Arch Linux

ralvy

Member

From: Santa Monica, California

Registered: 2004-12-06

Posts: 275

Memory Card Reader problems

I have seen this problem for a long time on Arch. This was occuring when I used an external SCSI memory card reader, and now I notice the same thing with my new linux box which has an internal 15-in-1 card reader connect to the USB card. It goes like this ...

When I insert the card, my KDE desktop fails to notice it. When I open a terminal and run dmesg, nothing relevant shows up. When I attempt to mount the device, I'm told it doesn't exist. After some passage of time, it will still fail, unless I do a fdisk on that device to see if fdisk sees it. Sometimes it takes a few fdisks to find it, but eventually it seems to find it. At that point I can mount the device. But one thing that has been true in the past as well as the present ... I must issue a fdisk command for that device (and then exit fdisk) before Arch Linux ever sees the device. This has been true since 0.6x Arch, and now true of 0.72 Arch, on two different boxes and with two different card readers.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Memory Card Reader problems

I've been having the same problem with a many-in-one usb card reader. Not sure what's up.

Kern

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2005-02-09

Posts: 464

Re: Memory Card Reader problems

i had this prob ages ago. was even convinced it was some physical slots that were broke, (rear slots worked fronts didnt )or one particular cardreader (gtech 21-in-1) as it glitched under windows too.

at some point tho, in Arch anyways, the problem went away, and i think now it was more to do with modules and confs and it got solved more by tinkering than knowing what was what definitively. we live and learn

maybe try as su - root  lsmod |grep usb

my reply is
[root@localhost ~]# lsmod |grep usb
usb_storage            78656  0
usbhid                 47392  0
usbserial              29260  0
usbcore               116256  7 ohci_hcd,usb_storage,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd,usbserial

ide_core              116940  29

usb_storage,ide_scsi,ide_floppy,ide_cd,ide_disk,via82cxxx,trm290,
triflex,slc90e66,sis5513,siimage,serverworks,
sc1200,rz1000,piix,pdc202xx_old,pdc202xx_new,ns87415,
it821x,hpt366,hpt34x,generic,cy82c693,cs5530,cmd64x,atiixp,
amd74xx,alim15x3,aec62xx

(ide_core line reformatted so page isnt a mile wide.)

also, check in rc.conf MODULES for usbserial and if theres a ! in front of it, remove it.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Memory Card Reader problems

I can mount media inserted into the reader, but i have to fdisk the /dev/sd[a-z] first before the /dev/sd[a-z][1-10] shows up. I was hoping it would just work like my usb flash drive and upon insertion, device nodes would be created. This would make it easier to write udev rules for the slots.

ralvy

Member

From: Santa Monica, California

Registered: 2004-12-06

Posts: 275

Re: Memory Card Reader problems

I can mount media inserted into the reader, but i have to fdisk the /dev/sd[a-z] first before the /dev/sd[a-z][1-10] shows up. I was hoping it would just work like my usb flash drive and upon insertion, device nodes would be created. This would make it easier to write udev rules for the slots.

That's exactly what I have always had to do with Arch, since 0.6x. But with, say, Mepis 6 Beta 3, I can simply insert the card and see KDE call it up on the screen.

ralvy

Member

From: Santa Monica, California

Registered: 2004-12-06

Posts: 275

Re: Memory Card Reader problems

Given that Mepis 6 Beta 3 is configured out of the box so that inserting an SD card into my multicard reader results in the card being instantly recognized by the KDE desktop, I decided to look into some of the udev rules files Mepis has. I notice one that seems relevant here:

90-modprobe.rules

The section in that file that seems relevant is this:

# Load SCSI class modules based on the device class
SUBSYSTEM!="scsi_device", GOTO="scsi_device_end"
SYSFS{type}=="0|7|14",           RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -Qba sd_mod"
SYSFS{type}=="1",                RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -Qba st"
SYSFS{type}=="[345]",            RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -Qba sr_mod"
RUN+="/sbin/modprobe -Qba sg"
LABEL="scsi_device_end"

I'm wondering what would happen if I created such a file with that single section in it, and placed it in my /etc/udev/rules.d folder.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Memory Card Reader problems

I suppose you could try it if you felt brave enough.