I have a Compal notebook dual-booting Windows 2000 Pro and Debian (based on the usual Knoppix-to-HD conversion, using knx-hdinstall). When running Knoppix from the CD (on my laptop's internal CDROM), I don't have the following problem, so I assume it CAN be fixed. Caveat: I'm a Linux newbie; this is my very first installation.

My laptop didn't come with any USB2 ports, so when I purchased a USB Combo drive (a Philips Jackrabbit JR32RWDV), I also bought a Sitecom CardBus USB 2.0 PC Card, with two USB2 ports on it. This is what lspci -v has to say about my USB and CardBus situation (apologies; it is VERY verbose! ) . (Oh yeah, and I have two CardBus slots, but only one card installed, and a USB mouse plugged directly into the laptop (not through the card))

00:04.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: COMPAL Electronics Inc: Unknown device 0012
Flags: bus master, stepping, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 10
Memory at 10000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 10400000-107ff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 10800000-10bff000
I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff
I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:04.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: COMPAL Electronics Inc: Unknown device 0012
Flags: bus master, stepping, slow devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
Memory at 10001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=09, sec-latency=176
Memory window 0: 10c00000-10fff000 (prefetchable)
Memory window 1: 11000000-113ff000
I/O window 0: 00004800-000048ff
I/O window 1: 00004c00-00004cff
16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001

00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 1a) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) USB Controller
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1020 [size=32]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

02:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Billionton Systems Inc: Unknown device 1110
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at 10800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

02:00.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Billionton Systems Inc: Unknown device 1110
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
Memory at 10801000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

02:00.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Billionton Systems Inc: Unknown device 1109
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 68, IRQ 10
Memory at 10802000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

Now everything works just fine (mounting and all), but when I logout/shutdown Linux, instead of powering off like it does when I run the Knoppix CD, it just hangs. I haven't copied the last message I saw, but the most prominent message is something like 'EHCI takeover failed!' (exclamation mark included, would you believe). When I remove the USB drive, everything boots down normally again (with and without the card).

Can something be done? I am a bit uneasy about powering off manually every time. So far I haven't had any damage, but who knows what's supposed to happen after this?

Kind regards