If the modules are all loaded correctly, the output of the lsmod
command should look like the following, when no cards are inserted:
Module Size Used by
ds 5640 2
i82365 15452 2
pcmcia_core 30012 3 [ds i82365]
The system log should also include output from the socket driver describing the host controller(s) found and the number of sockets detected.
The cardmgr daemon is responsible for monitoring
PCMCIA sockets,
loading client drivers when needed, and running user-level scripts in
response to card insertions and removals. It records its actions in
the system log, but also uses beeps to signal card status changes.
The tones of the beeps indicate success or failure of particular
configuration steps. Two high beeps indicate that a card was
identified and configured successfully. A high beep followed by a low
beep indicates that a card was identified, but could not be configured
for some reason. One low beep indicates that a card could not be
identified.
Cardmgr records device information for each socket in
/var/run/stab. Here is a sample
/var/run/stab listing:
Socket 0: Adaptec APA-1460 SlimSCSI
0 scsi aha152x_cs 0 sda 8 0
0 scsi aha152x_cs 1 scd0 11 0
Socket 1: Serial or Modem Card
1 serial serial_cs 0 ttyS1 5 65
For the lines describing devices, the first field is the socket, the second is the device class, the third is the driver name, the fourth is used to number multiple devices associated with the same driver, the fifth is the device name, and the final two fields are the major and minor device numbers for this device (if applicable).
The cardmgr daemon configures cards based on a database of known
card types kept in /etc/pcmcia/config. This file
describes the various client drivers, then describes how to identify
various cards, and which driver(s) belong with which cards. The
format of this file is described in the pcmcia(5) man page.
The cardctl command can be used to check the status of a
socket, or to see how it is configured. It can also be used to alter
the configuration status of a card. Here is an example of the
output of the ``cardctl config'' command:
Socket 0:
not configured
Socket 1:
Vcc = 5.0, Vpp1 = 0.0, Vpp2 = 0.0
Card type is memory and I/O
IRQ 3 is dynamic shared, level mode, enabled
Speaker output is enabled
Function 0:
Config register base = 0x0800
Option = 0x63, status = 0x08
I/O window 1: 0x0280 to 0x02bf, auto sized
I/O window 2: 0x02f8 to 0x02ff, 8 bit
Or ``cardctl ident'', to get card identification information:
Socket 0:
no product info available
Socket 1:
product info: "LINKSYS", "PCMLM336", "A", "0040052D6400"
manfid: 0x0143, 0xc0ab
function: 0 (multifunction)
The ``cardctl suspend'' and ``cardctl resume'' commands can
be used to shut down a card without unloading its associated drivers.
The ``cardctl reset'' command attempts to reset and reconfigure a
card. ``cardctl insert'' and ``cardctl eject'' mimic the
actions performed when a card is physically inserted or ejected,
including loading or unloading drivers, and configuring or shutting
down devices.
If you are running X, the cardinfo utility produces
a graphical display showing the current status of all PCMCIA sockets,
similar in content to ``cardctl config''. It also provides a
graphical interface to most other cardctl functions.
In theory, you can insert and remove PCMCIA cards at any time. However, it is a good idea not to eject a card that is currently being used by an application program. Kernels older than 1.1.77 would often lock up when serial/modem cards were ejected, but this should be fixed now.
Card Services can be compiled with support for APM (Advanced Power Management) if you've configured your kernel with APM support. It is currently being maintained by Rick Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu), and APM tools can be obtained from ftp://ftp.cs.unc.edu/pub/users/faith/linux. The PCMCIA modules will automatically be configured for APM if a compatible version is detected on your system.
Whether or not APM is configured, you can use ``cardctl suspend''
before suspending your laptop, and ``cardctl resume'' after
resuming, to cleanly shut down and restart your PCMCIA cards. This
will not work with a modem that is in use, because the serial driver
isn't able to save and restore the modem operating parameters.
APM seems to be unstable on some systems. If you experience trouble with APM and PCMCIA on your system, try to narrow down the problem to one package or the other before reporting a bug.
