newbie: hang/configuration help with old Toshiba 2520

[nuke]

I am using Knoppix 2003-07-25 en.

Trying to run at home on old Toshiba Satelite 2520. Once upon a time I had a friend put Redhat 6.x on which ran OK but was a bitch to configure. So I know that Linux should run on this laptop.

Config:
Toshiba 2520 standard version with floppy, CD, 800x600 screen, USB, PS2 mouse, Winmodem (yeck), 2 slot for PCMCIA.
PCMCIA Linksys Ethernet card

I need some help to determine exactly why it is hanging.

Booting from CD is OK but first problem comes at a screen msg about
CardMgr.

So I remove the card but then it has problem since it can't find eth0 or network connection.

So I do "nodhcp" and it will boot until the splash screen showing the various services being started. At the point it reaches the second last service, it hangs again. It may have been the resource manager, but not sure.

I think that I need to enable the PCMCIA services before I get the network to start-up. Then need to tell Knoppix that network goes through Linksys card. That should allow me to get ethernet connection and hopefully narrow down the problems.

How do I do this? Is it even possible without building my own CD?

Also, since I can't get it all installed and booted the first time, how do I get access to error logs?

Thanks in advance

[nuke]

After spending a considerable time trying to work this out over the long weekend, I have some more information. Perhaps someone can help me get the pcmcia services running. I think that should fix things.

The laptop uses ToPICs 95. The install uses the yenta_services which I think is supposed to be ToPICs95. The syslog shows that pcmcia services do not start. There is an error.

Running lspci shows 13.0 & 13.1 are recognized as Toshiba PCMCIA card slots.

I have tried each of the three BIOS settings for PCMCIA; automatic, cardbus/16kb and PCIC. PCIC hangs the computer. The other two all the computer to get past the PCMCIA service failure.

Can someone give me a few ideas for what to try next?

Thanks in advance

[nuke]

I finally got this laptop to work. It was actually easier than expected but took months to find the right solution. It appears that Toshiba BIOS and Linux are not best friends. This post found in a Google cache actually gave me the answer.

I hope it can help other users of Debian systems.

I don't know how or if this can be updated into Knoppix to make it work with this live-CD, but anyone who has done a hd install onto a Toshiba laptop should be able to try it.

Nuke

Toshiba Laptop PCMCIA Freeze - Fixed @ Last, Summary Enclosed
Jesse Rhoads jar at gdn.net
Mon Oct 21 21:05:37 CDT 2002

Hello all,

At long last (after several months) I have found the fix!

Those who have Toshiba Laptops, and PCMCIA freezes on bootup or freezes
when a card is inserted, here is what is going on. Linux doesn't see
which IRQ to use, so it picks one, and it ends up picking one that it is
in use but the BIOS doesn't tell Linux it is in use, so Linux opens the
IRQ anyway, and the machine has a hard feeze.

You have to tell Linux which IRQ's are off limits or else it will use
ones that are already in use.

In the BIOS, make sure it the PCMCIA control is set to All By Machine (NOT
Setup by OS) and that the PCMCIA Type is CardBus-16Bit (not PCIC or Auto).

In Linux, edit /etc/ pcmcia /config.opts.
You will see a few exclude statements that tell the card services cardmgr
daemon what IRQ's _not_ to assign to inserted cards.
Make sure your list includes this (you will have to add several):

exclude irq 3
exclude irq 4
exclude irq 5
exclude irq 6
exclude irq 7
exclude irq 9
exclude irq 11
exclude irq 12
exclude irq 14
exclude irq 15

I was attacking this problem the wrong way. I was trying to get Linux and
the BIOS to exchange IRQ information properly, and unfortunately the
Toshiba BIOS doesn't do that very well. What finally worked is
to simply get Linux to pick the right IRQ through process of
elimination instead. Obivously, the correct IRQ that works is IRQ 10.
Forcing it to use IRQ 10 in the card setup files did not work, the method
above is the only way I found that works.

Hopefully I have helped, and sorry it took so long to respond - I just
tonight got it working.

Best Regards,
Jesse