> Table of content: IT-equipment and Company-organisation

PC-Card (PCMCIA) Troubleshoouting

* For this document and all references (links) please obey the hints and regulations concerning copyright, disclaimer and trademarks.

The owner of this web-site (www.javascout.biz) is not responsible for the content of web-sites linked within this document or linked within other documents of www.javascout.biz.
If this document or other documents of this web-site (www.javascout.biz) infringes your rights or you think that rights of others (third parties) are infringed, please inform the author.
An e-mail can be sent by clicking onto the 'hungry mailbox' in the upper right corner.

Print this dokument.

Last revision of this document:
2007-09-13

Prerequisites to understand the content of this document:

* General knowledge how to operate personal-computers (PC).

Approximate expenditure of time to work over this document:

Time to work on: incalculable if result is not as expected; ca. 20 minutes to verify proper working.

This documents gives some instructions to verify the recognition and proper functionality of plugged PC-Cards (also known as PCMCIA-Cards).

PC-Cards are peripheral devices that can be plugged into a notebook to entend its functionality (e.g. to have a modem or a network interface card).
As those PC-Cards need additional drivers – which might not be delivered with a Linux**-distribution – or a particular parameterization, the desired functionality might not be available after a new installation of Linux.

This document gives some hints how to verify that a PC-Card is recognized by the Linux Operating-system.

Prerequisites:

Logged on as User 'root'.
At least one PC-Card plugged into the notebook.

Resources in the Internet (is my card supported ?)

If you have not already bought a PC-Card it is a good practice to do some research if the PC-Card is supported under Linux.
I made some bad experiences – and read about a lot more.
Unfortunately, there are different sources – some older, some more recent – but all difficult to find.

If you do not have to count your Euros (or the equivalent in your currency) and you can buy new gear, try to get the guarantee from the vendor or your dealer, that the PC-Card is supported by your Linux-distribution.
If you are looking for a used PC-Card by browsing auction-platforms or online-adverts, try to get as most information about the offered card:
manufacturer, type, version.
Use Google** (or another serach enginge) and try to find information, if a driver is available for your Linux-distribution,
e.g. fedora netgear ma401.
Including the Linux-distribution narrows the search-results and minimizes the risk, that this particular PC-Card is not supported by the Linux-distribution you are using.

Visual Check for a Power-Indicator:

Most of the PC-Cards are equipped with a Power-Indicator, which is a small light-emitting-diode (LED).
Usually this indicator signals, that the PC-Card is recognized by the operating-system and that a driver is loaded.

Obey:
In some cases – particularly with network-interface-cards – the driver is not loaded until the external part with the jack for the network-cable is connected to the PC-Card or (in the worst case) the network-cable is connected to a hub.

Therefore connect all external parts of a PC-Card and plug a network-interface-card into a hub with power on.

Command cardctl:

Some information about plugged-in PC-Cards can be retrieved with the command cardctl.
So can be checked if the driver for the PC-Card-Socket is loaded and operational.

The PC-Card-Socket is the build-in electronic to recognize and handle command-flow to a PC-Card.
A PC-Card needs its own special driver to do its work.
Therefore a working driver for a PC-Card-Socket is not a guarantee that the plugged-in PC-Card will work.

To verify, if installed PC-Cards are recognized by the operating-system (PC-Card-Socket operational), enter at the command-line:
[root]# cardctl status

You will see a summary of the installed PC-Cards; in this example there are two installed:
Socket 0:
  5V 16-bit PC Card
  function 0: [ready]
Socket 1:
  5V 16-bit PC Card
  function 0: [ready]
A more detailed information can be retrieved with the following command:
[root]# cardctl ident

Manufacturer, model , version-information and type will be shown (the output is an example and might be completely different at your configuration):
Socket 0:
  product info: "hp", "wireless PC card WL110", "Version 01.01", ""
  manfid:0x0156, 0x0002
  function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
  product info: "IBM Corp.", "Ethernet", "0934214", "PC-NIC ENCC 990010759-001A"
  manfid:0x00a4, 0x0002
  function: 6 (network)