Some drivers, notably the PCMCIA SCSI drivers, cannot recover from a
suspend/resume cycle. When using a PCMCIA SCSI card, always use
``cardctl eject'' prior to suspending the system.
To unload the entire PCMCIA package, invoke rc.pcmcia with:
/etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia stop
This script will take several seconds to run, to give all client
drivers time to shut down gracefully. If a device is currently in
use, the shutdown will be incomplete, and some kernel modules may not
be unloaded. To avoid this, use ``cardctl eject'' to shut down
all sockets before invoking rc.pcmcia. The exit status of the
cardctl command will indicate if any sockets could not be shut
down.
Each PCMCIA device has an associated ``class'' that describes how it
should be configured and managed. Classes are associated with device
drivers in /etc/pcmcia/config. There are currently five IO
device classes (network, SCSI, cdrom, fixed disk, and serial) and
two memory device classes (memory and FTL). For each class,
there are two
scripts in /etc/pcmcia: a main configuration script
(i.e., /etc/pcmcia/scsi for SCSI devices), and an options
script (i.e., /etc/pcmcia/scsi.opts). The main script for a
device will be invoked to configure that device when a card is
inserted, and to shut down the device when the card is removed. For
cards with several associated devices, the script will be invoked for
each device.
The config scripts start by extracting some information about a device
from /var/run/stab. Each script constructs a ``device address'',
that uniquely describes the device it has been asked to configure, in
the ADDRESS shell variable. This is passed to the *.opts
script, which should return information about how a device at this
address should be configured. For some devices, the device address is
just the socket number. For others, it includes extra information
that may be useful in deciding how to configure the device. For
example, network devices pass their hardware ethernet address as part
of the device address, so the network.opts script could use this
to select from several different configurations.
The first part of all device addresses is the current PCMCIA
``scheme''. This parameter is used to support multiple sets of device
configurations based on a single external user-specified variable.
One use of schemes would be to have a ``home'' scheme, and a ``work''
scheme, which would include different sets of network configuration
parameters. The current scheme is selected using the ``cardctl
scheme'' command. The default if no scheme is set is ``default''.
As a general rule, when configuring Linux for a laptop, PCMCIA devices should only be configured from the PCMCIA device scripts. Do not try to configure a PCMCIA device the same way you would configure a permanently attached device. However, some Linux distributions provide PCMCIA packages that are hooked into those distributions' own device configuration tools. In that case, some of the following sections may not apply; ideally, this will be documented by the distribution maintainers.
Linux ethernet-type network interfaces normally have names like
eth0, eth1, and so on. Token-ring adapters are handled
similarly, however they are named tr0, tr1, and so on.
The ifconfig command is used to
view or modify the state of a network interface. A peculiarity of
Linux is that network interfaces do not have corresponding device
files under /dev, so do not be surprised when you do not find
them.
When an ethernet card is detected, it will be assigned the first free
interface name, which will normally be eth0. Cardmgr will
run the /etc/pcmcia/network script to configure the
interface, which normally reads network settings from
/etc/pcmcia/network.opts. The network and
network.opts scripts will be executed only when your ethernet
card is actually present. If your system has an automatic network
configuration facility, it may or may not be PCMCIA-aware. Consult
the documentation of your Linux distribution and the
Notes about specific Linux distributions to determine if PCMCIA network devices should be
configured with the automatic tools, or by editing network.opts.
The device address passed to network.opts consists of four
comma-separated fields: the scheme, the socket number, the device
instance, and the card's hardware ethernet address. The device
instance is used to
number devices for cards that have several network interfaces, so it
will usually be 0. If you have several network cards used for
different purposes, one option would be to configure the cards based
on socket position, as in:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,0,*,*)
# definitions for network card in socket 0
;;
*,1,*,*)
# definitions for network card in socket 1
;;
esac
Alternatively, they could be configured using their hardware addresses, as in:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,*,*,00:80:C8:76:00:B1)
# definitions for a D-Link card
;;
*,*,*,08:00:5A:44:80:01)
# definitions for an IBM card
esac
The following parameters can be defined in network.opts:
IF_PORTSpecifies the ethernet transceiver type, for cards that do not
autodetect. See ``man ifport'' for transceiver names.
