[ltp] PCMCIA problem

[Vincenzo Antonuccio]

I have a Thinkpad 390-20 (the most basic model of the -390
series, with a 3.2 GB disk), with RedHat 5.2 installed. The problem 
is that it has an erratic behaviour as far as the Fax/Modem 
PCMCIA card's recognition is concerned. The Card is a US Robotics 
V34, an old one. Until now, I have registered 4 possibilities:

a) The card is inserted BEFORE bootstrap and is recognized;
b) The card is inserted BEFORE bootstrap and is NOT recognized;
c) The card is inserted AFTER bootstrap and is recognized;
d) The card is inserted AFTER bootstrap and is NOT recognized.

Statistically, all the 4 cases seem to occurr with similar
frequencies. 

Note that I never got any problem with another PCMCIA card I 
have, a 3Com 3c589 Ethernet Card.

I have two questions for the members of the list:

1) Any suggestion to remedy my problem without thinking of
buying a new card?

2) Alternatively, do you have experience of a FAX/Modem PCMCIA 
card working properly on a Thinkpad 390 ?

Many thanks in advance.

	Vincenzo ANTONUCCIO

=======================================================
Appendix: 

A) Here is the output from /var/log/messages when the
card is not recognized:

===
Aug  5 09:03:06 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: initializing socket 1
Aug  5 09:03:06 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: socket 1: Anonymous Memory
Aug  5 09:03:06 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: 'insmod /lib/modules/preferred/pcmcia/memory_cs.o'
Aug  5 09:03:06 cosmo-lap kernel: memory_cs: mem0: anonymous: unknown size
Aug  5 09:03:06 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: './memory start mem0'
Aug  5 09:03:34 cosmo-lap kernel: lp1 at 0x0378, (polling)
Aug  5 09:03:48 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: shutting down socket 1
Aug  5 09:03:48 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: './memory stop mem0'
Aug  5 09:03:49 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: 'rmmod memory_cs'
Aug  5 09:03:53 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: initializing socket 0
===

According to section 3.5 of the "Linux PCMCIA Howto", when a 
"Anonymous Memory" message is issued the problem is most probably
lying in a possible memory conflict. I tried to exclude the memory
ranges as suggested in that paragraph, but still the behaviour 
is erratic.

Here is the /var/log/messages reoport when everything works:
====
Aug  5 09:00:50 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: initializing socket 1
Aug  5 09:00:50 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: socket 1: WorldPort PCMCIA V.34 CE
Aug  5 09:00:50 cosmo-lap kernel: cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: excluding 0xa0000000-0xa01fffff
Aug  5 09:00:50 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: 'insmod /lib/modules/preferred/pcmcia/serial_cs.o'
Aug  5 09:00:50 cosmo-lap kernel: tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Aug  5 09:00:50 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: './serial start ttyS0'
....
Aug  5 09:02:57 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: shutting down socket 1
Aug  5 09:02:57 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: './serial stop ttyS0'
Aug  5 09:02:58 cosmo-lap cardmgr[247]: executing: 'rmmod serial_cs'

====



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