Cardbus/PCMCIA slot not recognized on Ubuntu 8.04

By the way, the reason I know the slot is not recognized is because:
* Both my wireless adapter PCMCIA cards do not power up when I insert them in the slot
* My PCMCIA memory card reader also doesn't work when I insert it

hello,

did you power up your pc with the pcmcia card in the slot ? and start ubuntu ?

the cards under theses conditions should be recognized auto by ubuntu

hope this helps.

peter b

Peter,

Thanks for your response. I infact had the PCMCIA card in the slot yesterday when I tried it the first time. I also tried booting without the card and then inserting it after Ubuntu booted up. However, none of those scenarios helped.

Please advise.

Thanks.

pls post here - just copy/paste - output of

lspci

peter b

Alright, finally I was able to understand what lspci meant and how to output it to a text file. Just as an FYI - I'm not at all Linux savvy, so please be a little more specific in explaining what exactly should I do to get certain output that you're looking for. Following is what I got when I did lspci > temp.txt in the terminal window:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc AGP Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc PCI Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 01)
00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533/M1535 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV/V/V+]
00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation M5457 AC'97 Modem Controller
00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller
00:10.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:11.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility U1
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 20)

Please help asap - this is my parents' laptop and I need to get this working before I leave to go out of state tomorrow at noon.

Thanks a lot.

the answer is a resounding YES - your PCMCIA/PC CARD interface is recognized by ubuntu

00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller

as shown above. I could see that there is also a modem detected as well as an ethernet (wired) controller and another ethernet (wireless) controller as shown just for clarity purposes below in order (same as above)

00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation M5457 AC'97 Modem Controller
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 20)

more than likely, the last one is the one that sits on the PC Card slot. the question to be asked now becomes --> are the drivers for this/these interfaces installed ??

in view of the above, please close this ticket as solved and feel free to open another one with a different topic - that addresses drivers installation for the interface/s shown above that gives you troubles.

best regards,
peter b

Thanks a lot for your help Peter.

Your response certainly makes sense in a way that the PCMCIA interface may be recognized by Ubuntu (CardBus bridge). However, I fail to understand that how come the controller is not powering up my cards. I do not see any lights go on for either of my cards (even for a split second).

So even before we go to the driver path, I think Ubuntu should recognize that a card is inserted and it just doesn't have the drivers to be able to use the card.

Let me know if it makes sense - at least Windows does that, and I'm not quite familiar with Linux to know if I can expect the same message.

the card/device is recognized and identified see

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8185 IEEE 802.11a/b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 20)

in order for the device to be functional (among other things give visual signals that is functional) it needs drivers. ubuntu is linux based and as you probably know, linux DOES NOT use any BIOS or any settings from BIOS --> everything in linux is file based. if the drivers (which are files) are not there or not configured for the respective device the device pure and simple does not know what to do and just sits there.

so, in your case, for the wireless adapter which happens to use the PC Card interface, drivers for RTL-8185 chipset on the Realtek Semiconductor adapter MUST be installed and configured. after this is done you'll be able to use the adapter to connect to an AP. mind you, the drivers for this chipset may be already present -( I do not know, never investigated for this particular chipset ) - in the distro BUT not configured. as I said, this is a totally different topic so pls open a new ticket as suggested above so the community will be helped too.

the same logic applies to any other PCMCIA adapter that may be connected to the PC Card slot.

hope this clarifies any confusion.

regards,

peter b