BOOTPA boolean (y/n) value: indicates if the host's IP address and routing information should be obtained using the BOOTP protocol.
DHCPA boolean (y/n) value: indicates if the host's IP address and routing information should be obtained from a DHCP server.
IPADDRThe IP address for this interface.
NETMASK, BROADCAST, NETWORKBasic network parameters: see the networking HOWTO for more information.
GATEWAYThe IP address of a gateway for this host's subnet. Packets with destinations outside this subnet will be routed to this gateway.
DOMAINThe local network domain name for this host, to be used in creating
/etc/resolv.conf.
SEARCHA search list for host name lookup, to be added to
/etc/resolv.conf. DOMAIN and SEARCH are mutually
exclusive: see ``man resolver'' for more information.
DNS_1, DNS_2, DNS_3Host names or IP addresses for nameservers for this interface, to be
added to /etc/resolv.conf
MOUNTSA list of NFS mount points to be mounted for this interface.
IPX_FRAME, IPX_NETNUMFor IPX networks: the frame type and network number, passed to the
ipx_interface command.
For example:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,*,*,*)
IF_PORT="10base2"
BOOTP="n"
IPADDR="10.0.0.1"
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
NETWORK="10.0.0.0"
BROADCAST="10.0.0.255"
GATEWAY="10.0.0.1"
DOMAIN="domain.org"
DNS_1="dns1.domain.org"
;;
esac
To automatically mount and unmount NFS filesystems, first add all
these filesystems to /etc/fstab, but include noauto
in the mount options. In network.opts, list the filesystem
mount points in the MOUNTS variable. It is especially
important to use either cardctl or cardinfo to shut down a
network card when NFS mounts are active. It is not possible to
cleanly unmount NFS filesystems if a network card is simply ejected
without warning.
In addition to the usual network configuration parameters, the
network.opts script can specify extra actions to be taken after
an interface is configured, or before an interface is shut down. If
network.opts defines a shell function called start_fn, it
will be invoked by the network script after the interface is
configured, and the interface name will be passed to the function as its
first (and only) argument. Similarly, if it is defined, stop_fn
will be invoked before shutting down an interface.
The transceiver type can be selected using the IF_PORT setting.
This can either be a numeric value as in previous PCMCIA releases, or
a keyword identifying the transceiver type. All the network drivers
default to either autodetect the interface if possible, or 10baseT
otherwise. The ifport command can be used to check or set the
current transceiver type. For example:
# ifport eth0 10base2
#
# ifport eth0
eth0 2 (10base2)
Current releases of the 3c589 driver attempt to autodetect the network connection, but this doesn't seem to be completely functional yet. For autodetection to work, the network cable should be connected to the card when the card is configured. Alternatively, once the network is connected, you can force the driver to check the connection with:
ifconfig eth0 down up
mem_speed=# option to the pcnet_cs module.
An example of how to do this is given in the standard config.opts
file. Try speeds of up to 1000 (in nanoseconds).io_speed=# option when the pcmcia_core module is loaded.
Edit CORE_OPTS in the startup script to set this option.pcmcia_core module with probe_io=0.jt@hplb.hpl.hp.com) has put together a wireless HOWTO at
http://www-uk.hpl.hp.com/people/jt/Linux/Wavelan.html.
cardmgr identifies the card correctly and starts
up one of the network drivers. If it doesn't, your card might still
be usable if it is compatible with a supported card. This will be
most easily done if the card claims to be ``NE2000 compatible''.cardmgr, but still doesn't work, there
might be an interrupt or port conflict with another device. Find out
what resources the card is using (from the system log),
and try excluding these in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts to force
the card to use something different./etc/pcmcia/network.opts is incorrect. This message is an
absolutely foolproof indication of a routing error. On the other hand,
mis-configured cards will usually fail silently./etc/pcmcia/network.opts, start by
trying to ping other systems on the same subnet using their IP
addresses. Then try to ping your gateway, and then machines on other
subnets. Ping machines by name only after trying these simpler tests./etc/pcmcia/network.opts script.
