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View Full Version : [ubuntu] ExpressCard 34/54 Port Question

vgrisham
September 12th, 2009, 11:39 AM
I've had my Pangolin for about 4 months now, and I must say I love it. It's fast, quiet, stable.

I am curious about the 34/54 port. I thought it was a PCMCIA slot until I tried to insert a friend's mobile broadband card recently.

What devices do folks commonly use in these ports? How is Linux compatibility with 34/54 cards?
samalex
September 12th, 2009, 02:43 PM
I've had my Pangolin for about 4 months now, and I must say I love it. It's fast, quiet, stable.

I am curious about the 34/54 port. I thought it was a PCMCIA slot until I tried to insert a friend's mobile broadband card recently.

What devices do folks commonly use in these ports? How is Linux compatibility with 34/54 cards?

I'm there with you on the PanP laptop... Mine is about 6 weeks old and it's amazing!

As for the ExpressCard, it seems PCMCIA is considered a legacy technology which for me sucks because I have a box full of PCMCIA cards I've bought over the years. But most of these cards were add-ons that are now standard on most laptops.

Though I haven't bought one yet, my goal is to buy a FireWire ExpressCard soon so I can use my DV Camera which only has Firewire output. As for compatibility, Newegg is pretty good at listing Linux compatibility, and if not the comments will for cards that've been on the market for any length of time.

But I feel your pain about PCMCIA...

Take care --

Sam
vgrisham
September 12th, 2009, 02:53 PM
Thanks for the tip and the reply fellow Texan. Please let me know how the firewire card works out. I'd given up on video editing with my sony camcorder and Kino, but I've read that the compatability issues have been resolved.
thomasaaron
September 14th, 2009, 10:59 AM
Yeah, pcmcia is legacy. However, you can get a pcmcia => express card adapter.

There are a number of things you can use the slot for... firewire, another ethernet nic, internet card, etc...

A tip: You should always find the adapter that you think you might like and then google it to see if it works with Ubuntu. Ubuntu has pretty good support for the express card slot, but somethings are harder to get running than others (like express card wireless adapters).