hardware

[cast-fish]

Hello

i found some interesting hardware. It helps re-vitalize old laptops.

Older laptops have those PCMCIA slots  "card slots".

You can buy a new card for those laptops that gives them 4 USB ports
all at USB 2.0 speed. It is cheap at 6 dollars new.

This gives older laptops a new uplift.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Port-USB-2-0-Hub-CardBus-PCMCIA-PC-Card-Adapter-/280715356391?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item415bf068e7#ht_3158wt_902

You can also boot to these USB ports using Plop FREE boot manager CD disc. (or floppy)

Also there are the handy little IDE to compact flash adapters. These slide into your laptop
where the hard drive usually plugs in. Then you slor a compact flash card in. The laptop
sees this as just an ordinary hard drive and it shows up in bios the same. Can be booted to
and OS's installed on it.  (a poor mans SSD drive)  1.5 dollars.

These things all make an old laptop silent also....no drives are needed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-Compact-Flash-2-5-44Pin-Male-laptop-IDE-Adaptor-/110676827427?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c4da5d23#ht_3409wt_805

there is lots of hardware like this on ebay new. It really is excellent stuff and almost free.

V.

[SunBurnt]

Pretty nifty cast-fish, old interfaces are no use, getting new ones revitalizes old iron!

The other big grip with old PCs... Boot options. But the HD plug-in brings a whole new life to it.

Now if only they had a PCMCIA card that`ll boot to the USB ports without the CD. ( not likely...)

[cast-fish]

Hello

yes, i am not sure what you mean with the HD thing.

As for booting to the USB ports on that PCMCIA card. You can
do it without any CD disc or Floppy disc or Bios setting. You can
instead just install PLOP boot manager to your hard drive. Plop
will see those USB ports on the PCMCIA card and allow operating
systems to be booted from those usb ports. (pen drives or whatever)

i discovered this hardware while trying to find a way to get my laptop
to see USB keyboards when it's first powered on.

It turns out that this is possible, by finding the right boot manager
or loader that supports USB keyboards. Plop does not do this support
but i believe that it may be available on other boot managers. It is just
a case of finding one.

i was also interested in a forum comment about "linux serial console"
because i believe this allows you control over your linux box the same
way you get control in a terminal window at the desktop.

Some people have found very cheap small LCD screens to use with the
new Rasberry Pi computer. They said it could achieve a console, with a
bit of tinkering and a patch. Color screens also. So perhaps they would
give a good experience. I believe it would be real handy because it allows
people to have pocket control the Rasberry pi almost. There was talk of how
a battery could also power the Rasberry Pi. They are small digital photo
frames that sell across the world. Keychain size and sell for about 3 dollars
or 5 new. It just seems a neat idea.

V.

[Lee]

Older laptops have those PCMCIA slots  "card slots".

You can buy a new card for those laptops that gives them 4 USB ports
all at USB 2.0 speed. It is cheap at 6 dollars new.

Hi cast-fish, maybe you can help me...

I have a little server, a Toshiba Magnia SG20, that is a lot like an old laptop in some ways:

*) it has a pair of PATA hard drives, little notebook sized (2.5") ones
*) it has a pcmcia slot that wa originally populated with a wireless card

it also has
*) a built-in 8-port switch visible as eth0
*) a single ethernet port (presumably as eth1)
*) an Agere Systems LT WinModem
*) a parallel (printer) port
and
*) no video
*) no keyboard
*) no "PS/2" (mouse/keyboard) ports
*) no USB ports


I've  got micro core on hda1 starting openssh onboot so I can log in and I've got a 4-port USB hub in the PCMCIA slot.

My problem is I can't see the devices that I plug in to the USB ports - so far I've tried a couple of different USB flash drives.

lspci and lsusb produce:

Code: [Select]

tc@gilkerson:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev c4)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 0d)
00:0a.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems LT WinModem (rev 02)
00:0b.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller
02:00.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61)
02:00.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61)
02:00.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 63)
tc@gilkerson:~$
tc@gilkerson:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
tc@gilkerson:~$
tc@g
Any clues on how to access the USB devices?

[cast-fish]

uh

if the machine has no video....

then i am not sure how you are seeing anything at all?

are you "serial console" logging in using a different computer and a cable link?

or are you logging into the maxhine with "no video" via a modem?

as far as i was reading. the PCMCIA card USB adapters don't need any drivers
for Linux. (or it finds the drivers in 2.6 kernels or above)


so it seems that tiny core is not finding any devices that you plug into the
USB ports on the PCMCAI slot adapter.

does tiny core know that the USB ports are there?

i know that Plop boot manager can be installed to your hard discs in a Linux
machine and it will then allow you to boot operating systems contained on flash
drives plugged into the PCMCIA usb ports.  (you could try that because it may
give you some working idea of how TCL is dealing with those USb ports
on the PCMCAI card.

You need the PCMCIA version of Plop.

other than that, it just sounds like TCL does not know about the PCMCIA card slot
maybe?....and thus not know about the USB ports or devices you plug in. Could the
PCMCIA slot be actually faulty?

V.

[bmarkus]

uh

if the machine has no video....

then i am not sure how you are seeing anything at all?

Via SSH connection for example or VNC.

[cast-fish]

hello

what, SSH over ethernet?....serial null modem cable?...over the internet via modems?

does your PCMCIA USB

[cast-fish]

does your PCMCIA usb adapter actually support linux....i think they all DO by default
although some adverts for them neglect to mention linux

V.

[Lee]

ssh connection is over ethernet.

lsusb shows the system detects the hub so I suppose the PCMCIA slot is functional and that the USB hub card is supported - though I may be jumping to conclusions there as I have very little information about the card itself:

It says "USB2.0 Cardbus" and "High speed multi ports USB2.0" and "32bit pc card" on one side.
On the other side it says "PC Card", "PCMCIA", "CardBus" and "MADE IN CHINA"

lspci seems to see it as three devices:
02:00.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61)
02:00.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 61)
02:00.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 63)

as does lsusb:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

[cast-fish]

hello,

then tcl knows what the card is and knows the usb ports that are on the card. But when you plug stuff in to the usb's on it
nothing happens in tinycore?

i imagine it's tinycore that's not configured to know what the card is....is someway.

Other cards sold on the web DO say they support Linux, so i am not sure why it is not
seen by tcl and isn't operating just like regular USB slots?

V.

[Lee]

Just an update:  I bought a different PCMCIA card with 2 USB ports (a Dynex brand card from Best Buy) and updated the computer to Micro Core 4.0.
Micro Core 4.0 sees the new card -and- the devices plugged in to it.

The generic 4-port card stubbornly remains unusable.