PCCARD(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 PCCARD(4) — the Kernel Interfaces Manual, but make it cute 💖

okay so bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about pccard — the PC Card bus driver — from the Kernel Interfaces Manual. yes, THAT manual. the one with the vibe. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

pccard — the PC Card bus driver, periodt. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

device pccard

that's it. that's the whole summoning ritual. iconic. 🫶

💀 DEPRECATION NOTICE 💀

okay so not me having to deliver bad news first 😭 — this driver is scheduled for removal prior to the release of FreeBSD 13.0.

so like… it's giving "limited time only." enjoy it while it lasts, bestie. 💀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the pccard driver is the one that implements the PC Card bus. that's its whole main character job. ✨

and it doesn't play favorites — the pccard driver supports all PC Card bridges in the system. all of them. every single one. no gatekeeping. 👑

⭐ TUNABLES ⭐

the driver supports these tunable parameters, which you can either add to /boot/loader.conf or set via the sysctl(8) command. pick your fighter. 🥊

  • hw.pccard.debug — non-zero values make it print more verbose information when a 16-bit PC Card gets inserted or removed. so basically it starts yapping (affectionate). 🗣️
  • hw.pccard.cis_debug — a non-zero value makes the CIS parsing of the 16-bit PC Card much more verbose, and it'll include a complete CIS dump. it's giving full lore drop. 📜

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /dev/pccard0.cis — this is an exclusive-use device, and it will report all the CIS chains present in a PC Card, but only if a 16-bit PC Card is inserted in the slot. lowkey conditional of it. 🙈

only one user at a time may access the CIS. sharing is NOT caring here, sorry. 🚫

the CIS is presented as the relevant byte stream from the PC Card. and here's the tea:

  • for CIS tuples in Attribute Memory (which is the default), only the even locations are presented — because the ODD locations are undefined per the standard. not us making the rules. 📏
  • for CIS tuples in Common Memory, every byte is presented to the user. full transparency, literally. 💯

the decoding of the CIS tuples is done via a userland program — so that's on you, bestie, we just hand you the bytes. 🫴

and all tuples are presented to the user. no secrets. no withholding. we're an open book. 📖

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

also, the PC Card Standard, Release 8. the source material. the blueprint. the moment. 📚✨

🌈 a lil sign-off 🌈

this page came to you from Debian, dated August 18, 2020 — and that's on PCCARD(4), the Kernel Interfaces Manual. slay, stay hydrated, and don't forget your driver's getting removed before FreeBSD 13.0 💖🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from