Turn Off PCMCIA !

Scsi3001 · 2020-12-26 16:59

Hi, first off I am a bit off a newbie to making command settings in linux...Sorry
I have an older HP Compaq R3000 that I am dual booting with Windows 7
Goal, save the darn thing from the crusher
I really like the Q40S and it runs really well on that laptop with the Windows XP look so my older friend doesn't get lost.
Goal W7 a bit slow so giving the option to run Q4OS as well to get some flames going from the AMD Athlon ha ha
It boots ok but randomly hangs up on the PCMCIA.
Goal Shut the darn PCMCIA down in boot up for good as not needed.
Where can I do this in any bootup script and what is the procedure?
Tried to load Xlogmaster but had trouble getting it in as needed other things that also had trouble getting in.
Would be happy at this point to just test with PCMCIA shut down.
Any help is appreciated
Seasons Greetings to all!

crosscourt · 2020-12-27 00:11

Its been awhile but access the bios before bootup by pressing F10 I believe, then you should be able to disable the pcmcia card. Dont remember the overall layout of your bios but if you can find the section that has the misc device settings more than likely advanced settings you can disable it. No guarantee that the bios supports disabling it.

This may help, https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph07110

Last edited by crosscourt (2020-12-27 00:16)

Scsi3001 · 2020-12-27 19:30

Hi crosscourt. Thanks for the reply. That BIOS on the R3000 is pretty bad, you can't change much other than time and boot sequence settings so no support as to turn of the PCMCIA controller. On the random times it does boot into the Q4OS the PCMCIA card slot does work and used it with an old wifi card. So not clear why it hangs sometimes but I suspect when the bootup is trying to allocate memory or IRQs. I tried some other distros and I get hanging as well so I when back to the Q4OS as it seems to work really well on the HP R3000 when I do get in and is much faster than the W7 with that laptop specs. So I think my only recourse is to try to figure how to put the commands in to stop the kernel from loading the PCMCIA card controller bus. I noticed that the GRUB loader has an advanced section where there are some boot up parameters. Not sure if I can enter something there like "nopcmcia" or "pcmcia=no". I have been hunting but can't seem to locate the PCMCIA script file. I can find a PCMCIA folder in /etc/pcmcia but just see a file called config.opts but don't think I can enter what I need in that file. I am trying still as don't want to give up yet that was why I sent a shout out to the forum after exhausting researching the issue. I wish there was a nice installer package for Xlogmaster as it can log multiple boots. I looked at the journal log but it appeared to just show the current boot. I down loaded pcmciautils but not sure what that program can do towards the issue. Cheers

crosscourt · 2020-12-27 23:55

You could try turning off acpi, acpi=off which may solve the issue but it may cause additional issues.

http://ubuntuguide.net/turn-off-acpi-ubuntu-grub2
https://q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1599

Last edited by crosscourt (2020-12-28 00:54)

bin · 2020-12-28 07:38

I'm not sure if this will work, but first of all - when it is running with PCMCIA working - do an lsmod and look for the pcmcia module in the list. Assuming it is there do sudo modprobe -r pcmcia
You should see the card lights go off. sudo modprobe pcmcia should bring them back.

If that works then create a file - say - nopcmica.conf in /etc/modprobe.d/
In that file a single line-
blacklist pcmica

Reboot and hopefully it works - try lsmod and again hopefully it will be missing.

Alternatively it may need delving in to systemctl to control the pcmcia service - but I cannot find much about that.

UPDATE:-
I just dug out an old Vaio laptop that has a PCMCIA slot. Sadly wifi via the slot is controlled by the main wifi hardware switch which also enables the onboard wifi card. OK PCMCIA Wifi works - it's on old Edimax Turbo card from way back when.

Controlling the PCMCIA card for modprobe did not work - only using live media latest TDE.

What's wrong with just removing the card and just slotting it in after boot?

Last edited by bin (2020-12-28 10:56)

Scsi3001 · 2020-12-29 02:01

Hi

Crosscourt- I tried the acpi=off. Still hangs randomly

bin- Howdy, sorry if I wasn't clear on first post. It is hanging on the PCMCIA card bus I believe as it makes no difference if the card is in or out when you get the random boot hang. When it boots ok card slot is working fine. I don't need to use the card slot at all on that laptop and was just curious if it was working during good boot.

From my research there seems to be quite of a shortage of tips to turn off the loading of the PCMCIA card bus (controller is the yenta generic) Some suggest use pktools and other pcmciautils. I could only get so far on those as they partial install but need other additional items.

I am trying to dig deeper into the Journalctl logs to diagnose if it is an PCMCIA issue for sure, but only can see back 2 logs without getting all the logs with another switch.

I was trying to figure out how to push the logs to a txt file but still figuring that one out.

I think Xlogmaster will do that but it doesn't install properly. It does unpack but ./configure won't make a "Make" file.

When it hangs it is usually right after...

[ OK ] Started Entropy daemon using the HAVEGE algorithm.

But when you reboot using the recovery and if it hangs again it is at the cardbus and yenta lines.

I think I will throw in the towel for now even though I enjoy solving this types of problems I don't want to spend the equivalent of time value that coul buy an i9 laptop...ha ha

I set the the grub to boot W7 first and Q4OS as second choice.

I figure my friend will do OK with that for now and get his late Christmas present putting max ram and fresh W7 with full updates. When needed he can try his luck to boot the Q4OS as it will successfully boot about every second or third stab at it.

I just got back in now OK and it is very stable when in.

My quickest resolve at this point is just pit the darn thing in sleep mode instead of turning off and it will run until it can't go anymore.

I found you have to use the FN Key and F5 (sleep key) to put to bed as using the Q4OS sleep put it down like a bear in winter and won't wake up (-:

If anything comes around that seems worth a try and I get lucky I will post a resolve

Cheers and Happy New Year!

Scsi3001 · 2020-12-29 20:51

Update

I put the Q4OS on my old Thinkpad W500 workhorse. It installed without a hitch and boots every time with no hanging on anything. I installed the Plasma Desktop which seems very clean and simple.

The PCMCIA Cardbus controller on the Compaq R3000 is a Texas Instruments PCI1620 PC Card Controller Using IRQ 18 or 19

The PCMCIA Cardbus controller on the Thinkpad W500 is a Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) or Compatible PC Card Controller using IRQ 16

Possibly there is an issue with the drivers for that on the R3000 and/or just the W500 is just a better rig to begin with.

I think it is more likely the cardbus hangs when the kernel tries to reroute or exclude the memory address 0x3000-0x30ff or similar to another before it can find the cardbus

Some screen pics seem to indicate that during bad boot screen hang and in good journalctl boot log

I guess on the positive side I have found a new desktop on the W500.

So I guess I should get a USB 3.0 PCMCIA card for the W500 right ? (-:

crosscourt · 2020-12-29 21:27

Texas Instruments PC card is a standard in older hardware and really shouldnt be an issue. Older hardware has a lot of issues with acpi/irq issues and sometimes they just wont clear up. Typically with a better bios you would be able tosort out irq issues or turn off problem devices but unfortunately thats not the case here and it is what it is. Older hardware doesnt always cooperate and Ive got a couple of systems at home that have similar issues and there is no workaround.
Glad the other system worked!

Q4OS Forum

#1 2020-12-26 16:59

Turn Off PCMCIA !

#2 2020-12-27 00:11

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

#3 2020-12-27 19:30

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

#4 2020-12-27 23:55

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

#5 2020-12-28 07:38

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

#6 2020-12-29 02:01

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

#7 2020-12-29 20:51

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

#8 2020-12-29 21:27

Re: Turn Off PCMCIA !

Board footer