In the process of collecting additional supporting data, I have stumbled upon the problem. As mentioned earlier, there are two laptops involved here. One runs Etch (kernel 2.6.18) and the other runs Lenny (kernel 2.6.26). The Compaq Netelligent 10/100 PC Card adapter works in the Etch machine and fails in the Lenny machine. I concluded therefore that something must have changed in the driver (xirc2ps_cs) between Etch and Lenny that caused it to fail. Well, there are differences in the driver between the two releases. But that's not the problem. The problem turns out to be the Ethernet cable / dongle connection.
The cable that runs to the Etch machine uses an older style of connector. The cable that runs to the Lenny machine uses a newer style of connector. The cable that runs to the Lenny machine has a flexible plastic sheath around the back of the hard plastic snap clip. It is intended to protect the hard plastic snap clip. In particular it is intended to keep the hard plastic snap clip from snagging on something and breaking off when the cable is being pulled out from under the floor, or otherwise being treated roughly. The cable that runs to the Etch machine does not have this protective plastic sheath. As it turns out, the newer style of connector with the protective plastic sheath does not mate securely with the RJ-45 connector in the short patch cable, sometimes called a dongle, that transitions from the miniature connector on the edge of the credit card adapter to a standard RJ-45 connector, into which the Ethernet cable is plugged. There is nothing wrong with the card. There is nothing wrong with the patch cable (dongle). There is nothing wrong with the Ethernet cable. But the patch cable (dongle) does not mate properly with that kind of Ethernet cable. Substituting a different Ethernet cable with the older style of connector (no protective plastic sheath) solved the problem. In other words, it's a hardware problem, not a software problem. Sorry to bother you. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
