[Ltsp-discuss] I got a laptop client to work, now can anyone help me with a Xircom56g100 pcmcia?

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Hi,

I just got a laptop client running and I'd like to
share my experiences and also get some help.

The laptop in question is an old NEC with a 400MHz
PentiumII, 256MB RAM.  It originally had a Xircom
REM56g-100 pcmcia network card.  More about this card
later.

Since pcmcia cards are not supported by etherboot I
was forced to use a modified version of the procedure
at
http://www.k12ltsp.org/mediawiki/index.php/Technical:Booting:Laptop
(hereafter referred to as the 'original
instructions').

I began by installing a server using the K12ltsp
distro.

Then I logged in and became root and unpacked the
initramfs:
        su
        mkdir initrd
        cd initrd
        cat /tftpboot/lts/pxe/initramfs.gz | gunzip |
cpio -id  # the location of the initramfs differs from
the original instructions

Then I added the modules needed to support my pcmcia
card
        cp -r
/opt/ltsp/i386/lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/
lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/kernel/drivers/
        cp -r
/opt/ltsp/i386/lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/kernel/drivers/net/pcmcia/
lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/kernel/drivers/net/

        Note: the second cp was not in the original
instructions.  I added that because I think I need the
xirc2ps_cs driver for my card.

Then I added all the lines in
/opt/ltsp/i386/lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/modules.dep
that pertained to

/opt/ltsp/i386/lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/
        and

/opt/ltsp/i386/lib/modules/2.6.17.8-ltsp-1/kernel/drivers/net/pcmcia/
to the modules.dep in the unpacked initramfs.

Then I edited init and added the following:

        .
        .
        .
 [ "${SLEEP}" -gt 0 ] && sleep ${SLEEP}

 echo "modprobing yenta_socket ..."   # Add this line
 modprobe yenta_socket                # Add this line
 sleep 3                              # Add this line
 echo "modprobing xirc2ps_cs  ..."   # Add this line
(not in original instructions)
 modprobe xirc2ps_cs                  # Add this line
(not in original instructions)
 sleep 3                              # Add this line
(not in original instructions)
 if [ -z "${NIC}" ]; then
        .
        .
        .

Then I packed up the new initramfs:

find ./ | cpio -H newc -o | gzip > ../myinitrd.gz

I also grabbed the original kernel from
/tftpboot/lts/pxe/vmlinuz.ltsp

Now that I had the kernel and the rebuilt initramfs it
was time to move them to the new harddrive on the
laptop.

I did this using the following procedure:
        0) I put the initramfs and the kernel on a
local webserver accessible from the laptop.
        1) installing a command line debian system
from floppy.  Why did I install Debian?  I just wanted
a working GRUB, and Debian
                still has a floppy based installer. 
This laptop has a dead cd drive.
        2) The original plan was to boot up Debian and
then move the initramfs and kernel from the webserver.
 Then edit grub.  But Debian
                would not use my pcmcia card.  Oh
well, I stuck tomsrtbt in the floppy drive and
rebooted.
        3) Using tomsrtbt I mounted the harddrive and
edited the menu.lst file for grub:
                mkdir /laptop
                mount -t ext3 /dev/hda1 /laptop
                cd /laptop/boot/grup
                vi menu.lst # add a new section in
menu.lst for the new kernel and initramfs.  Use the
original as the model.
                wget http://<my webserver>/myinitrd.gz
                wget http://<my webserver>/vmlinuz
        4) Then I rebooted.
        5) Hurray.  The kernel booted.  The system
loaded the kernel and then tried to start the network
card....
        6) Oh no.  The boot died when it couldn't load
the driver for my xircom card.  The dhcp request never
happened.
        7) Oh well.  I'll stick a handy Intel 10/100
ePro card in the laptop and reboot.
        8) Success!  The laptop booted and gave me a
LTSP login screen.  I logged in.  Firefox is working. 
So is OpenOffice.  And probably most other things.

Now...
        Does anyone have an idea as to how I can get
the Xircom REM56g-100 card to work?  During boot I saw
a "unknown symbols" message when the
        init script tried to modprobe the xirc2ps_cs
driver.  According to google the xirc2ps_cs is
supposed to work with my XircomREM56g100.

        BTW, did I mention I have 30 of these laptops,
each with a Xircom REM56g100?  I really need to get
this to work.

        Maybe I should install Linux on one of the
other laptops and see how Linux gets the xircom to
work?  I figure some poking around in the logs
        and maybe a little work with lsmod will yield
some answers.  I'm sure I can find at least one laptop
with a good cdrom.

        One final point: my Xircom card is not in the
/etc/niclist.  Do I need to set $NIC in init?

Thanks,
Jeff LePage
jef...@ya...

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