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Bug 82429 - Suggestion to inform users of possible PCMCIA network card issues, and fixing it using ACPI
Summary: Suggestion to inform users of possible PCMCIA network card issues, and fixing...
Status: VERIFIED LATER
Alias: None
Product: [OLD] Docs-user
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Gentoo Linux x86 Installation Guide (show other bugs)
Hardware: x86 Linux
: High minor (vote)
Assignee: Docs Team
URL: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook...
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-02-17 20:45 UTC by Peter Gordon (RETIRED)
Modified: 2006-01-26 10:29 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---


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Description Peter Gordon (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-02-17 20:45:21 UTC
When I first attempted my initial Gentoo install, my wireless card (Intersil Prism2 802.11b PCMCIA running on a yenta_socket-compatible Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c475 PCI cardbus) would not work. I tried booting with the dopcmcia option and cardmgr spat out some errors about being unable to adjust the memory and input/output resources for my card because the device was busy. I eventually gave up trying to get it to work with the LiveCD and put in a Linksys PCI 10/100 ethernet card which I used to do the install. 

However, after almost a year of using Gentoo, I was still wondering why the LiveCDs always give me that error, even at the computers at school it creates those errors. (Those computers have a yenta_socket-compatible built-in cardbus.)
The card works, and has been working wonderfully since that first successful reboot, but now I think I may have a workaround for the LiveCD to also use the PCMCIA wireless card:

By booting the LiveCD with ACPI enabled (boot with "gentoo dopcmcia acpi=on"), the LiveCD boots and correctly recognizes my wireless card. A few simple iwconfig commands and I was connected to my home network like normal. Thus, can something like the following please be added to the x86 Installation Handbook to inform new users about this workaround? Thanks.

---BEGIN SNIP---
If you are having troubles with your PCMCIA network card, try booting with ACPI support:

[code]
boot: gentoo dopcmcia acpi=on
[/code]
---END SNIP---

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot the Gentoo LiveCD with "gentoo docmcia"


Actual Results:  
I expected the Gentoo LiveCD to boot with PCMCIA support.

Expected Results:  
It had troubles with cardmgr not being able to adjust resources.

$ emerge --info 
Portage 2.0.51-r15 (default-linux/x86/2004.3, gcc-3.4.3,
glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r0, 2.6.11-rc4 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.11-rc4 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) processor
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.9
Python:              dev-lang/python-2.3.4,dev-lang/python-2.4-r2 [2.4 (#2, Feb
 9 2005, 19:08:43)]
ccache version 2.3 [enabled]
dev-lang/python:     2.3.4, 2.4-r2
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.59-r6, 2.13
sys-devel/automake:  1.6.3, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.4, 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.4_p6
sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r2
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.10-r4
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.8.1-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-tbird -mtune=athlon-tbird -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvi
pdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/
/usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/sh
are/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=athlon-tbird -mtune=athlon-tbird -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/ http://distfiles
.gentoo.org"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 3dnow 3dnowex X X509 aac aalib acpi alsa apache2 apm artworkextra
audiofile avi bash-completion bcmath bidi bindist
 bitmap-fonts bmp bzip2 bzlib calendar cdparanoia chroot cpdflib crypt cscope
ctype cups curl curlwrappers dba dbx directfb 
encode erandom exif fam fbcon flac font-server foomaticdb fortran ftp gcj gd
gdbm ggi gif gimpprint glitz glut gnutls gpm gs
treamer gtk gtk2 gtkhtml hal iconv imap imlib innodb ipv6 java javacomm
javascript jikes jpeg ldap libcaca live lua mad md5s
um mhash mikmod mime ming mmap mmx mmx2 mng mozdevelop mozilla mozsvg mozxmlterm
mp3 mpeg mpi mplayer mysql mysqli ncurses n
ls nptl nptlonly nvidia objc offensive oggvorbis opengl openntpd pam
parse-clocks pcmcia pcre perl php pic png pnp posix ppd
s pwdb python readline real ruby sasl sdk sdl session silc simplexml skey
sndfile sockets speex spell sqlite ssl startup-not
ification stroke svg svga sysvipc tcltk tcpd tetex theora threads tidy tiff
tokenizer truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts un
icode usb wddx wmf xine xml xml2 xpm xprint xsl xv xvid zlib video_cards_nvidia"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL
Comment 1 Sven Vermeulen (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2005-02-20 04:40:22 UTC
I'd rather have something like this implemented in a knowledge base of some kind, not in the installation instructions themselves. 
Comment 2 Marcelo Goes (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2006-01-26 10:29:17 UTC
Closing this bug as per Josh's request in gentoo-doc's ML.