Question on pcmcia network setup

I've got Debian Woody back installed on my old Tecra 700ct. I have a
pcmcia 3com 3c589 card for my interface. I'm trying to figure out an
automated way to get my network up on boot. Presently the network is
unreachable at boot. This is because with it enabled the system looks
for the interface before the cardmanager has activated the card (which
is one of the last things to get initialized). Presently I have my
interfaces set so eth0 is not "auto" enabled at boot to avoid the error
messages. But either way the nic itself is fine. I can ifup eth0 after
bootup and the nic activates and I can ping the connected box. So is
there a step I missed to get this to initialize correctly on boot? Or am
I limited to running ifup eth0 (and then subsequently restarting my
samba daemons) after I login?

> I've got Debian Woody back installed on my old Tecra 700ct. I have a
> pcmcia 3com 3c589 card for my interface. I'm trying to figure out an
> automated way to get my network up on boot. Presently the network is
> unreachable at boot. This is because with it enabled the system looks
> for the interface before the cardmanager has activated the card (which
> is one of the last things to get initialized). Presently I have my
> interfaces set so eth0 is not "auto" enabled at boot to avoid the error
> messages. But either way the nic itself is fine. I can ifup eth0 after
> bootup and the nic activates and I can ping the connected box. So is
> there a step I missed to get this to initialize correctly on boot?

I'm afraid I can only answer you with respect to how SuSE does it and you
can see how much is similar on Debian.

The /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth0 file indicates:
STARTMODE=hotplug
so that it is not started when the network startup scripts run.

In /etc/pcmcia is a config file (and various .conf files that it sources).
This file associates the manufacturer and device IDs of the cards with the
drivers that must be loaded when the card is found, either when the
card manager starts at boot or when the card is later inserted. This
file also indicates the "class" of the card which is just a script that
it must run after the card is found/inserted and when it is removed.
In my case, the class of the 3c589 is "network" and that script does the
ifup (ifcfg) for you as part of its "start" section.

Good luck.

Steve

Steve Schefter wrote:
>>I've got Debian Woody back installed on my old Tecra 700ct. I have a
>>pcmcia 3com 3c589 card for my interface. I'm trying to figure out an
>>automated way to get my network up on boot. Presently the network is
>>unreachable at boot. This is because with it enabled the system looks
>>for the interface before the cardmanager has activated the card (which
>>is one of the last things to get initialized). Presently I have my
>>interfaces set so eth0 is not "auto" enabled at boot to avoid the error
>>messages. But either way the nic itself is fine. I can ifup eth0 after
>>bootup and the nic activates and I can ping the connected box. So is
>>there a step I missed to get this to initialize correctly on boot?
>
>
> I'm afraid I can only answer you with respect to how SuSE does it and you
> can see how much is similar on Debian.
>
> The /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth0 file indicates:
> STARTMODE=hotplug
> so that it is not started when the network startup scripts run.
>
> In /etc/pcmcia is a config file (and various .conf files that it sources).
> This file associates the manufacturer and device IDs of the cards with the
> drivers that must be loaded when the card is found, either when the
> card manager starts at boot or when the card is later inserted. This
> file also indicates the "class" of the card which is just a script that
> it must run after the card is found/inserted and when it is removed.
> In my case, the class of the 3c589 is "network" and that script does the
> ifup (ifcfg) for you as part of its "start" section.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Steve

Yes it was the /etc/pcmcia/network file I needed to fix. It works now.
The first part must be a suse specific thing since I didn't recognize
it. I've got the system fully configured now.