Help with PCMCIA modem

madpython · External Since: Jan 02, 2007 Posts: 2

I got HAYES optima 336 and have some unexpecting things happening with
it.
1. Sometimes my notebook (HP nx6110) doesnt detect it:
[victor@noname Desktop]$ dmesg|grep tty
[victor@noname Desktop]$
and
[victor@noname Desktop]$ setserial /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 3
where did the uart go?

2. Sometimes it appears in the log and works fine

Jan 1 12:03:35 noname kernel: 0.0: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3100 (irq = 3) is a
16550A

but occasionally when a file is downloaded pppd hangs with the
following

Dec 31 14:25:33 noname kernel: serial8250: too much work for irq3

and when I change irq with setserial it cease working at all.

3. When I Eject/Insert it it again stops working
setserial /dev/ttyS0
/dev/ttyS0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 3

I'm wondering if somewhere is a tool that sets port and irq for the
modem (like jumpers on old isa cards) so that I can feed them manually
to setserial.
I tried to read everything, concerning setting up modems for kernels >
2.6.12 with udev (I got Mandriva 2007 on 2.6.17-5mdv) even
pci=assignbuses,routeirq during the boot but with little luck. What
else can I do? Can it be fixed to the extent to be reliable modem?
ps:
pccardctl ident
Socket 0:
product info: "Hayes", "OPTIMA 336 + FAX for PCMCIA with EZ",
"534PAM", "V4.4"
manfid: 0x010a, 0x0000
function: 2 (serial)

pps:Previously when I had kernel 2.6.12 and cardmgr modem didn't work
at all, no matter what I had tried. (cardctl ident recognized serial
card and showed binding to serial_cs)

Mike Y · External Since: Jan 02, 2007 Posts: 2

PCMCIA devices do not have ports or interrupts you can configure.

The card MAY have a hard coded address but it will almost certainly
also have a 'generic' range from 0 to whatever. That is, address 1, 2,
and so on. (The legacy issue of supporting the original ISA addresses
was a bad idea from the beginning. The only saving grace was it
allowed SOME cards to work from a BIOS during boot, but then it
caused all kinds of problems with the cards being swapped out AFTER
boot. The legacy addresses should NEVER have been supported.)

In operation, the SOCKET is supposed to translate an address, like
3F8-3FF, to a generic address (ie 0-7) or whatever. It is the job of
the software layer that sets up the socket to send the proper configuration
to the socket. In addition, the card has a single interrupt pin, and again
it is the SOCKET that decides what interrupt the signal is sent to.

If you have a PCI socket, as almost every piece of hardware out there
is today, then the socket will appear as what is best described as an
ISA adapter on a PCI bus.

If you card is CardBus and not a PCMCIA card, then it is probably
configuring exactly like a PCI device inserted into a PCI slot in your
computer. Again, no jumpers. CardBus is essentially a 'hot swapable'
PCI card.

"madpython" <madpython RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1167752501.443914.53880@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
> I got HAYES optima 336 and have some unexpecting things happening with
> it.
> 1. Sometimes my notebook (HP nx6110) doesnt detect it:
> [victor@noname Desktop]$ dmesg|grep tty
> [victor@noname Desktop]$
> and
> [victor@noname Desktop]$ setserial /dev/ttyS0
> /dev/ttyS0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 3
> where did the uart go?
>
> 2. Sometimes it appears in the log and works fine
>
> Jan 1 12:03:35 noname kernel: 0.0: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3100 (irq = 3) is a
> 16550A
>
> but occasionally when a file is downloaded pppd hangs with the
> following
>
> Dec 31 14:25:33 noname kernel: serial8250: too much work for irq3
>
> and when I change irq with setserial it cease working at all.
>
> 3. When I Eject/Insert it it again stops working
> setserial /dev/ttyS0
> /dev/ttyS0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 3
>
> I'm wondering if somewhere is a tool that sets port and irq for the
> modem (like jumpers on old isa cards) so that I can feed them manually
> to setserial.
> I tried to read everything, concerning setting up modems for kernels >
> 2.6.12 with udev (I got Mandriva 2007 on 2.6.17-5mdv) even
> pci=assignbuses,routeirq during the boot but with little luck. What
> else can I do? Can it be fixed to the extent to be reliable modem?
> ps:
> pccardctl ident
> Socket 0:
> product info: "Hayes", "OPTIMA 336 + FAX for PCMCIA with EZ",
> "534PAM", "V4.4"
> manfid: 0x010a, 0x0000
> function: 2 (serial)
>
> pps:Previously when I had kernel 2.6.12 and cardmgr modem didn't work
> at all, no matter what I had tried. (cardctl ident recognized serial
> card and showed binding to serial_cs)
>

