Re: [LUG] FA411

[Simon Waters <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

trewornan wrote:
>  --- Kai Hendry <hendry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> 
> Netgear FA411 PCMCIA NIC.
> 
> 
>>Try Knoppix. 

Always worth a try, it just works with my most wireless and wired
ethernet cards, although a few versios did get the wrong driver for
Orinoco cards - that was due to a typo in the PCMCIA_CS package (they
were a little behind the cutting edge).

> CD on this laptop is broken.

Is that broken broken, or does it share an interrupt with the PCMCIA
controler ;)

>>Tried this "card" in some other machines/OS?
> 
> 
> I've seen this card working on another laptop running
> redhat 9 and it works fine under windows.

The magic module is pcnet_cs this is the driver for the FA411. It is
tried and tested technology, some might say a bit long in the tooth.

Things only beeps if the pcmcia manager stuff is running, and as you
diagnosed this is about getting the right modules for the controller
chipset.

i82365 is the common 'old' Intel PCMCIA controller chipset, it is
getting rarer these days, but is well supported under Linux (and
anything else that has PCMCIA sockets probably).

You shouldn't have to guess which PCMCIA controller you have, it should
be in the manual for the laptop, and I think lspci will list it on most
laptops. Although later kernels may attempt to drive them all through
the yenta sockets stuff you don't always have to do what the OS wants
you to (this is Linux not MS Windows).

Haven't tried it under Redat 9, but if at first it doesn't work, I aways
just install the latest PCMCIA_CS packages, these drivers are usually a
few months ahead of the kernel, and thus do more magic in sorting out
interrupts and IO ports.

You can of course have thoroughly nobbled things in the BIOS, or by
building your own kernels, but if you avoided these paths away from the
Redhat way, I'd expect it to just work, possibly with a hint about what
PCMCIA chipset you have.

ou are confident it isn't that the hardware is broke?

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