Hello!

> Is anyone else using the pcmcia patches in a relatively current
> kernel?

Yes. I use the atapi and pcmcia patches in current on a Toshiba Tecra 500CDT.
My 3Com 3c589C is working without any problems in daily use...

> The problem is that any network activity runs a very high risk of a
> panic in the vm_* code.  I can ftp out and do an ls on the server, but
> the laptop usually panics before the ls listing finishes.

Never had this behaviour - in fact I never saw a panic so far.

> Also pinging out meets with a strange error.  The first ping works
> just fine, the next one gets a message (from memory) "ping: failed to
> clear route cache".  The machine will then usually panic within a
> short time.

Sounds very strange. I get 500-600kb/sec rates over ethernet without any
single problem... I use it daily :)

Greets
      Thorsten