madpython · External Since: Jan 02, 2007 Posts: 2

Big thanks for such a detailed introduction into how the pcmcia works.
It seems that my understanding of it is a little bit outdated Smile

Sincerely, I never before had a chance to even hold pcmcia card in my
hands and got it partly out of curiosity partly because it cost me very
little money just for it's cool look (EZjack if you know what it is).
>From what you wrote I conclude that neither a specific port nor irq
does matter. All this is responsibility of software layer which is in
charge of initialization and providing a route of this parameters
directly to the card. It's a pity because it's too complicated for me
Sad

Though it my occupy my free time to find a way to tackle the problem
Smile

Anyways thanks for your answer.

Mike Y · External Since: Jan 02, 2007 Posts: 2

Sorry, hit send a bit too fast.

Anyway, the problem is that you can't just set the resources on the card.
It's a multistep process. You have to find the resources, then if the
socket is on PCI, you have to make sure it's in the 'range' and then
make sure the IRQ (remember, PCI uses 4 dedicated IRQs that map
on a rotating basis for load equalization). And finally, some cards cannot
just be 'configured', they must be 'sequenced', although that is not that
common with modem cards.

Now, is there a tool that would do all this for you? Not likely. On the
old DOS systems, if you knew how to intercept at what is called the
CardServices layer, you could request a configuration and it should be
automatic. You could make the call with a faked removal event and
then fake an insertion event and request the configuration yourself.

Certain cards didn't have 'drivers' as such, but were instead
just left as they were, like modems. But I have no idea what would be
the equivalent for linux.

"madpython" <madpython DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1167752501.443914.53880@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
> I got HAYES optima 336 and have some unexpecting things happening with
> it.
> 1. Sometimes my notebook (HP nx6110) doesnt detect it:
> [victor@noname Desktop]$ dmesg|grep tty
> [victor@noname Desktop]$
> and
> [victor@noname Desktop]$ setserial /dev/ttyS0
> /dev/ttyS0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 3
> where did the uart go?
>
> 2. Sometimes it appears in the log and works fine
>
> Jan 1 12:03:35 noname kernel: 0.0: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3100 (irq = 3) is a
> 16550A
>
> but occasionally when a file is downloaded pppd hangs with the
> following
>
> Dec 31 14:25:33 noname kernel: serial8250: too much work for irq3
>
> and when I change irq with setserial it cease working at all.
>
> 3. When I Eject/Insert it it again stops working
> setserial /dev/ttyS0
> /dev/ttyS0, UART: unknown, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 3
>
> I'm wondering if somewhere is a tool that sets port and irq for the
> modem (like jumpers on old isa cards) so that I can feed them manually
> to setserial.
> I tried to read everything, concerning setting up modems for kernels >
> 2.6.12 with udev (I got Mandriva 2007 on 2.6.17-5mdv) even
> pci=assignbuses,routeirq during the boot but with little luck. What
> else can I do? Can it be fixed to the extent to be reliable modem?
> ps:
> pccardctl ident
> Socket 0:
> product info: "Hayes", "OPTIMA 336 + FAX for PCMCIA with EZ",
> "534PAM", "V4.4"
> manfid: 0x010a, 0x0000
> function: 2 (serial)
>
> pps:Previously when I had kernel 2.6.12 and cardmgr modem didn't work
> at all, no matter what I had tried. (cardctl ident recognized serial
> card and showed binding to serial_cs)
>