[SOLVED] sd/mmc internal card reader not found

zeebra · 11-10-2013, 11:57 AM

Hi everyone,

I am having an issue and I cannot find an angle to solve it from. I have an Acer timeline ultra m3-481t.

SD/MMC reader is not working. I cannot find any info or sign from it at all. It is like it is not even connected. I know it is there ofcourse

I believe the card reader is pcmcia. I tried to follow a set of instructions how to get a Ricoh pcmcia sd/mmc card reader going by adding the proper kernel modules. This did not work. Actually I tried many different modules, but no sign of it.

I cannot find any info about who the manufacturer of this sd/mmc card is.
So, I am in a sucky spot in regards to making it work. Any ideas? I used dmidecode to find the board type (Acer ma40_hx), but when googling any of the hardware info from this laptop together with the sd/mmc I find nothing about who made the SD/MMC reader.

I don't even know for sure which bus this card is using. I don't know the manufacturer and I can find no sign of it using lcpci -v, lsusb or anything else.
Also this card is not found when using stock kernel from Mageia 3. I am using a custom kernel, but I am lost in which modules to try for this card.

1. How can I find info about the card though a GNU/Linux command? Any ideas?
2. Any idea about who manufacturs this sd/mmc card in my specific laptop would be useful.

So, basically, I have nothing, and I need something.

Thanks to anyone who can help!

rokytnji · 11-10-2013, 12:35 PM

Quote:

I believe the card reader is pcmcia.sd/mmc internal card reader not found

Must be a language barrier with me. Is this a internal slot on the outside of the Acer case? It is not seen how? If during booting a card. Some Acer bios will not boot off of sd though they will on usb. My Acer ZG5 is like that.

Usually , just guessing, the sd reader is usb, not pcmcia. Maybe a

Code:

lsusb

may assist your thread as well as in root in terminal

Code:

fdisk -l

and

Code:

blkid

with the card you can't see inserted. For mmc. I use a mmc/multi card to pendrive adapter which saves a lot of trouble with mounting.
I only have one cheapo camera that uses a 1 gig xd flash drive and that is what that adapter is for.

Edit: for card info you may have to install lshw into your distro and then run lshw as root in terminal to get the info on the card.

zeebra · 11-11-2013, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Must be a language barrier with me. Is this a internal slot on the outside of the Acer case? It is not seen how? If during booting a card. Some Acer bios will not boot off of sd though they will on usb. My Acer ZG5 is like that.

Usually , just guessing, the sd reader is usb, not pcmcia. Maybe a

Code:

lsusb

may assist your thread as well as in root in terminal

Code:

fdisk -l

and

Code:

blkid

with the card you can't see inserted. For mmc. I use a mmc/multi card to pendrive adapter which saves a lot of trouble with mounting.
I only have one cheapo camera that uses a 1 gig xd flash drive and that is what that adapter is for.

Edit: for card info you may have to install lshw into your distro and then run lshw as root in terminal to get the info on the card.

Sorry. My bad. It is an internal one.
I just had the impression it was an inbuilt PC card reader. But as far as I can understand it is not.

My Webcam uses the USB controller. I thought this card reader would also do so perhaps, but skimming though "lsusb -v" I find nothing about it. Nothing for PCI either.

Its not that I cannot find the card. I cannot. But I cannot find any sign of the hardware at all. I know it is there, since there is a port, but software wise there are no signs of it whatsoever.

Ruling out PC card, PCI and USB controllers, I am stuck with 3 other things, of which I do not know the use. Perhaps one of these is the problem.

SMbus, MEI, ISA bridge.

I dont know what SMbus and MEI controllers are and I don't know why there is an ISA bridge.

Thanks for the tip with "lshw". Those are the kind of things I am looking for. lshw unfortunately gave me nothing in regards to the SD/MMC card reader.

rokytnji · 11-11-2013, 12:33 PM

Ok. When worse comes to worse for me. I burn and boot a Slack0 Puppy CD running a live session.

I then use Pmount in Slack0 to mount the card reader. Failing that the slot has no wires hooked up to it or a pci card inserted
in front of the slot. Slack0 should see it and mount it and you can read the card.

The kernel is new enough in Slack0 and puppy since it runs as root is real good on hand mounting media.
At least that will show whether it is possible that slot is working.

zeebra · 11-11-2013, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Ok. When worse comes to worse for me. I burn and boot a Slack0 Puppy CD running a live session.

