Linux 7.1 is removing some obsolete PCMCIA drivers that likely haven't been used in years
Posted by somerandomxander@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 57 comments
Wheatleytron@reddit
Except for that one guy running some sort of critical infrastructure in his basement.
snail1132@reddit
He's probably still on 2.6, anyway
sob727@reddit
2.6.19-ac3
cjc4096@reddit
Why is that SO very familiar.
Neither-Phone-7264@reddit
alan cox thingies i think
crackez@reddit
I pulled out the old alancox.gif that used to ship on old school redhat cd's and made that the user avatar for the automation user in Git at work.
Dwedit@reddit
No idea what used that exact version. Web search says Knoppix 5.1 used 2.6.19, but not -ac3.
jdefr@reddit
Anyone remember back in the day using ndiswrapper to get your pcmcia wireless NIC to work on Linux?
silencer_ar@reddit
ndiswrapper! thank you for the memories!
metajames@reddit
Orinoco Gold FTW
jdefr@reddit
Ah! A man of culture!
markus40@reddit
Yes, magical and a lifesaver back in the day.
edparadox@reddit
Yup.
McGuirk808@reddit
I had to go the broadcom fwcutter route for my pci card.
carl2187@reddit
Ah yes. One of the first major 'f yea' moments in linux for me once I got it to work. Wireless B. Ah the good ol' days.
kill-69@reddit
I do. Hell I have a token ring pcmcia somewhere
Hanzerik307@reddit
Yep
Dwedit@reddit
People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
BradGunnerSGT@reddit
That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!
computer-machine@reddit
This guy references Seinfeld!
See, nobody cares.
techma2019@reddit
Poor Dodgson. I care!
Linux_Account@reddit
iswydt
Neither-Phone-7264@reddit
crazy how thats already 20 30 ish years ago
pixelbart@reddit
PC Manufacturers Can’t Invent Acronyms
commodore512@reddit
Personal Computers Make Central Intelligence Agency
TempleOS.iso
DonaldLucas@reddit
🤣
nshire@reddit
I only know it because it's in the A+ material.
Dwedit@reddit
When I did A+, Windows XP was new.
Majorin_Melone@reddit
Nooo, i just used pcmcia on linux a few days ago
Neither-Phone-7264@reddit
on 7.0?
/gen not trying to be snarky
Tall-Introduction414@reddit
I still use pcmcia cards in DOS. And Linux, but mainly for interfacing with CF cards for transferring files to vintage computers.
MaybeTheDoctor@reddit
Sooooo … what do you do using DOS?
Tall-Introduction414@reddit
Play old games. Write assembly code (it's a great way to learn). Access BBSs and Gopher sites. Study and peek and poke at the hardware (not much OS to get in the way. RAM, ROMs, IO ports, are all accessed directly), and learn about computer architecture. Learn to write hardware drivers. Generally play with interesting old software. Recreate my childhood computer. Get the nostalgia feels.
yolobastard1337@reddit
Wait, BBSes and Gopher still exist?
Tall-Introduction414@reddit
Yes!
Floodgap gopher index (links to other gopher servers)
Gopher proxy
Active telnet BBSs (telnet BBS guide)
There are even dialup BBSs still, which can be accessed by connecting a modem to a VOIP gateway with audio compression disabled.
amarao_san@reddit
Actually, I start wonder if we should go back to gopher. Looks nice.
MaybeTheDoctor@reddit
Nice - got it.
There are some great bare metal os’es like zephyr and free rtos that gives you access to low level hardware architectures. They are used in hobbyist iot projects, just in case you feel like checking out newer architectures use can actually use for new projects.
1linguini1@reddit
And NuttX if you like POSIX!
MaybeTheDoctor@reddit
TIL, didn’t know about nuttx
Dwedit@reddit
Tried out HXDOS yet? It can run the command line version of 7-zip even in MS-DOS 5.0. (I only tested the 7za version)
litterally_who6354@reddit
WAKE UP SHEEPLE, FIREWIRE WILL BE NEXT
YOU'LL TAKE MY FIREWIRE FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS
NoonDread@reddit
Wow, I remember PCMCIA.
Does anyone know how long it's been since a new computer even offered PCMCIA?
Dwedit@reddit
ExpressCard was the successor to PCMCIA, but the last ExpressCard system I ever personally used was on an Arrandale (first generation of i3/i5/i7) laptop.
USB was good enough for most tasks, so there was less need to have a slot to insert actual cards. If I had to guess a successor to things like Expresscard, it would probably be Thunderbolt or OCuLink.
Darth_bunny@reddit
I remember people joking that the acronym comes from People Can’t Memorise Computer Industry Acronyms
k-phi@reddit
My oldest laptop had only CardBus, not PCMCIA.
And it was, like, 20 years ago.
computer-machine@reddit
I'm going to be getting my 2006 IBM ThinkPad back soon, which has slots (and adapters) for PCMCIA and SmartCard.
NoonDread@reddit
Wow. How you owned it since new?
nicksterling@reddit
I remember Dell releasing the Latitude E6400 in the 2009/2010 timeframe with PCMCIA. I think that was one of the last major releases.
Source: I had one.
creeper6530@reddit
Anyone running hardware old enough to need this isn't running anything younger than 4.0 anyway
mmmboppe@reddit
how do they know they haven't been used
Dwedit@reddit
Usually, an operating system vendor would do telemetry collection to figure out something like that, but this time, no telemetry was needed to answer that.
The driver had a null-pointer derefence for a long time. You'd get a kernel oops or possibly a kernel panic if you attempted to use the driver. If nobody was reporting a kernel oops/panic, then it probably wasn't being used by very many people.
k-phi@reddit
They don't. Because Linux doesn't have telemetry (which is good)
DehydratedButTired@reddit
Nooooo, how will I ever use my pristine collection of wireless B cards!
IntenseWiggling@reddit
Hey I used a wg111t pcmcia wifi card, on a Toshiba tecra 510cdt. Had to use the pain in the ass ndiswrapper until the chipset kernel driver for it was working.
Crazy-Tangelo-1673@reddit
Damn it what am I gonna do now
snail1132@reddit
The enshittification of the linux kernel is upon us /s
julioqc@reddit
and nothing of value was lost