How to get card reader up without the card in it?

leiavoia · 12-25-2004, 07:30 PM

I have my USB card reader working just fine right now. it mounts and unmounts and has no problems EXCEPT that when i reboot the system without the card in it (it stays in the camera when not in use) the system does no pick it up as a file system, so it doesn't add /dev/sda1 to the list of devices. When i try to mount it, it of course says that device "sda1" does not exist. When i plug a card in the reader, it does nothing.

Question: How can i get sda1 to show up when the computer boots and there is no card in the reader?

The only way i can do it is to unplug the card reader and plug it into some other USB slot. That works but it's cumbersome. Any solutions would be very appreciated.

Thanks guys!

jacks4u · 12-26-2004, 02:08 AM

It sounds like you need to add the kernel modules for usb storage or scsi to /etc/modules or /etc/modules.conf.

If the kernel does not have the required modules loaded, then it often will not recognise that a particular module is needed, and you will get the kind of errors that you are seeing.

here is a list of my /etc/modules - I have a zip100 usb drive, and a usb printer with scanner and card reader built in. all of these work 'on demand'

Code:

usb-uhci
input
usbkbd
keybdev
eepro100
es1371
parport_pc
mousedev
usb-storage
printer

NOTE: some of these modules may not be needed in your installation

enjoy!
jacks4u

leiavoia · 12-26-2004, 03:54 PM

nope, i've got all the required modules installed. It's just that if a CF card isn't physically in the plugged-in card reader when the machine boots up, it won't open the card reader as a device. As soon as i put a card in and then re-plug the reader into a different USB slot, the hotplug loads it up just fine.

Again, it's not a life-threatening situation, it's just a slight nuisance.

Thanks for any additional help.

sls · 12-26-2004, 04:27 PM

Hi

You can add the following line to /etc/fstab

/dev/sda1 /media/compactflash vfat rw,user,noauto 0 0

Then create the folder compactflash in /media

sls

elfoozo · 12-26-2004, 05:41 PM

leiavoia:

My situation is similar... I leave my USB cable plugged into the back of the PC and disconnect the card reader from my desk end of the cable. After I boot up - there's no /dev/sda1.

Then I put the card into the reader and plug both into my cable that's already in the PC, /dev/sda1 is dynamically created by devfs and I can then mount it.

I don't have to move the USB to another port and I don't have to reboot.