Problem with SDHC card on Acer Aspire One with ArchLinux

CedricAA1 · 02-24-2009, 10:05 AM

Ok, here's my very weird problem :

I'm running ArchLinux with kernel 2.6.28 with all the latests updates and I've followed everything I could find on the Arch wiki ( http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_Aspire_One ).

Unfortunatly, my left SDHC card reader does not work with my A-Data 8GB card. The thing is, if I boot Live using Fedora, Linpus or even using Arch on a usb drive, then it works :S

When I plug it in and run "dmesg | tail", I get

mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card

and no entry in /dev/ is created (normally it creates /dev/mmcblk0).

If I use any other SD card, then it work. Also, if I use my card in somebody else's laptop, it works. Using the right SD card reader results in the exact same behaviour.

Since the Aspire One's SSD is only 8GB, I kinda need that SD card to work ...

btw, forgot to mention, I've tried reformating in many different ways (e.g. : ext2, fat16, fat32, xfs) and still no results.

Anybody got an idea ?
Ced

farslayer · 03-02-2009, 10:01 PM

Do you have the right BIOS version on the AAO ? the info below is from the Ubuntu AAO wiki

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne

Quote:

# Card Readers, BIOS 3109 [ Work out of the box, but write errors after suspend and on SDHC cards]
# Card Readers, BIOS 3305 [ Pre 2.6.27.7: Only right card reader works after setpci described above; see below for SDHC support]
# Card Readers, BIOS 3305 [ 2.6.27.7: Both card readers work again after setpci described above; see below for SDHC support; The insertion of cards is automatically detected.]
# Remark 1: Support for SDHC cards can be enabled with BIOS 3305 and 3309 for kernel 2.6.27 and 2.6.28 via a module parameter. Add "options sdhci debug_quirks=1" (without double quotes) as seperate line to a new file in directory "/etc/modprobe.d" so that the "sdhci" kernel module loads with this module parameter.
# Remark 2: The kernel module "pciehp" is necessary with BIOS 3309 for kernel 2.6.27 and 2.6.28 to enable automatic card detection in the right card reader. Add "options pciehp pciehp_force=1" (without double quotes) as seperate line to a new file in directory "/etc/modprobe.d". The "setpci" command is no longer required with these BIOS and kernel versions.

#Conclusion: The card readers are fully supported with BIOS 3309 and kernel >=2.6.27. Two module parameters are required therefore.

CedricAA1 · 03-09-2009, 09:41 AM

I had the right bios, and I was kinda tired of searching for a solution. Eventually I did a pacman -Syu and it updated all sorts of packages (including xfce 4.4 -> 4.6 , which is very nice) and something in there solved my problem (possibly the new kernel)

cheers

farslayer · 03-09-2009, 11:23 AM

Thanks for checking back with an update on your status..

at least all is working now