Unable to boot from flash drive if PCMCIA USB 2.0 card is used in socket 2

[mike_h]

I am working with an elderly Gateway laptop which has two internal USB 1.1 ports and two internal PCMCIA sockets (Texas Instruments PCI-1225 CardBus controllers). I also have a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card (Belkin model F5U222v1) which has two USB 2.0 ports and a PCMCIA Ethernet 10/100 card (Linksys model PCMPC200).

Plop Boot Manager (Version 5.0.12 20110421 PCMCIA) is installed on a floppy disk and it allows me to boot from a flash drive using either of the two internal USB 1.1 ports without a problem.

If Belkin card is installed in PCMCIA socket 1 (lower slot), it also allows me to boot from a flash drive using either of its USB 2.0 ports without a problem.

However, if Belkin card is installed in PCMCIA socket 2 (upper slot), it is still "found" and "USB controller initialized" is displayed three times but process then halts after loading and removing all three drivers and shows message " *** BOOT ERROR ***  NO BOOT DEVICE FOUND " in red. This happens whether Linksys card is installed in socket 1 at the same time or not.

I would like to have both Belkin and Linksys cards installed in PCMCIA sockets at boot time but, due to their mechanical configuration, this is only physically possible if Belkin card is installed in socket 2. Unfortunately, this apparently means that I cannot then boot from a USB flash drive!

Is this just a limitation of the present PCMCIA version of Plop Boot Manager or is there another possible explanation?

[Elmar]

hi,

Is this just a limitation of the present PCMCIA version of Plop Boot Manager or is there another possible explanation?

its no limitation. it looks like its a bug.

regards
elmar

[mike_h]

Elmar,

Thanks for your prompt response.

its no limitation. it looks like its a bug.

I'll work around this for now but will keep checking for an updated version to test on my preferred configuration.

In the meantime, thank you very much for producing such a useful piece of software.

Regards,

Mike

[Compact]

First of all I want to thank Elmar for this wonderfull piece of environment friendly software. For it gives older hardware unknown new chances.

But I've remarked too that my cardbus USB 2.0 card incl. stick only boots from 1 socket.
And if I put together with it a pcmcia cf-card adapter incl. cf-card in the other socket it will not boot at all. I can live with that. But perhaps it's good I mention it too ?

Friendly Greetings, Compact