Linksys hates everyone

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BiddyB · #1 Post by **BiddyB** » Tue 07 Sep 2010, 23:16

I have an old (very old) little laptop I am trying to make viable, and I want to use puppy. Everything works fine, except that my pcmcia card. I tried the auto function, to no avail and also ndiswrapper. Ndis will load the one from the disk (lrss4.inf), but after installing, it says that no new hardware was found. The laptop is an old toughbook cf-27 I used to work on cars a few years ago. Any help or ideas would be appreciated, and if you tell me what info you need to be able to help and I will post it. The thing currently has xp on it (and after a few crashes it now reads that stupid card), and I am using a livecd to run puppy. I did see that Puppy version 215ce is compat. with the card as long as the older .inf file from the cd is used. The chipset is an airgo 300 I believe, and I also downloaded the old ang .pet file, but it only shows a pci card. The laptop has no ethernet port, so it is wireless or nothing.

Bruce B · #2 Post by **Bruce B** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 02:24

BiddyB wrote:I have an old (very old) little laptop I am trying to make viable, and I want to use puppy. Everything works fine, except that my pcmcia card. I tried the auto function, to no avail and also ndiswrapper. Ndis will load the one from the disk (lrss4.inf), but after installing, it says that no new hardware was found. The laptop is an old toughbook cf-27 I used to work on cars a few years ago. Any help or ideas would be appreciated, and if you tell me what info you need to be able to help and I will post it. The thing currently has xp on it (and after a few crashes it now reads that stupid card), and I am using a livecd to run puppy.

I did see that Puppy version 215ce is compat. with the card as long as the older .inf file from the cd is used. The chipset is an airgo 300 I believe, and I also downloaded the old ang .pet file, but it only shows a pci card. The laptop has no ethernet port, so it is wireless or nothing.

First welcome to the forum!

Note the parts I highlighted in blue.

The way I read your post is that XP is working with the stupid card.

Also, Puppy 215CE is working with the stupid card.

If how I read it is correct, what is the problem?

BiddyB · #3 Post by **BiddyB** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 02:40

I read that puppy 215ce works with the card while trying to find information on how to fix it. Puppy 5.1 does not work with it, nor as I just found out does Puppy 4.3. XP does work, but with only 192 mb of RAM and a little 300mhz Pentium II, it is so slow it is pittiful. The 6gb hard drive is also ate up by xp, which is why I am trying to go with a small distro to make it move a little bit. I looked at DSL as well, but it does not have such a nice GUI, and I would also like my wife to use it. I have OpenSuse on my son's desktop, but that program also ate up a lot of resources (remember: [/u]old laptop). The touchscreen does not work with 5.1 either, but I'll take that loss.

BiddyB · #4 Post by **BiddyB** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 03:03

Another question I have is can I use a .TAR with Puppy 5.1 and if so how because I downloaded this file to try:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/agnx80211driver/
The information for Puppy 215ce I got from here:
http://salis.sutteryuba.com/WiFi.php?action=1
and the reason I tried 4.3 is because the kernel matches the pet file I got here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy//viewt ... 46b12417d6 which is an old post from this site.

the specs on the laptop are as follows:
Panasonic Toughbook CF-27 (Mark 2)
Model no. CF-27 EB6GCAMNT
CPU: 300Mhz Mobile Pentium II
RAM: 128MB 100Mhz SODIMM (64 mb on board)
Hard drive: Toshiba MK8113MAT 6.4GB
Floppy (Interchangable) currently 24x cd rom
Screen: 12.1 inches (touchscreen version)
2x PCMCIA slots
1x USB port.
Sound: Yamaha YMF-744B
Graphics: Neomagic MagicGraph 256AV
Original OS: Windows NT 4.0[/url]

Bruce B · #5 Post by **Bruce B** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 05:34

If the part won't work

I go online to a good retailer. I use Newegg as an example.

Find the section I want and look over the offerings.

I find an item that interests me, read user feedback, then
search the web using the model number and the word
linux

I can usually get a good feel how Linux users are doing with
this item

For an example, suppose you wanted a wired connection.
We could use the link below.

Dlink Card

In the user feedback we find reports of very good success
with Windows & Linux

Then we search the Internet and find the good results.

Not recommending Newegg or the D-Link card. This is just a
short sketch of how I sometimes determine my likelihood of
making a good Linux hardware purchase by doing some fairly
simple research before buying.

I hope I've been helpful.