Make sure your drop cable, ``T'' jack, terminator, etc are working.
Linux serial devices are accessed via the /dev/cua* and
/dev/ttyS* special device files. The ttyS* devices are
for incoming connections, such as directly connected terminals. The
cua* devices are for outgoing connections, such as modems. Each
physical serial port has both a ttyS and a cua device file:
it is up to you to pick the appropriate device for your application.
The configuration of a serial device can be examined and modified with
the setserial command.
When a serial or modem card is detected, it will be assigned to
the first available serial device slot. This will usually be
/dev/ttyS1 (cua1) or /dev/ttyS2 (cua2),
depending on the number of built-in serial ports. The ttyS*
device is the one reported in /var/run/stab.
The default serial device option script,
/etc/pcmcia/serial.opts, will link the corresponding
cua* device file to /dev/modem as a convenience.
Do not try to use /etc/rc.d/rc.serial to configure a PCMCIA
modem. This script should only be used to configure non-removable
devices. Modify /etc/pcmcia/serial.opts if you want to do
anything special to set up your modem. Also, do not try to change the
IO port and interrupt settings of a serial device using
setserial. This would tell the serial driver to look for the
device in a different place, but would not change how the card's
hardware is actually configured. The serial configuration script
allows you to specify other setserial options, as well as whether
a line should be added to /etc/inittab for this port.
The device address passed to serial.opts has three comma-separated
fields: the first is the scheme, the second is the socket number, and
the third is the device
instance. The device instance may take several values for cards that
support multiple serial ports, but for single-port cards, it will
always be 0. If you commonly use more than one modem, you may
want to specify different settings based on socket position, as in:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,0,*)
# Options for modem in socket 0
LINK=/dev/modem0
;;
*,1,*)
# Options for modem in socket 1
LINK=/dev/modem1
;;
esac
If a PCMCIA modem is already configured when Linux boots, it may be
incorrectly identified as an ordinary built-in serial port. This is
harmless, however, when the PCMCIA drivers take control of the modem,
it will be assigned a different device slot. It is best to either
parse /var/run/stab or use /dev/modem, rather than
expecting a PCMCIA modem to always have the same device assignment.
If you configure your kernel to load the basic Linux serial port
driver as a module, you must edit /etc/pcmcia/config to
indicate that this module must be loaded. Edit the serial device
entry to read:
device "serial_cs"
class "serial" module "misc/serial", "serial_cs"
The following parameters can be defined in serial.opts:
LINKSpecifies a path for a symbolic link to be created to the ``dialout''
or /dev/cua* device.
SERIAL_OPTSSpecifies options to be passed to the setserial command.
INITTABIf specified, this will be used to construct an inittab entry for
the device.
For example:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,*,*,*)
LINK="/dev/modem"
SERIAL_OPTS=""
INITTAB="/sbin/getty"
cardmgr identifies the card correctly and starts up the
serial_cs driver. If it doesn't, you may need to add a new entry to
your /etc/pcmcia/config file so that it will be identified properly.
See the
Configuring unrecognized cards
section for details./etc/pcmcia/config.opts
and exclude the port range that was allocated for the modem. setserial to
change the irq to 0, and see if the modem works. This causes the
serial driver to use a slower polled mode instead of using interrupts.
If this seems to fix the problem, it is likely that some other device
in your system is using the interrupt selected by serial_cs. You
should add a line to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts to exclude this
interrupt./etc/pcmcia/config to indicate that the
serial module should be loaded before serial_cs.
All the currently supported PCMCIA SCSI cards are work-alikes of one
of the following ISA bus cards: the Qlogic, the Adaptec AHA-152X, or
the Future Domain TMC-16x0. The PCMCIA drivers are built by linking
some PCMCIA-specific code (in qlogic_cs.c, toaster_cs.c, or
fdomain_cs.c) with the normal Linux SCSI driver. Due to
limitations in the Linux SCSI driver model, only one removable card
per driver is supported.
