Hello, I was faced to the same sort of problem, so I tried to find a way to work with it. Here were my experience and discoveries.
I use debian patched kernel 2.6.6 plus patch for bootsplash from testing distribution. I have a Compaq EVO N800C with integrated Intel eepro100 ethernet adapter seen as eth0 and a Cisco Aironet PCM350 wireless adapter seen as eth1 and wifi0. I just have the following within /etc/network/interface auto lo iface lo inet loopback Nothing else. To solve the problem, I first removed /etc/rc2.d/S20ifplugd. This one always claimed that ifplugd was already started for eth0 Then I looked why this was claimed. For me, with hotplug as implemented within Debian, as the PCI hotplug script discover the integrated eepro100 adapter, it start ifplugd for eth0 via the script /etc/hotplug.d/net/ifplug.hotplug. This last start /etc/init.d/ifplugd for each interface eth* or wlan* or ath*. Depending of the file content of /etc/default/ifplugd, it start or not the script /etc/ifplug/action.d/ifupdown.for this interface. I then modified those two files as follow to limit action precisely the the specified interface. /etc/default/ifplugd INTERFACES="eth0" HOTPLUG_INTERFACES="eth0" /etc/ifplugd/action.d/ifupdown ---strip --- up) /sbin/ifup $1 /sbin/dhclient $1 (added to obtain info from dhcp server) ;; down) /sbin/ifdown $1 /sbin/ifconfig $1 down (added to remove ip address and routing info) ;; ---strip --- This was perfect for the integrated eepro100 interface and have no more action on the wireless interface. To control this one, I installed the debian package waproamd (apt-get install waproamd) from testing. This work nearly the same as ifplugd except, it refers to waproamd. I also removed S20waproamd from /etc/rc2.d. I modified the waproamd files to limit their action to eth1 in this case.. /etc/default/waproamd INTERFACES="eth1" HOTPLUG_INTERFACES="eth1" ARGS=" -w -M" (-M as the eth1 is a PCMCIA adapter, I need to monitor its presence) /etc/waproamd/action.d/ifupdown ---strip --- up) /sbin/ifup $1 /sbin/dhclient $1 (added to obtain info from dhcp server) ;; down) /sbin/ifdown $1 (nothing added, as removing the adapter, remove all infos) ;; ---strip --- After that, I find that with wireless connection, all process were very slow to start. The reason was the delay for the DNS request timeout. I have no DNS domain specified for my system. I solved this by adding my hostname as alias for the localhost in /etc/hosts. One more remark. Within files /etc/default/ifplugd or waproamd, INTERFACES seems not be used. The real important line is HOTPLUG_INTERFACES. This last specify the interface for which the script take an action. I hope those explanation will help you to find a solution. Regards Henri PS: I am on holliday till end augustus. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter A. Cole" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <debian-laptop@lists.debian.org> Sent: Tuesday, 03 August, 2004 13:45 Subject: Re: Hotplug with Netgear WG511 Confusion > Sorry for the top post, but I neglected to mention I'm using kernel-image-2.6.7-1-686. > > Pete > > On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 21:34:37 +1000 > "Peter A. Cole" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > I'm now completely confused by hotplug, pcmcia-cs, and how on earth to get my WG511 up automatically by either plugging it in while my laptop is running or when it is booting if it's already plugged in. > > > > I have successfully gotten my docking station's 3Com card working in this fashion as well as my Xircom 10/100 + 56K modem. > > > > However, all attempts at getting my Netgear WG511 to load automatically have failed. > > > > The only way I can get it to go is manually ifconfig eth0 up, then ifconfig eth0 down, then ifrename to give it the correct logical if name (ethwg5110), then ifconfig ethwg5110 up followed by iwconfig ethwg5110 essid mode enc and then, finally dhclient ethwg5110. > > > > Once I do this, it works like a charm. > > > > I have Googled, read the Debian reference, found what I could in /usr/share/doc, and am now even more confused than I was to begin with... > > > > Anyway, here's what I've done: > > > > Created /etc/iftab and added the following lines (using my real MAC addresses of course which I've triple checked): > > > > eth3com0 mac XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX > > ethxirc0 mac XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX > > ethwg5110 mac XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX > > > > Edited /etc/network/interfaces and made it look like this (once again I've triple checked my essid and key are correct): > > > > mapping hotplug > > script echo > > > > auto lo > > iface lo inet loopback > > > > iface eth3com0 inet dhcp > > > > iface ethxirc0 inet dhcp > > > > iface ethwg5110 inet dhcp > > wireless-essid MY_ESSID > > wireless-mode Managed > > wireless-channel 11 > > wireless-key XXXXXXXXXX > > > > I've also added the following three lines to the top of my /etc/modprobe.d/aliases file: > > > > alias eth3com0 3c59x > > alias ethxirc0 xirc2ps_cs > > alias ethwg5110 prism54 > > > > When I boot with my laptop in the docking station, my 3Com card appears as eth3com0 with a DHCP allocated address. > > > > If I plug in my Xircom card, it appears as ethxirc0 with a DHCP allocated address. > > > > If I plug in my Netgear WG511 card, the modules prism54 and firmware_class get loaded, and that's it. If I run iwconfig, it shows up as eth0, not ethwg5110 as it should do when ifrename has been run. > > > > I also can't seem to find how to enable hotplug logging so I can see what's going on. > > > > This is all on a Dell Latitude CPi (old but works ok) with Debian Sarge. I try to keep Sarge as up to date as I can, and I think my last update was only a day or two ago at the most. > > > > I have the packages "hotplug", "wireless-tools", "ifupdown", "ifrename", and "pcmcia-cs" installed. I tried removing pcmcia-cs in case it was conflicting or something, but all that did was stop the Xircom from working. > > > > Does anyone have any pointers where I can go from here? > > > > Pete > > > > > > -- > > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >