However, Thunderhawk Alpha <seafire@ix.netcom.com> did post some useful hints
about compile options for the PCMCIA package (which are no longer needed in
version 2.8.22).
Finally finding some time to investigate it, I build insmod with a -g and
ran it under GDB. It turned out that the very first call to
bfd_make_empty_symbol() inside the loop is returned a NULL pointer. I
checked that the argument to the function (abfd) wasn't NULL, but I didn't
know whether it actually pointed to reasonable stuff. I didn't relish the
thought of building binutils from scratch to step through libbfd. I don't
think I have enough disk space to do it.
Before I posted another plea for help, I happened to do an RPM file query
on /usr/include/bfd.h, and to my surprise found that it came from two
different packages: binutils-2.6-4 and libcaxp-include-0.43-1. An RPM verify
showed they were different, and that the installed file matched the latter.
So I replaced bfd.h with the version from binutils, rebuild insmod, and lo
and behold, everything works.
Conclusion: the Red Hat 3.0.3 binary RPMs for the modules package (both the
original and the one from the updates directory) are broken, as they were
built against the wrong bfd.h!
Now PCMCIA is running fine and my Megahertz CC3288 and XJ2288 are recognized.
(I'm not sure they're fully operational because I don't have a POTS line in
this room at the moment).
The modem part of my IBM Home and Away combo modem/ethernet card also is
recognized. The ethernet part fails to load pcnet_cs.o.
My New Media Bus Toaster SCSI card fails to load aha152x_cs.o.
Maybe I'll have time to look into those, but at this point I'm fairly happy
to have even just the modem cards going. Does the regular Adaptec 152x driver
work on Alphas for the plain ISA cards? Any suggestions on how to fix up
drivers that work on Intel machines but not on Alpha?
One of my UDBs is acting as my web and FTP server (and eventually email if
I can ever figure out how the ^%$@ to make sendmail work). I would like to
use the SCSI card with it in order to periodically hook up an HP C1533A tape
drive for backups without having to shut down the machine.
Cheers,
Eric