Pcmcia Nic - Kernel config - Kudzu

[Jeff Vian]

Dougga wrote:

>Hi
>
>I'm having rather extreme problems with my laptop config
>I have a Dell Inspiron 1100 and am attempting to configure the kernel to 
>accept a new Wireless NIC.
>
>After I compile the kernel as per the instructions on the driver development 
>site, I load the new kernel and Kudzu seems to see my onboar Broadcom nic as 
>something new.
>
>I let it remove the old and install the "new" nic after which my machine won't 
>activate either nic:  the PCMCIA wireless nic which was the target of the 
>excersize nor the Broadcom onboard.
>
>If I check 'service network status' it shows: lo eth1 & eth2
>But active devices is only lo.
>
>The hardware browser shows both onboard and PCMCIA nics
>Onboard = /dev/eth1
>PCMCIA= /dev/eth2
>
>The network Configuration Utility shows a different setup:
>inactive  eth0 Ethernet
>inactive  eth2 Ethernet
>
>I can change the eth0 to eth1 and restart the network service.
>The output indicates that all three interfaces are brought up with no errors 
>but ifconfig shows only lo.
>
>Can anyone help navigate this nightmare?
>  
>
This may be a driver issue.  Without the proper drivers nothing else works.
Use lsmod to see the loaded modules.
Even if the system sees the device and assigns it a name, it may not 
load the drivers if it has no matching module or unless told which 
module to use.

For the internal adapter with the broadcom chip.  
I recently purchased an AirLink 802.11g PCI adaptrer and found out that 
there are apparently no drivers for linux to use the braodcom chipset -- 
thus no devices using that chipset are presently usable under linux.  I 
then tried the linuxant solution using driverloader, but found that with 
the windows drivers loaded it functions as a bare, very basic card and 
has no extra features or fancy tools because of the drivers used. I have 
put that on the back shelf for now.

As far as the other adapter.
Which chipset is used in that one?  
Check the configuration in /etc/sysconfig/network and 
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX.  It may be that the second 
adapter is expecting something you don't have configured.  Static IP? 
 DHCP?  or something else.
If an adapter is pcmcia, and the network is configured before the pcmcia 
stuff it will fail to start the network on that adapter.  Check the 
order in which services are started for that possibility.
Also, check the output of dmesg and /ver/log/messages to see how the 
devices are seen and exactly what names are being assigned so you know 
how to set them up.