Linux doesn't 'initiate' Card Bus card

[Norway Pad]

Hello all

My 560Z, running Linux Antix has been doing some strange things yesterday and today. Recently I got a 3Com XJack WLAN card, that was ideal for this laptop. Retractable antenna, so it could stay plugged in all the time. I used the laptop with this card 2 times, and all was fine. But the 3rd time I rebooted, there were no networks available. The green LED on the card gives a flash every 4th second, but iwconfig indicates that no wlan interfaces are available.

I did some investigations, and it turns out that my other CNet Card Bus WLAN card works just fine in the 560Z. Further, to exclude that the 3Com card itself is defective, I tested it out in a T42 with XP. And the card worked fine as soon as the 3Com specific driver/software was installed.

So what I am left with is the dmesg | less readings from Antix, which shows that a Card Bus object is inserted into Socket 0 (Or 1), but nothing more happens. When the CNet card is inserted, there are 5-6 more status lines, which tell that drivers and resources are assigned. So the card just doesn't initiate anything when it's inserted. The OS detects that it's inserted, and then nothing..

Does anybody have any clue as to why this happens, and if there are some basic things that I am missing here? Any Modprobe(?) or other config files somewhere that blacklists or disables this card? If this had been the 600, I could have done a fresh install, but with the lack of CD-ROM it's a little bit more work included. Or I can just use one of my other cards. But I am curious as to why this happens, and would like to solve it. By request I can post details from dmesg or any other terminal outputs.

Thanks for all input!

[Dekks]

Does that madel have 2 type 2 slots? can you try it both slots? is there a diff?

[Norway Pad]

Yes, same result in both sockets, Socket0 and Socket1.

[Dekks]

Any power saving active on the cardbus slots either in BIOS or software?

[Norway Pad]

In the BIOS there are no power saving features (As far as I can see) and software-wise I don't know where to find any. But wouldn't that also prevented the other WLAN card from working?

I am trying to think back and figure out what were the last things I did before I noticed it had stopped working. The two things I did was to take the battery out, and mount an IBM MicroDrive / CardBus adapter in the other slot. So I suspect something might have happened here, but I am clueless as to what. I don't think I actually unmounted the Microdrive card (sdb1) before I removed it, but I'm not sure if that can cause some permanent changes that are not reset by rebooting?

[RealBlackStuff]

Under Windows there's regedit.exe to mod the registry, anything comparable under Linux?

Over time I have connected so many different USB-devices (sticks, HDs, SSDs, SD-cards, cameras, etc.) to my desktop, that the load of saved USB-driver-info in the registry has become HUGE.
Sometimes I can't get a USB-drive working (under W7-Pro 32-bit), but I found a very interesting way to load a bypass in the registry (named DeviceHackFlags), after which it works.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/arc ... title.aspx
Possibly too far out for your purpose, but you never know!

BTW: thanks for your Xmas-card!

[Norway Pad]

Oh, how I wish that Linux had regedit. Over the years I have done changes in the Windows registry to solve various problems, including CD-roms and USB devices that refused to work. (So thanks for the link, good to know) But in Linux I'm lost. I know there are config files around that can be edited like text files, and these do probably to some extent resemble the registry. But even though I have come a long way since the first time I visited the Linux world, I don't know enough about it yet.

Glad you got the card.

[Dekks]

Under Windows there's regedit.exe to mod the registry, anything comparable under Linux?

Yes, as the saying goes "everything in UNIX is a file", and these files are in the /proc virtual filesystem which is documented HERE

Will it be much use, i dunno, unless the OP looks for any values pertaining to the state of the USB port he had the IBM microdrive set up on. The only way would be to put it in mount it then unmount via file manager to "eject" it cleanly and see if it can reset the card/interface.

[Norway Pad]

Ok, so posting this from the 560Z.. ..online through the before mentioned 3Com card.

I am now back from the Christmas holiday spent at my mom's house, so the 560Z and the 3Com card is back at the WLAN where it was originally set up and connected. And it works again. I have no idea what caused this, but the reality is that the card refused to work or even initiate on my mom's WLAN. Maybe it needs to be disconnected before shut down and moved to a different WLAN. Or maybe "Automatically connect to this network" alters some settings in the card, which blocks it from working with this specific laptop when that network isn't present. Don't know, never had anything like this happen before. Over the next days I will bring it around and see if this happens again if I'm in an area with a different WLAN.

Thanks for the input anyway, Dekks and RBS. I guess this thread has to be archived under the cathegory 'Solved, but really don't know how'.