2 Pcmcia Nic's

[Lightning]

I am not quite sure at this point, but an upgrade to 037 or 038 which will be releasedin the near future (month or two) might resolve the problem. There have been specific issues with the firewall and at which poiint it is restarted due to the machine connections, so it is possible that is the issue here. Regardless specific connection issue have been resolved in newer versions. There are also other good reasons for upgrading because the 027 and 038 use less CPU resources to run along with allof the new features.

[Thasaidon]

I'll try and put 037 on it, but I'm not sure how long the HDD will hold out.
But with any luck, I'll be getting a new one soon

I'll let you know.

[Thasaidon]

Well, I managed to reformat the HDD and get 037 on it.
However, after having run setup on the floppy, then running mv2hd and installing the pcmcia package (pcmcia-3.1.34b-lightning), I have the same problem as before...
The Xircom is beeing detected and working, but the Sweex is not.

I didn't have time to try the pcmcia-3.1.34a-lightning package again, but I will later when I get home...
I take it there is no difference between 036 and 037 which could cause this behaviour again?

btw... I noticed it doesn't matter if you set the IRQ & IO to either 0 (zero) or the appropriate value in the setup. (at least not for the Xircom)

[Thasaidon]

Well, for some reason (after installing the mc-4.6.0-lightning package) things seem to work ok with the B version of the pcmcia package.
Call me crazy, but it just seems to work ok now.

I still need to do some more testing, so I'll let you know.

[Lightning]

It is possible that the pcmcia package needs the upgraded libc.so.5 that comes with the mc package to get the network card to work properly.
I will include it in the next version of the pcmcia package.

[Thasaidon]

I was thinking the same thing, and I'm on my way to uninstalling the MC package

But I wonder if the origional libc.so.5 will be put back by just uninstalling the MC package. If not, I'll see what happens when I put a clean 037 version on the HD and then replace the origional libc.so.5 with the one from the MC package...

but I'll let you know.

As for the "Freeze during startup"...
Freesco is no longer "waiting" for the synctime to complete...
However... the problem of not being able to ping from/to Freesco still occured (just once yet)...
and again, only an "rc_main restart" seemed to solve this.


<a href='http://thasaidon.homeip.net/tmp/report_ok.txt' target='_blank'>HERE</a> is the latest report.txt
This report was created when all was working.

[Lightning]

More things to know about FREESCO and the pcmcia package.

# [Ethernet hardware]
IO0=0x300
IRQ0=3
IO1=0x800
IRQ1=5
 

The pcmcia package does NOT use these values in any way. only FREESCO uses them on the built in drivers and any modules that are loaded into the drv directory. So I strongly recommend removing all of these values so that the built in drivers are not poking into the running cards, because at the point these values are used the pcmcia devices are already running. If it is necesary to add values to IO and IRQ for specific cards then it must be configured within the pcmcia configuration script /etc/pcmcia/config.opts

As for the machine not being pingable. If this problem ONLY occurs when the outside connection is unavailable. Then I have seen it before and I have never found the exact cause. But I believe it has something to do with the DNS server needing to be able to resolve or at least know that something can not be resolved and that operation interferes with the main system operation. But that is only a guess on my part.

As for removing the mc package or ANY package. The 03x packaging system does NOT remove any library once it is installed. I will also give you this VERY strong warning about playing with libc.so.5

<span style='color:red'><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span>
Once the libc.so.5 has been upgraded it can NOT be moved, deleted, or have any changes made to it while FREESCO is running. Failure to head this warning will result in a system that crashes to an unbootable state within 11 seconds of making any change.</span>
It is possible to re-link the /lib/libc.so.5 to another library and then change the one in /pkg/lib/libc.so.5 or replace it while the active link is pointing to another file. But I really don't recommend playing around with that library unless you mainly just like trying to figure out how to fix things that are broken.

[Thasaidon]

Thanx for the explanation and the warning

However, since this is (for now) a test system

...unless you mainly just like trying to figure out how to fix things that are broken.

this is what it's all about isn't it?

I believe it has something to do with the DNS server needing to be able to resolve or at least know that something can not be resolved and that operation interferes with the main system operation.

Well, so far, this only occurred once after I had everything running, so it may just be a fluke, or a problem caused by the HD. However, other than the DNS trying to resolve the ip of my timeserver (ntp0.nl.net) I don't see what else Freesco could be trying to resolve.
So maybe the "workaround" could be to figure out the ip of the timeserver and add this as a static to the DNS file? But since this has (not yet) occurred and I can't seem to reproduce the error...

[Thasaidon]

Ok here's the deal...