When a new SCSI host adapter is detected, the SCSI drivers will probe
for devices. Check the system log to make sure your devices are
detected properly. New SCSI devices will be assigned to the first
available SCSI device files. The first SCSI disk will be
/dev/sda, the first SCSI tape will be /dev/st0, and
the first CD-ROM will be /dev/scd0.
A list of SCSI devices connected to this host adapter will be shown in
/var/run/stab, and the SCSI configuration script,
/etc/pcmcia/scsi, will be called once for each attached
device, to either configure or shut down that device. The default
script does not take any actions to configure SCSI devices, but will
properly unmount filesystems on SCSI devices when a card is removed.
The device addresses passed to scsi.opts are complicated, because
of the variety of things that can be attached to a SCSI adapter.
Addresses consist of either six or seven comma-separated fields: the
current scheme, the
device type, the socket number, the SCSI channel, ID, and logical unit
number, and optionally, the partition number. The device type will be
``sd'' for disks, ``st'' for tapes, ``sr'' for CD-ROM devices, and
``sg'' for generic SCSI devices. For most setups, the SCSI channel
and logical unit number will be 0. For disk devices with several
partitions, scsi.opts will first be called for the whole device,
with a five-field address. The script should set the PARTS
variable to a list of partitions. Then, scsi.opts will be called
for each partition, with the longer seven-field addresses.
If your kernel does not have a top-level driver (disk, tape, etc) for
a particular SCSI device, then the device will not be configured by
the PCMCIA drivers. As a side effect, the device's name in
/var/run/stab will be something like ``sd#nnnn'' where ``nnnn''
is a four-digit hex number. This happens when cardmgr is unable
to translate a SCSI device ID into a corresponding Linux device name.
It is possible to modularize the top-level SCSI drivers so that they
are loaded on demand. To do so, you need to edit
/etc/pcmcia/config to tell cardmgr which extra modules
need to be loaded when your adapter is configured. For example:
device "aha152x_cs"
class "scsi" module "scsi/scsi_mod", "scsi/sd_mod", "aha152x_cs"
would say to load the core SCSI module and the top-level disk driver module before loading the regular PCMCIA driver module. The PCMCIA Configure script will not automatically detect modularized SCSI modules, so you will need use the manual configure option to enable SCSI support.
Always turn on SCSI devices before powering up your laptop, or before
inserting the adapter card, so that the SCSI bus is properly
terminated when the adapter is configured. Also be very careful about
ejecting a SCSI adapter. Be sure that all associated SCSI devices are
unmounted and closed before ejecting the card. The best way to ensure
this is to use either cardctl or cardinfo to request card
removal before physically ejecting the card. For now, all SCSI
devices should be powered up before plugging in a SCSI adapter, and
should stay connected until after you unplug the adapter and/or power
down your laptop.
There is a potential complication when using these cards that does not arise with ordinary ISA bus adapters. The SCSI bus carries a ``termination power'' signal that is necessary for proper operation of ordinary passive SCSI terminators. PCMCIA SCSI adapters do not supply termination power, so if it is required, an external device must supply it. Some external SCSI devices may be configured to supply termination power. Others, such as the Zip Drive and the Syquest EZ-Drive, use active terminators that do not depend on it. In some cases, it may be necessary to use a special terminator block such as the APS SCSI Sentry 2, which has an external power supply. When configuring your SCSI device chain, be aware of whether or not any of your devices require or can provide termination power.
The following parameters can be defined in scsi.opts:
DO_FSTABA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if an entry should be added to
/etc/fstab for this device.
DO_FSCKA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if the filesystem should be checked
before being mounted, with ``fsck -Ta''.
DO_MOUNTA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if this device should be automatically mounted at card insertion time.
FSTYPE, OPTS, MOUNTPTThe filesystem type, mount options, and mount point to be used for the fstab entry and/or mounting the device.