I then use Pmount in Slack0 to mount the card reader. Failing that the slot has no wires hooked up to it or a pci card inserted
in front of the slot. Slack0 should see it and mount it and you can read the card.

The kernel is new enough in Slack0 and puppy since it runs as root is real good on hand mounting media.
At least that will show whether it is possible that slot is working.

Thanks for the tip. I might have to try that in the end.

zeebra · 11-11-2013, 02:21 PM

Ok. I got a step further finally.

I went and used my Mageia CD and used the hardware detection tool on it. I found out my card reader is (probably) a Realtek RTS5116 PCI express.

Ok. So I found more info and ended up adding the modules rtsx_pci in the kernel after trying several other modules. With lspci I can finally find my card reader! yey! But it doesn't work still.

Ooh, and Sorry for being an idiot and forgetting important info in this thread. I am using a custom build of Kernel 3.10.12. My Mageia stock Kernel 3.8.x does not at all detect this card reader.

This is what I am getting from "lspci -vvv"

Code:

03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 43
        Region 0: Memory at c1001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                Address: 00000000fee00338  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [70] Express (v2) Endpoint, MSI 00
                DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <1us, L1 <8us
                        ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 unlimited, L1 <64us
                        ClockPM+ Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
                LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM+ AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
                DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Not Supported, TimeoutDis+, LTR-, OBFF Not Supported
                DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-, LTR-, OBFF Disabled
                LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 2.5GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-
                         Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance- ComplianceSOS-
                         Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB
                LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB, EqualizationComplete-, EqualizationPhase1-
                         EqualizationPhase2-, EqualizationPhase3-, LinkEqualizationRequest-
        Kernel driver in use: rtsx_pci

03:00.1 SD Host controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 18
        Region 0: Memory at c1000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0-,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [b0] Express (v2) Endpoint, MSI 01
                DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <1us, L1 <8us
                        ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 unlimited, L1 <64us
                        ClockPM+ Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
                LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM+ AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
                DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Not Supported, TimeoutDis+, LTR-, OBFF Not Supported
                DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-, LTR-, OBFF Disabled
                LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB, EqualizationComplete-, EqualizationPhase1-
                         EqualizationPhase2-, EqualizationPhase3-, LinkEqualizationRequest-
        Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci

Searching around the net I have not yet been able to find a solution to that. Any assistance would be appreciated.

So far I tried blacklisting "rtsx_pci", but that removes both. I played around with some other modules with modprobe "rts5139" and "ums-realtek", but that did nothing.

jefro · 11-11-2013, 03:17 PM

Some notes.
Laptops attach stuff in some odd ways. It could be connected via some pci to pci bridge. Could be connected to ide or sata or usb.

Try a few other live distro's to see if they support it.

zeebra · 11-11-2013, 04:36 PM

Wow. Finally. This card was awkward. Mageia 3 stock Kernel support almost any hardware I have tried. In any case, I am not interested in running stock Kernel anyways.

I am running a very stripped down Kernel, after browsing the whole driver list I finally found the solution:

In menuconfig:

The necessary bits seem to be.

PCI-e
&&
PCI-e hotplug
&&
Sdhci-pci

&& more specifically
rtsx_pci
MMC_REALTEK_PCI

And specifically NOT the Realtec USB reader driver && not the Realtec staging driver. These seems to interfere with the functioning drivers. It did not work until I did not have those AND I had the above 2 drivers.

So the two drivers actually loaded are still the same "sdhci-pci" and "rtsx-pci".

zeebra · 11-11-2013, 04:38 PM

Thanks guys! And this also proves, like you said, we should not underestimate the importance of hardware detection tools and liveCDs for "diagnosis" and information.

Have a great evening.

zeebra · 11-11-2013, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

Some notes.
Laptops attach stuff in some odd ways. It could be connected via some pci to pci bridge. Could be connected to ide or sata or usb.

Try a few other live distro's to see if they support it.

Yeah! My webcam is on my USB controller!
Ricoh card readers seems to be pcmcia, while this Realtek one was PCI express, while I had tried pcmcia and USB.

Actually I am a little annoyed that the drivers in the Kernel are not organised in a neater way.

Yes, I know the guys are doing a great job, but sometimes configuring the correct custom Kernel drivers/modules and dependencies can be a little bit frustrating, especially when the drivers are in places which are not necessarily logical.