I reinstalled 037 on the laptop and configured everything.
however, when I put it to the test...
only the LAN side of Freesco seems to be reachable
the WAN side is not.
An ifconfig shows both network cards up and running with no errors.
(see <a href='http://thasaidon.homeip.net/tmp/037/report_nok.txt' target='_blank'>1st report.txt</a> )

Then I do an rc_net restart and the WAN side (to my ISP modem) now seems to be reachable too, but I still can't reach the internet, because all of a sudden my default route is missing...
An ifconfig, again, shows nothing wrong
(see <a href='http://thasaidon.homeip.net/tmp/037/report_nok1.txt' target='_blank'>2nd report.txt</a> )

So I do an rc_main restart and all seems to work okidoki.
The LAN is reachable, the WAN is reachable and I can ping the internet.
(see <a href='http://thasaidon.homeip.net/tmp/037/report_ok.txt' target='_blank'>final report.txt</a> )

The only difference in the reports I can see between the 2 not working and 1 working is this...
not working:

Code: Select all

   ----- lsmod -----
Module  Pages  Used by
fethcb_cb          4  2
cb_enabler         1   [fethcb_cb]   2
serial_cs          2  0
xirc2ps_cs         4  1
ds                 2   [cb_enabler serial_cs xirc2ps_cs]   2
i82365             6  2
pcmcia_core       11   [cb_enabler serial_cs xirc2ps_cs ds i82365]   0

working:

Code: Select all

   ----- lsmod -----
Module  Pages  Used by
realtek_cb         3  2
cb_enabler         1   [realtek_cb]   2
serial_cs          2  0
xirc2ps_cs         4  1
ds                 2   [cb_enabler serial_cs xirc2ps_cs]   2
i82365             6  2
pcmcia_core       11   [cb_enabler serial_cs xirc2ps_cs ds i82365]   0

it shows fethcb_cb when not working, and realtek_cb when working...
but I haven't got a clue as to what that means...

----
as an update...
Freesco seemed to be running ok after the rc_main restart, but I just lost all connections to my freesco. when I logged in locally a few minutes later to see what was wrong, everything seemed to work again...

weird!

[Lightning]

In the /etc/pcmcia/config file you will find TWO entries for the fethcb_cb driver around line 2300 which is also a realtek chipset, but is a different driver than the one you are using or want to use. So just comment out about four line that refer to that driver, save and reboot the system.

[Thasaidon]

Thanx,
I'll try your suggestion later today or tomorrow.
But could this also explain the losing of my default gateway setting after doing an rc_net restart?

I was thinking more in the line of a hardware problem here...

---edit---
Well I edited the file and comented out the appropriate lines.
Things seemed to work ok for a while, but eventually I lost my connection again.
This time the LAN side (again) seems to just stop working while the WAN side is ok.

<a href='http://thasaidon.homeip.net/tmp/037/report_crash.txt' target='_blank'>Here</a> is the report I made just after the crash with the LAN not working.

I tried an rc_main restart, but that resulted in may LAN working but then my WAN was down...
<a href='http://thasaidon.homeip.net/tmp/037/report_pcrash.txt' target='_blank'>Here</a> is the report I made just after the rc_main restart with the WAN not working.

In both cases, an IP config showed no abnormality.
In the 2nd report, "stealth" is enabled, but that's because I was working in the setup when things crashed on me. So I guess the rc_main restart enabled those changes.

So... I'm leaning more and more towards hardware problems...
This also because I noticed both PCMCIA cards are getting VERY hot

So if you have any ideas, please let me know.
Thanx for sticking with me

[CDFiXER]

This also because I noticed both PCMCIA cards are getting VERY hot

That may not be out of the ordinary. I have ran across a few PCMCIA cards that either run hot or the system was exhausting hot air across them. My work laptop that has 2 serial cards and a $$$$ AB card all run hot to the touch, to the point you would not want to leave a finger on them for long periods. I have also seen serial cards used in Thinkpads that ran very hot too. I have a compaq laptop running a P133 that cards run warm in but not as hot as the others. Going on 5+ years on the serial cards B)

[Thasaidon]

Well, I use a wireless PCMCIA card in my HP laptop, but that doesn't even get close to the temp of those 2 PCMCIA cards in my Freesco laptop.
It's an old Toshiba Satellite 4070CDS btw

[Lightning]

Unfortunately at this point don't know what might be wrong. But I would run memtest86 on this system to make sure it is not a bad memory module.

[Thasaidon]

make sure it is not a bad memory module.

Already did, without result.
the Laptop has a "fixed" 64Mb soldered to the mainboard. But memtest show no errors.
I also replaced the "non fixed" 128Mb for another SO-DIMM.
I also replaced the HD.
All without result.

I could try another laptop with 1 fixed NIC and test both the PCMCIA cards separately...
but that means switching HD's and I need that other laptop at the moment...

But thanx for the help so far.