Hi,
I need to read from a CompactFlash card in an external card reader. I have been trying to followig the instructions found in another thread, but even though the device appears in the list of devices, it fails to be mounted. the messagge says something like "wrog block mount". I have also tryied with a differt device, replacing the multicard reader with a pendrive, but the outcome is the same. I quote here the instructions I followed:

"
Forum: Linux - Hardware
Thread: how to cofigure USB flash drive?
wrangler Hi,
Can anyone give pointers or links which explain how to configure portable usb flash drives. I have mandrake 10.1

thanks,
Sen
db391 If you mean getting them to work, that means adding a line to your /etc/fstab:

Also mkdir /mnt/usb and KDE (or gnome) will add the USB (sda1) to the devices.
wrangler thanks for that but in: /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb1 vfat user,noauto,rw,sync,noexec 0 0 should it be sda1 or ...
rpz I have no experience of flash drives in Mandrake, but in Fedora, the drives appear under /dev/sdaN, where N is not constant (for example, right now my USB drive is /dev/sda4). I prefer to use hald to automount them when plugged in (they pop up on the desktop just like in winxp/osx). This daemon takes care of all the hassle with fstab lines. This is default in Fedora, in mandrake you might have to install it yourself.
LJSBrokken Anyone any idea why some flash drives work well, while others seem not to be recognised?
fstab line isCheers, Leon.
[edit] Running Slack current, kernel 2.4.29
"

As anybody a clue to fix it?

Enrico

I'm not trying to nag or be rude, but the exact error message is critical because there are many deviations of "wrong block" when it comes to mounting devices. It is even possible that you need to reconfigure your kernel with "Codepage 437 (United States, Canada)" and "NLS ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1: Western European Languages)" support, as described in the Gentoo Wiki about mounting USB devices.

Are you able to mount the device with the simple command (as root)

Thank you very much for your reply.

[The error message was: mount/dev/sda1 in not a valid block device]

Anyway I have got a partial victory:
I have successfully monted the drive not using your instructions, but throught the commandline, but this is only a partical victory since I wish to see the content of a compactflash card in a multicard reader and this doen't work. It works with my pendrive only. Do you have any clue how to fix it with the multicard reader. The model is Trust 725 usb 2 card reader/writer pro.

TI quote from the commmand line: [
root@localhost mnt]# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device
[root@localhost mnt]# mount /dev/sda /mnt/usb
[root@localhost mnt]# mount /dev/sda /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/sda already mounted or /mnt/usb busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sda is already mounted on /mnt/usb
]

Note that sda1 doesn't work, sda works (in the hardware list I also see sda, sdb, sdc sdd, according to 4 drive in the multicard reader when it is connected to the computer, only sda appears when the pendrive isconnected)

And this is the commandline when I try to read from the multicard reader, a compactflash card should be in the sda drive:

[
[root@localhost mnt]# mount /dev/sda /mnt/usb
mount: special device /dev/sda does not exist
[root@localhost mnt]#
]

The last few lines of fstab file now appears like this:

[
fstab
dev/hda2 /mnt/win_f ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,ro 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda7 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/removable auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,exec,users 0 0
]


Do you have any clue on how to make the card reader work?

Thank you
regards

Enrico

Initialy, I am curious about one thing: Did you unmount the previous USB drive before putting the card reader in?

If they are both permanently attached, they won't both exist on sda. You said that you have sda, sdb, sdc, and sdd; sda would be the drive you successfully mounted. sdb would be what you have in your fstab under /mnt/removable, I don't know what sdc or sdd are. The output of as root could be of some help here, it lists the current devices attached to your computer that can be mounted. I'm guessing that either you didn't unmount with or that they are both attached at the same time and the card reader is on a different SCSI device (sd?).

Sorry for opening similarly titled thread in two different categories, I wasn't sure about the right category. I know now this is not allowed.

When I connect the pendrive, sda appears in the hardware list, by conctrast, when I do attach the card reader, sda, sdb, sdc, and sdd appear in the hardware list instead.
Likewise in windows xp, when I do attach the pendrive, letter I is assigned, while if connect the card reader instead, letters K, L, M and N are assigned to the corresponding card slots for different memory card types accepted by the card reader. The content of compactflash cards is available in letter K.

I have also tried to mount sdb, then sdc and sdd, the error message is no media present, but If I put an SD card in its slot, it is not read anyway.

Regards