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PCI / PCMCIA linkage - the update



Here is some interesting info for anyone who followed this thread last 
week. As you may recall, I have a Toshiba Satellite 105CS notebook with two 
PCMCIA slots. When I compiled a kernel without PCI support, the PCMCIA on 
the notebook would die in flames.

I had assumed that this notebook had no PCI bus, because in all of the 
manufacturer's literature there was no mention of a PCI bus. I made the 
assumption that Toshiba would tend to mention whether or not the unit had a 
PCI bus; but upon reading the literature, I found no mention of either ISA 
or PCI busses. So from the manufacturer's literature, you cannot deduce the 
presence or absence of either type of bus.

My assumption of no PCI bus was (I felt) confirmed by the Linux kernel boot 
messages which said, simply: PCI: No PCI bus detected (or something like 
this). Seems pretty straightforward.

At this point in time, I think it is safe to say that PCMCIA support does 
not work in any fashion on my Toshiba without PCI support compiled into my 
kernel, and that PCMCIA is not inherently linked to PCI in the Linux 
kernel, as the kernel will (apparently) support ISA PCMCIA controllers, 
with no PCI support available. I would like some verification of this.

So my current conclusions are three:

1) My Toshiba notebook has a PCI bus, upon which resides my PCMCIA controller.
2) The Linux kernel is incapable of detecting my Toshiba's PCI bus
3) The Linux kernel's ability to detect the PCI bus in my case is not 
interfering with the kernel's ability to support a PCMCIA controller on 
that bus.

I can't say that I really like any of these conclusions, especially #2 & 
#3. Anyone have a better answer or answers?