ISA devices support in linux
heavytull
but i plugged in an ISA 3Com ethernet device, and it seems linux won't
give any sign of its presence.
do i need any tuning in the bios?
it seems that all upper memory blocks and IRQ and dedicated to PCI
devices. I can manually reserve some of them for ISA devices, but i
don't know which ones.
the motherboard is an RC440BX;
Davorin Vlahovic
You just have to load the right module (driver) using modprobe.
--
Ispasti glup je ponekad zdravo.
heavytull
since i ddidn't see any info about that ISA card in KInfoManager i
though the device was not ON.
anyway why doesn't the module get loaded by the kernel itself?
Lew Pitcher
wrote:
Because, unlike the "PCI" bus, the "ISA" bus does not provide any standard
mechanism for a device to identify itself to the OS. Something outside of
the card must identify the card to the OS; in Linux, that is done by
manually loading the driver for the card, as part of your startup routines.
--
Lew Pitcher
Master Codewright & JOAT-in-training | Registered Linux User #112576
http://pitcher.digitalfreehold.ca/ | GPG public key available by request
---------- Slackware - Because I know what I'm doing. ------
Dragomir Kollaric
> On August 7, 2008 11:49, in alt.os.linux, heavytull (heav...@hotmail.com)
> wrote:
>
>> On Aug 6, 6:24 pm, Davorin Vlahovic <nr...@ylf.krs.ref.rh> wrote:
>>> On 2008-08-06, heavytull <heavyt...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > I though that linux supports well many ISA support devices.
>>> > but i plugged in an ISA 3Com ethernet device, and it seems linux won't
>>> > give any sign of its presence.
>>> > do i need any tuning in the bios?
>>> > it seems that all upper memory blocks and IRQ and dedicated to PCI
>>> > devices. I can manually reserve some of them for ISA devices, but i
>>> > don't know which ones.
>>> > the motherboard is an RC440BX;
>>>
>>> You just have to load the right module (driver) using modprobe.
>>> --
>>> Ispasti glup je ponekad zdravo.
>>
>> since i ddidn't see any info about that ISA card in KInfoManager i
>> though the device was not ON.
>> anyway why doesn't the module get loaded by the kernel itself?
>
> Because, unlike the "PCI" bus, the "ISA" bus does not provide any standard
> mechanism for a device to identify itself to the OS. Something outside of
> the card must identify the card to the OS; in Linux, that is done by
> manually loading the driver for the card, as part of your startup routines.
To the OP
"ISA PNP" would help I think :-)
A flash from the past, I'll be darned. My first NIC was a
ISA-PNP card. You must be using a very old PC to have still
such a slot around.
It's years that I used the "ISA-PNP" card so my memory
is rather foggy here, but there must be still some
"ISA-PNP-HOW-TO" on the Web. I'd advise you that you
research it. IIRC the Kernel needs to load some specific
driver, you didn't indicate which version of Gnu/Linux you
are using. But if you can get a very recent Knoppix Live-CD
it could in fact detect the card. Ubuntu for example
detected my ISA to SCSI card I used in the older PC. So
maybe you'd try this distribution, and your card becomes
plug and PLAY.
YMMW HTH, :-)
>
Dragomir Kollaric
--
This signature is licensed under the GPL and may be
freely distributed as long as a copy of the GPL is included... :-)
John Hasler
> So maybe you'd try this distribution, and your card becomes plug and
> PLAY.
It's better to avoid ISA Pn'P. it never worked reliably: it couldn't (It
was one of Microsoft's brilliant ideas).
--
John Hasler
jo...@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA
Dragomir Kollaric
> Dragomir Kollaric writes:
>> So maybe you'd try this distribution, and your card becomes plug and
>> PLAY.
>
> It's better to avoid ISA Pn'P. it never worked reliably: it couldn't (It
> was one of Microsoft's brilliant ideas).
Yes I remember, I think I used it for about a year or so.
Like I said the memory is foggy, and some certain element of
nostalgia settles down, 'til one remembers why these times
weren't the "good old days" and why I got me a PCI only
board and a new PCI-NIC. But IIRC in my case I never really
had any problems after I got the knowhow to set them up, I
recall compiling kernels for it though. I think it was
another issue causing me to swap the motherboard...
Dragomir -approaching the 9th year anniversary of using Gnu/Linux- Kollaric