[gentoo-user] 3Com PCMCIA network card not recognised

[Stroller]

I have a fairly old laptop, but which has a really nice screen and which is actually still quite useful for some simple tasks and for "thin clienting" and stuff. I like to keep it around as a spare, at least. For one thing I want to use it for some network diagnostics, and I want to use it with an old 10mbps 3Com PCMCIA network card. The performance would seem to be adequate for sniffing web-suring traffic (for instance) if I bridge it with the laptop's internal network card.

However, the 3Com network card doesn't seem to be recognised under my installation of Gentoo.

When I insert the card I see only this in /var/log/messages:

Dec 13 06:45:42 stinky kernel: pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0

And nothing else. Only the onboard network card is shown:

$ ifconfig | grep -i hwadd
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:86:42:58:2c  
$ 

The network will not start:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/net.eth1 start
 * Starting eth1
 *   Configuration not set for eth1 - assuming DHCP
 *   Bringing up eth1
 *     dhcp
 *       network interface eth1 does not exist
 *       Please verify hardware or kernel module (driver)                                                                                       [ !! ]
$ 

If I plug in a wifi card it behaves as I'd expect:

Dec 13 07:36:09 stinky kernel: pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
Dec 13 07:36:09 stinky kernel: pci 0000:02:00.0: reg 10: [mem 0xffffe000-0xffffffff]
Dec 13 07:36:09 stinky kernel: pci 0000:02:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x24000000-0x24001fff]
Dec 13 07:36:09 stinky kernel: pci 0000:02:00.0: BAR 0: set to [mem 0x24000000-0x24001fff] (PCI address [0x24000000-0x24001fff]
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: rt2500pci 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: rt2500pci 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: rt2500pci 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel'
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: Registered led device: rt2500pci-phy0::radio
Dec 13 07:36:10 stinky kernel: Registered led device: rt2500pci-phy0::quality



Compare with when I try with system rescue CD:

root@sysresccd /root % ifconfig | grep HWaddr
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:86:42:58:2c  
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:60:08:92:94:df  
root@sysresccd /root % 

and this appears in /var/log/messages:

Dec 13 06:54:26 sysresccd kernel: pcmcia_socket pcmcia_socket0: pccard: PCMCIA card inserted into slot 0
Dec 13 06:54:26 sysresccd kernel: pcmcia 0.0: pcmcia: registering new device pcmcia0.0 (IRQ: 4)
Dec 13 06:54:26 sysresccd kernel: 3c589_cs 0.0: eth1: 3Com 3c589, io 0x300, irq 4, hw_addr 00:60:08:92:94:df
Dec 13 06:54:26 sysresccd kernel: 3c589_cs 0.0: eth1:   8K FIFO split 5:3 Rx:Tx, auto xcvr
...
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd kernel: 3c589_cs 0.0: eth1: flipped to 10baseT
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  DHCP: device eth1 state changed preinit -> bound
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) scheduled...
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) started...
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>    address 192.168.1.102
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>    prefix 24 (255.255.255.0)
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>    gateway 192.168.1.1
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>    hostname 'Vigor102'
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>    nameserver '192.168.1.43'
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) scheduled...
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) complete.
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd dhclient: bound to 192.168.1.102 -- renewal in 101292 seconds.
Dec 13 06:54:38 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) started...
Dec 13 06:54:39 sysresccd NetworkManager: nm_ip4_config_add_nameserver: assertion `nameserver != s' failed
Dec 13 06:54:39 sysresccd NetworkManager: nm_ip4_config_add_nameserver: assertion `nameserver != s' failed
Dec 13 06:54:39 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Policy set 'Auto eth0' (eth0) as default for routing and DNS.
Dec 13 06:54:39 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  (eth1): device state change: 7 -> 8 (reason 0)
Dec 13 06:54:39 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) successful, device activated.
Dec 13 06:54:39 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (eth1) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.
Dec 13 06:54:41 sysresccd kernel: eth1: no IPv6 routers present
Dec 13 06:54:46 sysresccd dhcpcd[2469]: eth0: carrier lost
Dec 13 06:54:46 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  (eth0): carrier now OFF (device state 8)
Dec 13 06:54:46 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  (eth0): device state change: 8 -> 2 (reason 40)
Dec 13 06:54:46 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  (eth0): deactivating device (reason: 40).
Dec 13 06:54:47 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  eth0: canceled DHCP transaction, dhcp client pid 2076
Dec 13 06:54:47 sysresccd NetworkManager: <info>  Policy set 'Auto eth1' (eth1) as default for routing and DNS.

(snipped for brevity, but see attached systemrescuecd-messages.txt.gz)

The last lines of the above, referring to eth0, are when I unplugged the built-in network card to use the ethernet cable with the PCMCIA card. I was able to ssh in just fine.

The two cards are shown in `ifconfig`, but strangely not by `lspci`:

root@sysresccd /root % ifconfig | grep HWaddr           
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:86:42:58:2c  
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:60:08:92:94:df  
root@sysresccd /root % lspci -vt                        
-[0000:00]-+-00.0  Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge
           +-01.0-[01]----00.0  S3 Inc. 86C270-294 Savage/IX-MV
           +-02.0  Texas Instruments PCI1450
           +-02.1  Texas Instruments PCI1450
           +-03.0  3Com Corporation 3c556B CardBus [Tornado]  # <--- onboard card
           +-03.1  3Com Corporation Mini PCI 56k Winmodem
           +-05.0  Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator]
           +-07.0  Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA
           +-07.1  Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE
           +-07.2  Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB
           \-07.3  Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI
root@sysresccd /root % 

The thing that really confounds me is that the two kernels are compiled with *very* similar options. See attached config files. If you view them using a command such as:

  colordiff -y kernel.config.sys_rescue_cd-1.6.4 kernel.config.current | less

then you'll see they're nearly identical. I have been criticised in the past for being so lazy as to just use systemrescuecd's kernel config, rather than spending the time to make my own, but it's never given me any problems in the past and I don't see how it could have caused this. I'm really stumped, as everything else seems to work fine.

The only things I've done is to recompile my kernel a couple of times - once to add in the drivers statically (CONFIG_PCMCIA_3C589=y), instead of as modules, to see if that would make a difference, and second time to match another PCMCIA option that differed. Neither made any difference.

The two kernels are slightly different versions, but I wouldn't have expected that to make any difference. The only thing I can think is that I'm overlooking something really stupid. I'd be very grateful for any advice.

Stroller.