[ale] PCMCIA: kernel vs Hinds

[Geoffrey]

Dow Hurst wrote:
> I've noticed that the nm256 driver under SUSE 8.x-9.0 still gives my 
> Dell Latitude problems.  Pizza gave me advice to get the latest ALSA 
> which has allowed the laptop to boot most of the time without hanging 
> but it still hangs about half the time.  Under SUSE 7.1 I did not have 
> this problem at all.
> 
> I just noticed when looking around at pcmcia docs (since unplugging the 
> Linksys LAN/modem card helps promote a successful boot), that kernel 
> based pcmcia is used by SUSE.  There is an option to use the older 
> implementation by David Hinds.  The Hinds version gets high praise in 
> the SUSE help blurb in /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia.  I am thinking about 
> loading up SUSE 7.1 just to see what was used and if I could run SUSE 
> 9.0 with whatever SUSE 7.1 had.  Or, if I could run a different distro 
> like Gentoo or Slackware that would let me customize the sound setup a 
> little more.

You might be able to simply determine what settings another distro uses 
and resolve it in that manner.

> I've found out that I'll get the laptop back soon since a 
> desktop is coming the way of that user.  So, I'd like to solve this for 
> the current user under SUSE, if I can, for their sake.  But, later I 
> could do whatever with the laptop.  Any thoughts on why removing the 
> pcmcia card would promote the nm256 driver to load properly?  I haven't 
> found any direct clues as to what is wrong from kernel docs, ALSA docs, 
> and lot's of Googling.

I'm sure it's too simple, but it sounds to me like an irq or memory 
space conflict.  Have you consulted the Emperor? ;)  You might have some 
luck using one of their kernels, and I believe they are free for the 
downloading.



-- 
Until later, Geoffrey                     Registered Linux User #108567
Building secure systems inspite of Microsoft