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What does it really do when you plug in a pcmcia wireless card?

Hey, I am working on robots with a pc104 pcu, and use the pcmcia slot for Pretec CompactWLAN cards, thus giving me access to wifi. My probleme is that for some obscure reasons i get errors that are, I believe due to bad initialisation of the firmware during normal boot. This happens randomly, either it does or not, but when it does, the only thing I can do is take the card out and plug it back in again, and then it works... I must find a way to correc this proble, and have already in a script found out how to figure out if it is loaded correctly (using ping), and now need to reload it correctly as long sa ping doesnt answer.

I have tried everything:

-calling /etc/init.d/pcmcia restart

-calling /etc/init.d/pcmcia reload

-calling hotplug unregister firmware

-calling hotplug register firmware

-calling hotplug unregister net

-calling hotplug register net

- removing and reloading the corresponding modules (orinoco and hermes)

some seem to create the same reactions as if I put the card out and in again, but it nevers solves the bad firmware load probleme.

so my question is, what else does loading a card do, that all this doesnt also do?

Thanks for the help...

Reply to
kofuu
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"kofuu" wrote in news:1118223942.946517.90820 @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

script

Have you tried the same card with the same firmware in a different computer?

Joe

Reply to
joecoin

I have a set of 4 robots, all with the same pc104 board, and the same Pretec CompactWLAN wireless card and I have often interchanged them but the problem remains. Does it seem normal to you that it takes pluging-out and pluging-in to reset firmware or is there a command I havn't tried? thanks again Kofuu

Reply to
kofuu

"kofuu" wrote in news:1118390596.195062.183950 @o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

"Normal" is a tough word. Which board are you using? Which OS are you using?

Reply to
joecoin

I am using the VIPER-400-M64-F16 based on Intel 400Mhz PXA255 XScale processor. The OS that runs on it is Arcom Embedded linux, it is based on the proven 2.4 kernel, and I believe it strongly resembles a debian (one that would hold and run on 64Mb). Any ideas?

Reply to
kofuu

"kofuu" wrote in news:1118407316.992569.33130 @g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

XScale

Well, I'm not familiar with any embedded Linux OS, so I can't help you there.

BUT, I've worked with WiFi on a lot of PDA devices, and have seen a similar scenario, the units would boot fine, byt not see the network. Take out hte NIC, count to 5, re-insert the NIC and evrything was fine.

In htat instance, the culprit was too much WiFi, we took one of the three WAPs out of the mix and got much better stability. Maybe look at the other end of your network (unless all three devices ARE your network).

Joe

Reply to
joecoin

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