----- Original Message -----
From: "Bret Hughes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 7:42 AM
Subject: Re: PCMCIA driver disk
> "Mitchell K. Smith" wrote:
>
> > I have a Compaq Armada 1130T laptop that I am trying to setup with Linux
> > 7.0.
> >
> > It does not have an internal CDROM drive. I do have an Panasonic
external
> > CD attached via a pcmcia card.
> >
> > When I boot from the install floppy and start setup, it prompts me for a
> > driver disk.
> >
> > Is it possible to create a driver disk with pcmcia support so I can
install
> > from this external CD?
>
> Mitchell-
>
> I don't know about your specific installation, but are you using the
pcmcia
> supported installation disk? in 6.2 (its been awhile since I tested the
7.0
> installation) there was a different disk that was used if you needed
pcmcia
> support. One you have pcmcia kspport, I belive there is a place in one of
the
> installation options (expert?) that allows you to enter driver names for
> hardware needed during installation.. Check the installation docs.
Lastly,
> or perhaps firstly, is the cd supported under linux at all? I am ignorant
of
> the status of these devices. If not I would say you are toast as far as
> installing from it.
>
> Bret
>
Using Expert mode probably won't help you. IMHO the problem is with PCMCIA
CDs that don't exactly match what RedHat expects of them. I have an
Addonics 24x PCMCIA CD that RedHat 6.2 and 7.0 won't use, even though the
driver module it requires is loaded (ide_cs.o - pretty generic). By
switching to tty4 (boot up the PCMCIA boot disk and hit alt-ctrl-F4) I can
see that card manager sees the CD on the PCMCIA bus, and even identifies the
hardware. Then I see error messages like this:
DEC 14 04:51:59 cardmgr[14]: fopen(stabfile) failed: No such file or
directory
It looks like it tries three times, then gives up.
My PCMCIA CD maps to /dev/hdc, and that may be the problem. I don't know if
RedHat thought to include support for PCMCIA CDs which do that.
No worries though - if you really want to put Linux on your laptop, the
Debian 2.2 CD comes with floppy installation images. Make the floppies,
install (PCMCIA support is included in the default set) and you're ready to
go. I had to edit the Debian fstab file to change the CD device to
/dev/hdc, but after doing that everything worked fine - mount /cdrom brings
up the CD. (The editing fstab requirement is what makes me think that
RedHat's problem is with ide_cs.o drives.) If you really need RedHat on the
laptop and you have enough drive space you could install Debian 2.2, copy
the RedHat directory from the CD to a partition, and then install from the
hard drive. Or nag RedHat about their PCMCIA boot diskettes.
Cheers,
James
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