Linux PCMCIA HOWTO

David Hinds, dhinds@hyper.stanford.edu.

1. General information and hardware requirements

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Copyright notice and disclaimer
• 1.3 What is the latest version, and where can I get it?
• 1.4 What systems are supported?
• 1.5 What cards are supported?
• 1.6 When will my favorite (unsupported) card become supported?
• 1.7 Mailing lists and other information sources
• 1.8 Why don't you distribute binaries?
• 1.9 Why is the package so darned big?

2. Compilation and installation

• 2.1 Prerequisites and kernel setup
• 2.2 Installation
• 2.3 Startup options
• 2.4 System resource settings
• 2.5 Notes about specific Linux distributions

3. Resolving installation and configuration problems

• 3.1 Base PCMCIA kernel modules do not load
• 3.2 Some client driver modules do not load
• 3.3 Interrupt scan failures
• 3.4 IO port scan failures
• 3.5 Memory probe failures
• 3.6 Failure to detect card insertions and removals
• 3.7 System resource starvation
• 3.8 Resource conflict between two cards
• 3.9 Device configuration does not complete

4. Usage and features

• 4.1 Tools for configuring and monitoring PCMCIA devices
• 4.2 Overview of the PCMCIA configuration scripts
• 4.3 PCMCIA network adapters
• 4.4 PCMCIA serial and modem devices
• 4.5 PCMCIA SCSI adapters
• 4.6 PCMCIA memory cards
• 4.7 PCMCIA ATA/IDE card drives
• 4.8 Multifunction cards

5. Advanced topics

• 5.1 Resource allocation for PCMCIA devices
• 5.2 How can I have separate device setups for home and work?
• 5.3 Booting from a PCMCIA device

6. Dealing with unsupported cards

• 6.1 Configuring unrecognized cards
• 6.2 Adding support for an NE2000-compatible ethernet card
• 6.3 PCMCIA floppy interface cards
• 6.4 What's up with support for Xircom cards?

7. Debugging tips and programming information

• 7.1 Submitting useful bug reports
• 7.2 Interpreting kernel trap reports
• 7.3 Low level PCMCIA debugging aids
• 7.4 /proc/bus/pccard
• 7.5 Writing Card Services drivers for new cards
• 7.6 Guidelines for PCMCIA client driver authors
• 7.7 Guidelines for Linux distribution maintainers