BiddyB · #6 Post by **BiddyB** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 07:28

I, too, use newegg for parts, but I already had this card as well as this computer and I don't see the point in spending money for outdated equipment. I could go buy a netbook or newer laptop for around 100.00 that already have what I want on them, instead of 30-40 dollars on a card for this old thing. I'm pretty sure that the processor in my wife's phone will outperform this little laptop. Not to sound condescending because I am not trying to be, but I have three desktops and two other laptops that work fine (2 of the desktops are other versions of linux, although I don't use them as is painfully obvious), but my old toughbook is cool man. it has a touchscreen, titanium case, ballistic gel surrounded hard drive, meets military standards for dust and water, and weighs a ton (not literally but I'm sure its close). I used it to configure my racecar years ago, and although the car is gone, I still have the old brick here. I do appreciate the comment, don't think I dont, but this thing is not getting any more money spent on it; I hear enough flack about the cables I have in storage that I spent a fortune on blah blah blah. My grandkids do love the gcompris educational suite though, so . . .

tubby · #7 Post by **tubby** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 08:07

Open /etc/init.d/rc.pcmcia as text and check that lines about 15&16

echo "Starting PCMCIA services:"
pcmcia-socket-startup
echo #dummy line.

do not have hashes in front of them.
If they do remove the hashes, save and reboot.
You do need a save file or full install to see if this works for you.

rjbrewer · #8 Post by **rjbrewer** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 14:55

I think you are mistaken about 215ce being able to use that card.

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_part ... me=Linksys

BiddyB · #9 Post by **BiddyB** » Wed 08 Sep 2010, 20:07

There are no hashes at those lines. I could be wrong about 215ce as I was going from reading a site because I could not get the OS to load past the kernel. when I do the lspci -nn in terminal I get this
05:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Airgo Networks Inc AGN300 802.11 a/b/g True MIMO Wireless Card [17cb:0002] (rev 01)
and ndiswrapper -l gives me this
WARNING: Depreciated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
WARNING all config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, it will be ignored in a future release
lssrx4 : driver installed
device (17cb:0002) present
netani : driver installed

tubby · #10 Post by **tubby** » Thu 09 Sep 2010, 06:22

Try 5.1 again and check what i posted above, you may find it works.
You will need a save file with the changes to rc.pcmcia script on the hard drive for it to work.

trat50 · #11 Post by **trat50** » Fri 10 Sep 2010, 04:57

I have a Panasonic toughbook CF-48, a LINKSYS Etherfast 10/100 PC Card and Puppy Linux lupu-501. It works - but not as expected... I installed Puppy lupu-501 to the hard drive & everything worked great - except the Linksys. No internet. It used to work just fine with 2.12 (Large Puppy) - so I got out my old Live 2.12 CD to find out what drivers it was using...

I removed the hard drive before rebooting with 2.12 Live CD. (Didn't want to risk hosing my nice Puppy 501 install with the live CD) I rebooted off of 2.12 Live CD and Linksys works just fine. I powered down and took out the 2.12 Live CD. (P.S.-no battery here, it runs totally on the 16 volt external ac adapter) I put my hard drive back in the toughbook CF-48 & rebooted. PRESTO! Internet is up and working instantly. Really! I made no other changes!!

OK - here is the bad part... The next morning I tried it again - and again NO internet. So AGAIN I took out the hard drive, rebooted on 2.12 Live CD and connected to internet using the Linksys. It worked just fine. So AGAIN I took the 2.12 Live CD back out, put the hard drive back in - Rebooted and again PRESTO! Linksys is again hooked up & running on Puppy lupu 501.

I don't know WHAT is going on - but I do know it's working & repeatable.

tubby · #12 Post by **tubby** » Fri 10 Sep 2010, 06:45

Trat50, Check my posts above.

trat50 · #13 Post by **trat50** » Fri 10 Sep 2010, 11:53

tubby, I just opened up that file - and it's just like you say:

Lines 15 and 16 were...
# echo "Starting PCMIA services:"
# pcmia-socket-startup
echo #dummy line

I changed them to read:
echo "Starting PCMIA services:"
pcmia-socket-startup
echo #dummy line

...and now it's booting up with Linksys hooked to the internet!

Linksys now works perfectly on Panasonic toughbook CF-48 Laptop.

Thank you, tubby.

tubby · #14 Post by **tubby** » Fri 10 Sep 2010, 14:14

Glad it worked ok for you, more power to puppy.

BiddyB · #15 Post by **BiddyB** » Mon 13 Sep 2010, 17:52

I looked at the lines, and there are no hash lines. I did note, however, that puppy disables IRQ 9 on the boot up, and according to XP this is my pcmia card's IRQ. I know it is a problem with compatability with linux and the MIMO on the card. If I ever get this sorted, this laptop will be running puppy, because other than internet connectivity, the thing is reasonably speedy and everything else works out of the box. This includes the Yamaha sound driver, usb port, (horrible) laptop speaker, and everything else. On a side note, I did just install Puppy on a guy's older desktop because his copy of XP was bugged and he asked me if I could make it any quicker. I upped the ram from 128 to 512 and got xp to load descently, but he had changed his motherboard and the thing only had a 800 mhz processor. So, Puppy to the rescue! Now it moves pretty good, and he is extremely happy with it.

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