I have been hackin around for a few hours now trying to read a few pictures from the Compact Flash card in my sandisk card reader . Browsing the forums I see that the ordinairy fix is to: "mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/flash", but this just yields:

[root@imf kamstrup]# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/flash
mount: special device /dev/sda1 does not exist

my /var/log/messages says:
...
Aug 13 15:57:36 imf kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 6
Aug 13 15:57:36 imf kernel: usb.c: USB device 6 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.
Aug 13 15:57:40 imf /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 781/5/5

the last sections of my dmesg is:
...
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-2 address 2
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-2 address 3
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-1, assigned address 4
usb.c: USB device 4 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.
cdrom: open failed.
cdrom: open failed.
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-1 address 4
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 5
usb.c: USB device 5 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.
cdrom: open failed.
cdrom: open failed.
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-2 address 5
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 6
usb.c: USB device 6 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.

As you can see I've plugged and unplugged the sandisk a few times... I have insmod'ed both fat and vfat so these aren't the problems...

By the way Kwikdisk dosn't help much either, usbview detects the drive okay...

I would really appreciate help on this one because I'm trying to convince my girlfriend that linux is the better choice...

I use - mount /dev/sda1 && konqueror /media/sda1

that won't work if /dev/sda1 doesn't exist.
It probably doesn't because it says it has not been installed by a active driver. Is usb_storage loaded?

Yes I did 'modprobe usb-storage', 'insmod fat' and 'insmod vfat' and got the modules loaded allright. It also says: "Initializing USB Mass Storage driver" in the top of my quote from my dmesg (from my first post).

As acid2000 pointed out the big problem is that I don't have/get any /dev/sda1 like every one else seem to have.

I just tried insmod'ing 'fat, 'vfat' and 'usb-storage' incase I missed something last time - but I still don't have any /dev/sda1 (or any /dev/sdaX for that matter). The last part of dmesg is:
...
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.

And from /var/log/messages:
...
Aug 17 21:37:17 imf su(pam_unix)[2045]: session opened for user root by kamstrup(uid=500)
Aug 17 21:37:39 imf kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Aug 17 21:37:39 imf kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
Aug 17 21:37:39 imf kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Aug 17 21:38:36 imf kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 2
Aug 17 21:38:36 imf kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x781/0x5) is not claimed by any active driver.
Aug 17 21:38:40 imf /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 781/5/5


It is definitely something about that the device isn't claimed by any driver... Please help.

Greetings, kamstrup

Go to http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/ and input your 'maker' or 'model' number of your card reader, and the flash disk, and see if both are on the supported hardware list.

Can you take that card to a windows box and make sure you can read the pic's there, if possible? It's always good to know your hardware is functional.

Please post with the results. Thanks.

OUch! I hope this isn't your card reader:
http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=335
But if you've got this one, you're in luck,
http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=607

What's the diff, I can't tell, but upgrading to the latest kernal/modules, might help if you don't make any progress.

On the bottom it says ImageMate SDDR-05, but from the two links you've posted under the SDDR-05b there's a comment that this reader doesn't have any push eject button - an mine doesn't either. Does this mean that mine is actullay a SDDR-5b even though it says SSDR-5 ?

The reader has been tested to work several times on a win98 labtop (with the shipped win-prog's...).

If it's a hardware problem it is most likely my usb-ports but usbview seem to detect them allright.

I'm not gonna say it's not supported, as that's up to the usb driver people. What linux and version are you running, as I said before, upgrading to the latest kernal/modules may help. I too have a piece of equipment showing up in usb-view that doesn't work because usb-view is just showing 'hardware', but you still need a 'valid' driver to make something work.

According to www.sandisk.com, you definately have a SDDR-05b: CompactFlash USB without eject button . I did not find any other thing of value at that site.


Bertrand Maujean posted at linux-usb that he "patched the usb-storage.o file with an hex-editor to fit the device Id and bcc number, because I didnt have the kernel source. (2.2.19 Mandrake 8.0) But the problem is elsewhere. ", and that sounds like a last resort and it didn't work.

If anyone posts that they have a SDDR-05 working or NOT working, please post the exact sandisk model, ejectable or not, version, and ID, such as 0781:0x5 or 0781:0002 , kernal version 'uname -r' .

I'm running Mandrake 9.1 with default kernel 2.4.21-0.13mdk. I thought that the concept of USB was 'no drivers'. Except for one unified for all devices?

That's what the dark side would have you believe, young padawan linux-boy! You are now finding out that is not the case. My USB headphones needed a driver to work in MS windows, so, although Universal Sync Bus (USB), is itself universal, the devices that plug into it, are not.

Returning to the subject I tested my USB ports with a cordless logitech mouse. This got detected and drivers loaded allright but I didn't get it to work even though I spent several hours hacking around my input devices in my XF86Config-4. Atleast now I know that my USB ports are indeed functional.

I will continue trying to get it to work though the solution may lie in another cfreader *sigh*. I will return with results (if nobody posts a solution to the SDDR-05b-problem ).

greetings, kamstrup

I stumbled upon this site googling for "SDDR-05b linux" : http://usbat2.sourceforge.net/index.html seems promising I'm just hoping that I can avoid having to recompile my kernel.

The thing is that SDDR-05b uses a USBAT-02 processor, and this site has a driver for this (and kernel patch for mandrake 9.1) that somebody (named Thomas) wrote without the device specifications (wow).

greetings, kamstrup

YEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's working!!!!! For other SanDisk SDDR-05b users here's what to do:

-- download the the driver usbat-02.20030518.tar.gz from the geniusses at http://usbat2.sourceforge.net/index.html.

-- compile it like instructed. Remove any old usb-storage modules with 'rmmod usb-storage'. Do 'modprobe sd_mod' and 'insmod usb-storage.o' (when standing in the dir of your new compilation).

-- Add appropriate entry in your /etc/fstab, mine was:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/flash auto defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0

-- Plug the cfreader in. IMPORTANT: You must have your flash card in the reader before plugging in!!!! Else it will not work.

This gave me my /dev/sda1 and gnome mounted it automagically and put a "flash" icon on my desktop. Everything works. After a lot of trouble and serious effort the guys at usbat2.sourceforge made it easy. Eurika!

Signing of for now, kamstrup

Amazing, excellent, right-on!
Now, go to the linux-usb site and put that up as a working device and tell them how you did it!!!!

You've probably just helped a whole bunch of people that have that device. Very good!