[gentoo-dev] UPDATED pcmcia-cs Instructions

[Chad M. Huneycutt]

I have done  a bit of work with Gentoo's pcmcia lately, so if you haven't
updated lately you should.  The latest version of pcmcia-cs currently is
3.1.33-r2.  There is also 3.1.31-r6, if you need 3.1.31 for some reason.

The pcmcia-cs package provides utilities (cardmgr, cardctl, etc.) and
drivers.  You probably want the tools if you use PCMCIA devices, as they
let you automatically bring up interfaces when you insert cards (cardmgr)
and change your network settings scheme (cardctl), etc.  You may or may not
want the drivers.  For instance, the orinoco_cs driver in the kernel is
supposedly better than the wvlan_cs driver provided with pcmcia-cs.
Whether you want the drivers or not, it is important that you configure
your kernel *before* installing pcmcia-cs.  The pcmcia-cs ebuild uses your
kernel settings (found /usr/src/linux) to determine whether or not to
install the modules.  If you want the pcmcia-cs modules, then make sure
that you configure "PCMCIA/Cardbus support" *off*  Then compile and install
your kernel and modules.  If you do not want the pcmcia-cs modules, then
configure "PCMCIA/Cardbus support" as either a module or built-in and
select any modules that you want to use.  Finally emerge pcmcia-cs to
install the utilities and possibly drivers.

If you choose to use the pcmcia-cs kernel modules, then you need to remerge
pcmcia-cs *each time* you rebuild your kernel.  And even if you don't use
the pcmcia-cs modules, it wouldn't be a bad idea to be in the habit of
remerging pcmcia-cs.

To configure networking, edit /etc/conf.d/net as described in other Gentoo 
docs.  You *do not* need to rc-update add net.eth*, though.  cardmgr will 
bring the interface up and down appropriately when you insert and eject the 
cards.

I hope this clears up any issues that people are still having with pcmcia.

Chad Huneycutt (chadh@g.o)