PCMCIA ethernet card only detected intermittently

[trilobyte]

Puppy 5.1.1 full install
HP Omnibook XE2-DB notebook, 11 years old
Xircom RE-100 PCMCIA 10/100 ethernet card

Total noob who knows Window$ well.

Getting kinda frustrated with ethernet on my Puppy 5.1.1. I get it working to my satisfaction, turn off the laptop, turn it on another day and "Puppy cannot see any active network interfaces." eth0 is gone. The ethernet LED on my ADSL modem isn't lit.

Since I can't find any meaningful documentation on PCMCIA in Puppy, I power down the notebook, put a wireless card in the same PCMCIA slot, power back up and I've got a wireless internet connection using the same PCMCIA slot.

In Window$, you have to "eject" a PCMCIA card but I can't find out how to handle them in Puppy, so I power down my notebook to swap PCMCIA cards.

This Xircom card ran flawlessly in Window$ 2000. If I go through the ugly exercise of wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Puppy, I can get the card to connect to the internet again. Turn off the notebook, turn it back on, and goodbye ethernet.

Actually, I can't turn the notebook off from Puppy. This may be because I have an ACPI BIOS. Window$ would turn the notebook off, Puppy won't. I already put in a post about trying to get ACPI forced on, but it's unanswered.

[rjbrewer]

I typed xircom in search and found these for starters:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 76&t=52557

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=304536

Type xircom re100 linux in a google search window and you will
see that card has long had problems with linux.

2nd question:
Find /boot/grub/menu.lst and add acpi=force to the end of the
kernel line.

[Joe Jasniewski]

Using toshiba 3500, pup 4.3.1 loads "orinoco_cs" automatically, wireless is SOLID afterward.

Pup 5.1.1 - cant find card, doesnt load orinoco_cs automatically. When I load it manually and IF I get my card recognized and setup - next boot it's gone, just like your experience.

I guess no one here knows what changed between 4.3.1 and 5.1.1 regarding the wireless. Setup menus look identical. Behavior is totally different.

I wish someone could provide info on what file to edit and what line to change, to make 5.1.1 work as 4.3.1 does so well. Try 4.3.1 on your system - I bet this problem goes away!

[tubby]

Look at my post here for a possible answer with your Tosh.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php?f=45