For example, here is a script for configuring a disk device at SCSI ID 3, with two partitions, and a CD-ROM at SCSI ID 6:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,sd,*,0,3,0)
# This device has two partitions...
PARTS="1 2"
;;
*,sd,*,0,3,0,1)
# Options for partition 1:
# update /etc/fstab, and mount an ext2 fs on /usr1
DO_FSTAB="y" ; DO_FSCK="y" ; DO_MOUNT="y"
FSTYPE="ext2"
OPTS=""
MOUNTPT="/usr1"
;;
*,sd,*,0,3,0,2)
# Options for partition 2:
# update /etc/fstab, and mount an MS-DOS fs on /usr2
DO_FSTAB="y" ; DO_FSCK="y" ; DO_MOUNT="y"
FSTYPE="msdos"
OPTS=""
MOUNTPT="/usr2"
;;
*,sr,*,0,6,0)
# Options for CD-ROM at SCSI ID 6
PARTS=""
DO_FSTAB="y" ; DO_FSCK="n" ; DO_MOUNT="y"
FSTYPE="iso9660"
OPTS="ro"
MOUNTPT="/cdrom"
;;
esac
/etc/pcmcia/config.opts to
guarantee that such a large window can be found.
aha152x_cs driver (used by Adaptec, New Media, and
a few others), it seems that SCSI disconnect/reconnect support is a
frequent source of trouble with tape drives. To disable this ``feature,''
add the following to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts:
module "aha152x_cs" opts "reconnect=0"
CONFIG_SCSI is
``m''), when configuring PCMCIA, you must explicitly specify that you
want the SCSI drivers to be built. You must also modify
/etc/pcmcia/config to load the SCSI modules before the
appropriate *_cs driver is loaded.
The memory_cs driver handles all types of memory cards, as well
as providing direct access to the PCMCIA memory address space for
cards that have other functions. When loaded, it creates a
combination of character and block devices. See the man page for the
module for a complete description of the device naming scheme. Block
devices are used for disk-like access (creating and mounting
filesystems, etc). The character devices are for "raw" unbuffered
reads and writes at arbitrary locations.
The device address passed to memory.opts consists of two fields:
the scheme, and the socket number. The options are applied to the
first common memory partition on the corresponding memory card.
Some older memory cards, and most simple static RAM cards, lack a
``Card Information Structure'' (CIS), which is the scheme PCMCIA cards
use to identify themselves. Normally, cardmgr will assume that
any card that lacks a CIS is a simple memory card, and load the
memory_cs driver. Thus, a common side effect of a general card
identification problem is that other types of cards may be misdetected
as memory cards.
The memory_cs driver uses a heuristic to guess the capacity of
these cards. The heuristic does not work for write protected cards,
and may make mistakes in some other cases as well. If a card is
misdetected, its size should then be explicitly specified when using
commands such as dd or mkfs.
The following parameters can be specified in memory.opts:
DO_FSTABA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if an entry should be added to
/etc/fstab for this device.
DO_FSCKA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if the filesystem should be checked
before being mounted, with ``fsck -Ta''.
DO_MOUNTA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if this device should be automatically mounted at card insertion time.
FSTYPE, OPTS, MOUNTPTThe filesystem type, mount options, and mount point to be used for the fstab entry and/or mounting the device.
Here is an example of a script that will automatically mount memory cards based on which socket they are inserted into:
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,0,0)
# Mount filesystem, but don't update /etc/fstab
DO_FSTAB="n" ; DO_FSCK="y" ; DO_MOUNT="y"
FSTYPE="ext2" ; OPTS=""
MOUNTPT="/mem0"
;;
*,1,0)
# Mount filesystem, but don't update /etc/fstab
DO_FSTAB="n" ; DO_FSCK="y" ; DO_MOUNT="y"
FSTYPE="ext2" ; OPTS=""
MOUNTPT="/mem1"
;;
esac
The device address passed to ftl.opts consists of three or four
fields: the scheme, the socket number, the region number, and
optionally, the partition number. Most flash cards have just one
flash memory region, so the region number will generally always be
zero.
