pcmcia - do I need it?

[Shango Oluwa]

Just 'cd' to /etc/rc2.d and there you will find a link referring to the
PCMCIA start-up script (which is actually located in /etc/init.d)

The solution you seek is to rename the link to something else than
'S##pcmcia' (the hashes represent a number which I'm not sure what it
is). You can easily do this with the 'mv' command: 

mv /etc/rc2.d/S##pcmcia /etc/rc2.d/disabled_S##pcmcia

Now, at system startup, PCMCIA will not load, because 'init' only starts
links beginning with "S". 

Obviously, replace the hashes with whatever number is relevant. It is
common practice to add a prefix (e.g. "disabled_") rather than deleting
the link - this way you'll know what it is when you find it months or
years later!

Your conclusion that your desktop does not need to run the PCMCIA daemon
is correct - I'm sure that your desktop system has no PCMCIA/CardBus
slots, hence the PCMCIA daemon will only consume (negligible) CPU time.

Minding the caution below, go to each "rc#.d" directory in /etc and
rename the link to the pcmcia startup script. You can use the 'mv'
command outlined above - just be careful to replace "rc2.d" your current
working directory's appropriate number (e.g. rc4.d , rc5.d , etc). This
is not an elegant or efficient solution but is a good way for you to
explore those directories and get a feel for their content.

!!NB!! You should *not* rename the links in rc0.d and rc6.d

(Some google'ing about runlevels will let you understand why.)  

Regards,
Shango Oluwa


On Sat, 2004-11-20 at 10:02 -0500, David M. Carney wrote:
> WITHOUT getting into the whole discussion of the proper way to disable
> initscripts again, I too get the PCMCIA error at boot time.
> 
> My computer is a desktop and it (to my limited knowledge) it does not
> use PCMCIA, which to my understanding is mainly for laptops.
> 
> Is there some way to remove a package to keep it from loading?
> 
> David
> 
> -- 
> Registered Linux User #297958
> 
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