PCMCIA Problems with a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 MK5 and Antix Linux

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the forum, although have been reading it for some time. I have a problem with a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 MK5 and Antix Linux. Only 1 of the two PCMCIA slots work. I know it's not a hardware issue, as both slots work perfectly in Windows XP. I have also tried Mint Linux with the same results, the top PCMCIA slot does not work at all. Funny thing is that I also have a CF-29 MK2, and both slots DO work in Antix Linux, so something changed between the MK2 and the MK5 that is preventing Linux from seeing that second slot. Are there any Toughbook experts out there that may have experienced this? I've been using an Adaptec USB2connect (2 USB Port) card to test out the slots.

One interesting thing to note is that when I run lspci -k I get:

06:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev 8b)
Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Panasonic CF-Y5 laptop
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket

One thing I noted in the above is it is saying that "Subsystem" is a CF-Y5. Well a Panasonic CF-Y5 only has one PCMCIA type II slot. The CF-29 has 2 of them. Don't know if that's a clue or not. I'll apologize up front in that although I have been using Linux on an off for about 10 years, I have never really gotten deep into the nuts and bolts of it. Hopefully somebody else here has. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Trevor

 

Here is part of the results from lspci -k ran on my CF-52GUN (TS model ) using Linux Mint LMDE2:

Code:

0c:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
    Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Panasonic CF-Y5 laptop
    Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
0c:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
    Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Device 8338
    Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci
0c:00.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 21)
    Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Panasonic CF-Y5 laptop
    Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci

I have used the pcmcia slot (only one, other is express card) with a USB3 adapter without a problem. I noticed that there is no "yenta_socket" entry in my read out.

I will fire up my CF-29 and see what shows.

I have to say that I have never had a problem with the pcmcia slots under Linux.

 

Thank you, that would be awesome. I have never had a problem with PCMCIA out of Linux either, but this is the first time I've installed Linux on a CF-29 MK5. Is your CF-29 a MK5 also? Thanks for the help!

Trevor

 

My CF-29 is a Mk4, CF-29LTQGZBM.

All I could find for a pcmcia card is a Belkin wireless N card. I disabled the wifi card in the BIOS and booted to the desktop, Linux Mint 17.3 XFCE, stuck in the wifi card, clicked on the network icon in the system bar and selected my wireless network. After entering the pass code I was connected. I did updates that were available and shut down. I removed the wireless N card from the bottom pcmcia port and booted the unit. Once back on the desk top, I stuck the N card into the top pcmcia slot and ...... nothing. I left the card in the pcmcia and shut the unit down. Rebooted with the N card still in the slot and upon getting to the desktop the card still does not work.

Here is the print out from lspci -k from the 29Mk4:

Code:

06:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev 8b)
    Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Panasonic CF-Y5 laptop
    Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
06:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 11)
    Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Panasonic CF-Y5 laptop
    Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
07:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2800 802.11n PCI
    Subsystem: Belkin Device 8013
    Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci

It seems that I was always using the bottom slot, never realized there was a problem with the top slot.

There should be some other members with more experience with Linux on Toughbooks than I come along. Wait for them and their knowledge.

 

Hey thank you so much for testing that! I really do appreciate it. Now we know it's an issue with MK4 and MK5 CF-29s.

Trevor

 

Sheepman will know I bet, I haven't had a CF-29 in several years to be honest and never ran Linux on one.

I am very curious if the CF-30 has the same issue, I do run Linux on them but don't have one here at the moment.

 

Ya, I figured he would possibly know what the problem is, or figure out how to fix it.

Good question about the 30's. I don't have any atm either. Last one I had went to a brother to upgrade from his 29.

 

Thanks guys. Yep I know this CF-29 MK5 is an older model (March 2006 - this one) but I needed the LPT and RS232 ports. Mainly for an older EPROM burner and to run Motorola's RSS for programming older Maxtrac mobile radios. I have a dual boot on this one of MS-DOS 6.22 and Antix Linux. BTW Antix Linux runs fantastic on these older machines! I'm using a PATA to mSATA drive adapter that I got off of ebay with a little 32 GB Samsung mSATA SSD and running hdparm -Tt /dev/sda shows that I'm getting about 90 MB/s throughput. Not too bad for an older machine. If I can just get the second PCMCIA port working I think this'll work out nicely.

The drive adapter:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/mSATA-to-2...r-Converter-Card-44PIN-with-Case/263855160333

BTW, the mSATA Drives and adapters I tried in the MK2 CF-29 worked, but the speed wasn't as fast as on the MK5 CF-29. It seems there was an issue with BIOS (even updated the BIOS) or the hardware interface talking to the PATA to mSATA cards. I was only getting about 30 MB/s throughput. - Anyway I'm getting off topic here. Hopefully I can get the PCMCIA slots both working.

 

The only thing I have to test this is a Atheros wireless card and it works in lower pcmcia port. Upper shows no activity.

I messed with settings in bios but will revert back to default.

PCI Bridge is 82801 rev d4

Cardbus bridge RL5c476 II rev 8b if that means anything.

MXLinux 18.3 386. LiveUSB

antiX IS the weapon of choice for faster load time.

dmesg doesn't seem to see the upper but I will check again.

I might have antiX on a hdd in one of these rascals.

 

Try dmidecode and see if it looks like this........

Dmidecode sees it but non-functional.

Code:

m@m-CF-29NTQGZBM:~$ sudo dmidecode --type 9
# dmidecode 3.1
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0x0017, DMI type 9, 13 bytes
System Slot Information
    Designation: Lower PC Card
    Type: 32-bit PC Card (PCMCIA)
    Current Usage: Unknown
    Length: Other
    ID: Adapter 0, Socket 0
    Characteristics:
        5.0 V is provided
        3.3 V is provided
        PC Card-16 is supported
        Cardbus is supported
        PME signal is supported
        Hot-plug devices are supported

Handle 0x0018, DMI type 9, 13 bytes
System Slot Information
    Designation: Upper PC Card
    Type: 32-bit PC Card (PCMCIA)
    Current Usage: Unknown
    Length: Other
    ID: Adapter 0, Socket 1
    Characteristics:
        5.0 V is provided
        3.3 V is provided
        PC Card-16 is supported
        Cardbus is supported
        PME signal is supported
        Hot-plug devices are supported