To use a flash memory card as an ordinary disk-like block device,
first create an FTL, or ``flash translation
layer'', partition on the device with the
ftl_format command. This layer hides the
device-specific details of flash memory programming and make the card
look like a simple block device. For example:
ftl_format -i /dev/mem0c0c
Note that this command accesses the card through the ``raw'' memory
card interface. Once formatted, the card can be accessed as an
ordinary block device via the ftl_cs driver. For example:
mke2fs /dev/ftl0c0
mount -t ext2 /dev/ftl0c0 /mnt
Device naming for FTL devices is tricky. Minor device numbers have three parts: the card number, the region number on that card, and optionally, the partition within that region. A region can either be treated as a single block device with no partition table (like a floppy), or it can be partitioned like a hard disk device. The ``ftl0c0'' device is card 0, common memory region 0, the entire region. The ``ftl0c0p1'' through ``ftl0c0p4'' devices are primary partitions 1 through 4 if the region has been partitioned.
There are two major formats for flash memory cards: the FTL style, and the Microsoft Flash File System. The FTL format is generally more flexible because it allows any ordinary high-level filesystem (ext2, ms-dos, etc) to be used on a flash card as if it were an ordinary disk device. The FFS is a completely different filesystem type. Linux cannot currently handle cards formated with FFS.
Intel Series 100 flash cards use the first 128K flash block to store
the cards' configuration information. To prevent accidental erasure
of this information, ftl_format will automatically detect this
and skip the first block when creating an FTL partition.
ATA/IDE drive support is based on the regular kernel IDE driver. The
PCMCIA-specific part of the driver is ide_cs. Be sure to use
cardctl or cardinfo to shut down an ATA/IDE card before
ejecting it, as the driver has not been made ``hot-swap-proof''.
The device addresses passed to ide.opts consist of either three
or four fields: the current scheme, the socket number, the drive's
serial number, and an optional partition number. The ide_info
command can be used to obtain an IDE device's serial number. As with
SCSI devices, ide.opts is first called for the entire device. If
ide.opts returns a list of partitions in the PARTS
variable, the script will then be called for each partition.
The following parameters can be specified in ide.opts:
DO_FSTABA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if an entry should be added to
/etc/fstab for this device.
DO_FSCKA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if the filesystem should be checked
before being mounted, with ``fsck -Ta''.
DO_MOUNTA boolean (y/n) setting: specifies if this device should be automatically mounted at card insertion time.
FSTYPE, OPTS, MOUNTPTThe filesystem type, mount options, and mount point to be used for the fstab entry and/or mounting the device.
Here is an example ide.opts file to mount the first partition
of any ATA/IDE card on /mnt.
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,*,*,1)
DO_FSTAB="y" ; DO_FSCK="y" ; DO_MOUNT="y"
FSTYPE="msdos"
OPTS=""
MOUNTPT="/mnt"
;;
*,*,*)
PARTS="1"
;;
esac
pcmcia_core module with:
CORE_OPTS="unreset_delay=400"
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD enabled. This will normally be the case for
standard kernels, however it is something to be aware of if you
compile a custom kernel.
A single interrupt can be shared by several drivers, such as the serial driver and an ethernet driver: in fact, the PCMCIA specification requires all card functions to share the same interrupt. Normally, all card functions are available without having to swap drivers.
Simultaneous use of two card functions is ``tricky'' and various hardware vendors have implemented interrupt sharing in their own incompatible (and sometimes proprietary) ways. The drivers for some cards (Ositech Jack of Diamonds, 3Com 3c562, Linksys) properly support simultaneous access, but others (Megahertz in particular) do not.
Older kernels do not support interrupt sharing between different device drivers, so it is not possible for the PCMCIA drivers to configure this card for simultaneous ethernet and modem access. The ethernet and serial drivers are both loaded automatically. However, the ethernet driver ``owns'' the card interrupt by default. To use the modem, you can unload the ethernet driver and reconfigure the serial port by doing something like:
ifconfig eth0 down
rmmod 3c589_cs
setserial /dev/modem autoconfig auto_irq
setserial /dev/modem
The second setserial should verify that the port has been
configured to use the interrupt previously used by the ethernet
driver.