 2. The laptop is using a PCMCIA based network card that plugs into the laptop. Rob
Actually Chris is correct. This might not be very obvious at first sight/ without knowing what dopcmcia does on the livecd. There are 2 things that are triggered: 1. loading of modules by the initrd this is necessary to be able to continue booting from a pcmcia based cdrom. 2. the /etc/init.d/pcmcia script is started to configure pcmcia cards/load appropriate modules. People who only need their pcmcia network card to work could simply boot normally. Run /etc/init.d/pcmcia start followed by a net-setup eth0 (since only starting the initscript would configure the nic as 192.168.0.2 as per default in /etc/conf.d/net. Rob, could you please verify if this procedure works on 2004.2 cds for you (both kernels)? Thanks, Roger
Hi Roger, Many thanks for your post. I have tried booting the LiveCD with NO boot options. Here are the results: 1. Booting the LiveCD with SMP kernel and NO boot options. This kernel starts the PCMCIA service and autodetects my D-Link PCMCIA network card EVEN THOUGH I never used the dopcmcia boot option. It seems to do this at the PCI hotplugging stage of the boot up. When I type 'lsmod', the following pcmcia related modules are detected: pcmcia_core yenta_socket 8139too mii This SMP kernel also loads a lot of unnecessary modules such as ehci_hcd, ieee1394, ohci1394.. This old laptop does not have firewire or USB 2.0.. All it needs is uhci_hcd for the old Intel based USB 1.x to work. The SMP kernel also loads parport_pc and parport. Also not needed for an install LiveCD. 2. Booting using Gentoo kernel and NO boot options. It is a different story when I boot using the Gentoo kernel with NO boot options. The Gentoo kernel does not load as many modules. (In my view, this is a good thing. It does not load unnecessary modules such as ieee1394 etc). It also DOES not detect or load the pcmcia modules. I then executed '/etc/init.d/pcmcia start' This command loaded the i82365 module and ds. One of the lights on my PCMCIA based NIC card went on. But when I typed 'ifconfig' it only showed 'lo' and NOT 'eth0'. I tried to 'modprobe 8139too' but that command failed with the following error message: "PCI: No IRQ known for Interrupt Pin A of device. Please try pci-irqbios 8139too: region 1 not an MMIO resource. Aborting" etc etc I also tried 'modprobe yenta_socket'. That failed - "Can't locate module yenta_socket" I also tried 'net-setup eth0'. Of course that failed since the drivers for my NIC could not be installed. As I mentioned earlier, it would appear that my laptop needs the yenta_socket module and NOT the i82365 module before I can load 8139too module for the NIC. Rob
I'll be honest. I'm shooting to completely get rid of the 2.4 series kernels on the next LiveCD, and they will be gone for sure by 2005.0, as I am hoping to make 2.6/udev the default for Gentoo by that time. I'm going to try to figure out what the problem with the pcmcia is on the 2.4 kernel, but it is unlikely that you'll see a release with a fix, as we're shooting to go all 2.6 as soon as possible.
Hi Chris, Many thanks for your honesty. Since you (and most other Linux distros) are moving to 2.6 kernels, I can understand why you are reluctant to spend too much time on trying to fix the pcmcia on Gentoo Linux using the 2.4 kernel. But I am not so sure that it is a 2.4 kernel specific problem. I suspect that there is something wrong with the pcmcia script. If Gentoo uses that same pcmcia script in Gentoo with a 2.6 kernel, we may see that same problem. But considering that pcmcia worked before on Gentoo Linux (v1.4) and that System RescueCD, another Gentoo based LiveCD based on the 2.4 kernel, works fine at detecting PCMCIA hardware, I wouldn't think it would be too hard to track down the problem on the 2004.2 (and 2004.1) Gentoo LiveCD's. I suspect that something simple has changed between the Gentoo 1.4 and 2004.x LiveCD. You may want to take a quick look at the pcmcia scripts used on System Rescue CD (www.sysresccd.org). This is a Gentoo based LiveCD using the latest 2.4 kernel. It works great at detecting PCMCIA hardware. Perhaps you can just copy the script. Rob
Considering a few things... #1. The SMP kernel *is* 2.6, so if it works there, it works with 2.6 kernels. #2. The 1.4 releases were done by one man (who did an amazing job) using a different tool than what we used for 2004.X, so they cannot be compared to each other at all. #3. We use catalyst and genkernel for building our CDs, I would bet the System Rescue guys do not. Now, with all of that in mind, I will tell you that I think it is a waste of time to go back and revisit older LiveCDs, but rather to focus on the future. Since we're dropping the 2.4 kernel on the LiveCD, it's not worth the time. As far as what changed, I can probably tell you that it was something with either genkernel, or my custom changes to catalyst that caused the problem. I will be sure it no longer is a problem in the future.
Chris, Many thanks for the explanation. Now I realise that the fix is not as simple as copying the script used in Gentoo LiveCD 1.4 or used by System RescueCD. As long as the new Gentoo LiveCD's (using the 2.6 kernel) support PCMCIA and PCMCIA based network cards, I'll be happy. (That way I can download tarballs do network installs etc). Right Now I can use the SMP kernel on the 2004.2 LiveCD to activate my PCMCIA network card. Using the SMP kernel on the LiveCD is not a big deal when I am just using the LiveCD for installation purposes. (But I wouldn't want to install a SMP kernel on my hard disk of a NON SMP based PC for day to day use). I look forward to the next version of the LiveCD. I hope that all the kernels on the next LiveCD are vesion 2.6.x! Rob
They all will be... and I'm going to mark this one RESOLVED since there is a solution in place that works and we know it will work for the future.
