Macbook Air 2015 Internal SD Card Reader Failure

LinuxEnjoyer · 2022-03-09 01:07:49

I've been distro hopping for 6 months, and I've finally settled with arch.
Install was relatively straightforward with two main hitches, those being the wireless adapter (broadcom) and the Apple SD Card Reader. I fixed the adapter issue in a few minutes, but the SD card will not read. It isn't recognized at boot, or hotplugged. I ran sudo dmesg and found these lines in the output:

[    3.489612] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access     APPLE    SD Card Reader   3.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[    3.490361] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Media removed, stopped polling
[    3.491173] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

I've tried to be as straightforward with the information I've provided, and I apologize if this has already been asked before.
Overall I'm loving Arch, but I really need this working.

Regards

Last edited by LinuxEnjoyer (2022-03-09 01:08:19)

Trilby · 2022-03-10 12:59:14

From what I can find it looks like that should be supported by the usb-storage module provided by the kernel package. First, is this module already loaded? To test:

lsmod | grep usb-storage

If not, will it load successfully:

modprobe usb-storage

If not, what error do you get, if so, does the card reader still fail to function?

LinuxEnjoyer · 2022-03-11 07:47:22

nothing happens when I run lsmod | grep usb-storage though grep is present on the system, and modprobe does nothing.

Trilby · 2022-03-11 12:45:05

"Nothing happens" with the first command means that the module wasn't loaded at the time. "Modprobe does nothing" most likely means it returned you to the prompt without additional information which really means the exact opposite: the command completed successfully and loaded the module. Generrally, if a command fails to even function properly, you'll get an obvious (even if hard to understand) error message (so a grep command providing no output means it succeeded but found no matches - if it weren't event installed, you'd get an error message to that effect). Failing silently is not typically acceptable in linux tools.

So now, confirm the module is loaded (after that modprobe command) by re-running the first command. This time it should give some lines of output back to you. Let us know whether it does or not. If it does, check whether the card reader is then working.

One a side note - and feel free to ignore this if I am misreading - it sounds like you don't understand how command-line tools generally function. If you intend to continue with arch linux, you will be greatly benefitted by learning a bit. The first couple tutorials here should be useful.

Last edited by Trilby (2022-03-11 12:47:09)

LinuxEnjoyer · 2022-03-12 09:53:09

"Nothing Happens" = no error, no reader activity, module appears to be loaded but the reader isn't working.
looked through the modules and didn't see an obvious one specifically for the reader so your guess is as good as mine.

Last edited by LinuxEnjoyer (2022-03-12 11:44:07)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-03-09 01:07:49

Macbook Air 2015 Internal SD Card Reader Failure

#2 2022-03-10 12:59:14

Re: Macbook Air 2015 Internal SD Card Reader Failure

#3 2022-03-11 07:47:22

Re: Macbook Air 2015 Internal SD Card Reader Failure

#4 2022-03-11 12:45:05

Re: Macbook Air 2015 Internal SD Card Reader Failure

#5 2022-03-12 09:53:09

Re: Macbook Air 2015 Internal SD Card Reader Failure

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