Datasheet

“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 334 — #360
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SCSI and IDE
The corresponding driver module is loaded by the card manager or hot-
plug. When a SCSI or IDE card is inserted, the devices connected to it
are available. The device names are detected dynamically. Information
about existing SCSI or IDE devices can be found in /proc/scsi/ or
/proc/ide/.
External hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and similar devices must be
switched on before the PCMCIA card is inserted into the slot. Use active
termination for SCSI devices.
Caution
Removing IDE or SCSI Cards
If you intend to remove a SCSI or IDE card, properly unmount
all partions on these devices. Otherwise you would not be able to
access these devices after a reboot of the system.
Caution
You can also install Linux entirely on external hard drives. However, the
boot process is a bit more complicated. You will always need a boot disk
containing the kernel and an initial RAM disk (initrd). More information
about this can be found in Section 10.3 on page 251.
The initrd contains a virtual file system that includes all required PCMCIA
modules and programs. The boot disk (rather, the boot disk image) is de-
signed in a similar fashion. Using these, you could always boot your exter-
nal installation. It is, however, tiresome to load the PCMCIA support every
time by hand. Advanced Linux users can create a customized boot disk for
their own system. For more information about this topic refer to the PCM-
CIA HOWTO, section Booting from a PCMCIA Device.
16.1.4 Troubleshooting
Most problems arising with certain laptops or cards using PCMCIA can be
solved with little trouble provided you approach the problem systemati-
cally.
334 16.1. PCMCIA