[SOLVED] Mounting micro SD card

AnsemEco · 07-26-2016, 11:04 AM

The Windows I used to partition and format the micro SD card was on a tablet,
therefore it had a native micro SD card slot.
I do remember Ubuntu auto mounting it just fine, but that was on another computer.
And it did use the same SD card adapter.

michaelk · 07-26-2016, 11:20 AM

I am referring to the built in card slot not the adapter. So you do not have a USB reader?

AnsemEco · 07-26-2016, 11:35 AM

Nope, I don't have a USB card reader.

kilgoretrout · 07-26-2016, 04:02 PM

The only thing I would suggest at this point is to give the gparted or other livecd a try and see if the your card reader will work with a different kernel. If it does, that would isolate the issue to a regression in the card reader driver module in the Arch kernel. You can also try and identify manufacturer and model of your card reader and google that to see if there is some workaround. I assume the card reader is on the pci bus so you should be able to precisely identify it by examining the output of:

Code:

$ lscpi

RockDoctor · 07-28-2016, 03:15 PM

If the card is partitioned, you need to mount each partition, not the card. Try mounting /dev/mmcblk0px where x is the partition number

AnsemEco · 08-01-2016, 04:55 AM

I apologize for making this thread seem dead, but it took me some time to test out live CDs of other distros.
Conclusion:
Linux Mint 18: Exact same problem. Cannot view partitions on the micro SD card, just the device itself.
lsblk prints out the exact same output as Arch. (superblock issues)

Ubuntu 16.04 : The problem persisted but strangely a single partition is seen under the device (lsblk).
Though superblock issues incurred and the partition is unmountable.

RockDoctor as previously noted the partitions were only visible on windows, Linux distros showed only the device (with the weird exception of Ubuntu)

Emerson · 08-01-2016, 06:28 AM

This is some sort of hardware limitation, I'd think your card reader is not capable of reading greater than 4 GB cards. Or it may have something to do with adapter. I have a USB card reader here, it reads 4 GB micro SD cards using adapter just fine, but fails to read 32 GB card. It also has micro SD slot, 32 GB card works OK there.

AnsemEco · 08-01-2016, 10:53 AM

Emerson, I do think that maybe the case; though I hope it isn't. Do you have any idea on how to confirm that?

pan64 · 08-03-2016, 10:42 AM

The usual process is: to check another reader, check another os, check another card, another cable, whatever you have (digital camera, laptops, even my monitor has an sd card reader), so you may find a solution.
By the way what kind of hardware is it?
you may try to use the udevadm tool to check this device (see udevadm monitor for example)

AnsemEco · 08-03-2016, 12:05 PM

The following are the reported kernel and udev events when inserting then removing the 8GB micro SD card

Code:

KERNEL[256.693640] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002 (mmc)
KERNEL[256.723813] add      /module/mmc_block (module)
KERNEL[256.724218] add      /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
UDEV  [256.724686] add      /module/mmc_block (module)
UDEV  [256.725135] add      /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
KERNEL[256.997629] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002/block/mmcblk0 (block)
KERNEL[256.997675] add      /bus/mmc/drivers/mmcblk (drivers)
UDEV  [256.998000] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002 (mmc)
UDEV  [256.998323] add      /bus/mmc/drivers/mmcblk (drivers)
UDEV  [257.263517] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002/block/mmcblk0 (block)
KERNEL[307.891037] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002/block/mmcblk0 (block)
UDEV  [307.892584] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002/block/mmcblk0 (block)
KERNEL[307.903714] remove   /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
UDEV  [307.904947] remove   /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
KERNEL[307.937003] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002 (mmc)
UDEV  [307.938297] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0002 (mmc)

This one is for the 4GB micro SD card (the one without issues)

Code:

KERNEL[362.805923] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57 (mmc)
KERNEL[362.806208] add      /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
UDEV  [362.807717] add      /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
UDEV  [362.808143] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57 (mmc)
KERNEL[362.808248] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0 (block)
KERNEL[362.808346] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p1 (block)
KERNEL[362.808436] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p2 (block)
UDEV  [362.877778] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0 (block)
UDEV  [362.965901] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p2 (block)
UDEV  [362.991530] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p1 (block)
KERNEL[395.171330] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p2 (block)
KERNEL[395.171419] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p1 (block)
KERNEL[395.171467] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0 (block)
UDEV  [395.173053] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p2 (block)
UDEV  [395.173890] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0/mmcblk0p1 (block)
UDEV  [395.174315] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57/block/mmcblk0 (block)
KERNEL[395.183560] remove   /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
UDEV  [395.184333] remove   /devices/virtual/bdi/179:0 (bdi)
KERNEL[395.213559] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57 (mmc)
UDEV  [395.214563] remove   /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.3/0000:03:00.0/rtsx_pci_sdmmc.0/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:3f57 (mmc)

I noticed they're substantially different.
BTW the hardware is my laptop.
I'm going to try a USB adapter on the micro SD card. Might uncover limitations on my hardware/OS.

blue_z · 08-03-2016, 01:12 PM

RockDoctor hinted at your original issue.
The SDcard has to be partitioned, and you can only mount the partition, not the entire device.

Older (or cheaper) SDcard readers will have issues reading (newer) high speed and/or higher capacity media.
The readers are not forward compatible with newer standards (for transfer speed and capacity), so you have to learn the limitations of the SDcard reader that you use.

You have only described the various SDcards that you use in terms of capacity.
The transfer speed is another salient attribute that has to be considered.

Regards

AnsemEco · 08-03-2016, 01:53 PM

blue_z, I totally agree with the fact that you can't mount a device but a partition. But the issue here is that I can't format it as well.
The SuperBlock cannot be read properly.

The micro SD cards I'm using aren't anything too recent nor special. The kind you'd get if you bought a raspberrypi and got an offer on a NOOB SD card.
The laptop I'm using is quite recent.(I would believe the card reader is too).

jpollard · 08-03-2016, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnsemEco

blue_z, I totally agree with the fact that you can't mount a device but a partition. But the issue here is that I can't format it as well.
The SuperBlock cannot be read properly.

The micro SD cards I'm using aren't anything too recent nor special. The kind you'd get if you bought a raspberrypi and got an offer on a NOOB SD card.
The laptop I'm using is quite recent.(I would believe the card reader is too).

That doesn't prevent hardware failure. Now, as to which hardware, that is hard to tell. If the SD card works elsewhere, I would believe the reader on the laptop.

RockDoctor · 08-04-2016, 09:20 AM

I guess I'd go for the brute-force approach at this time.

Plug in the 8GB card

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=8M count=1

Re-insert the card
Attempt to format using one of gparted, cfdisk, fdisk, etc...

Emerson · 08-04-2016, 09:34 AM

I just tried with two different adapters. One came with 8 GB micro SD card. It does not work with 32 GB card, but works with 8 GB card! The adapter that came with 32 GB card works with all micro SD cards I have. Go figure, I was thinking the adapter is a simple thing ...