can not connect a digital camera sony a100 to linux
 

Hello everyone,
i have a digital camera sony a100. and i want to connect it to my linux box..
i got surprised i could not.... and i wonder why...
the camera is identified properly in windows...
but in linux, when i plug it in and switch the power button to the ON position, the camera will realise the usb is connected and will start negotiating with the OS.... the LCD screen on the camera says 'Initializing USB connection'... but it freezes there....
in windows this screen would only appear for 2 seconds or so....

var/log/messages realises theres a new device but takes no steps to create a dev entry or smth....

in the end i have no device appearing anywhere on the system... smth that i can then mount and use it, just like any other mass storage device...

any ideas?
searching about it produced no results...
thank you in advance
nass

some cameras mount like a usb mass storage device, and some cameras dont, the ones that dont mount can work with gphoto2, you need at least two packages to build, libgphoto2 and gphoto2, build libgphoto2 first and gphoto2 last, run gphoto2 --get-all-files (you will probably have to use sudo or su) http://www.gphoto.org/

What's the output of `/sbin/blkid`? What changes in `dmesg` output from before you plug it in compared to after? You may wish to also try gPhoto2 (a SlackBuild is available at slackbuilds.org), but it does NOT list your camera as supported (so it probably won't help you). Googling revealed very (very) little, but I found this page: http://forum.softpedia.com/index.php?showtopic=362849 (which I don't understand a word of, and Google translate isn't helping either) that links here: http://www.dyxum.com/darkroom/converters/list.asp (which contains UFRaw, which can convert the RAW (ARW) format from your Sony camera). There's also DCRaw on that same page.

If you can get the camera mounted (find out the device address from blkid or dmesg), you'll probably have some .ARW files that you can't view with anything. Use UFRaw to convert them to another format.

[edit]slackbuilds.org also contains a SlackBuild script for UFRaw and its dependency, DCRaw.[/edit]

thank you very much for your input Okie, T3slider.
i managed to get my hands on an ubuntu system.. there the camera would connect fine.... so i'm guessing im missing some kernel option....right?

i looked for anything under 'usb storage', in my 2.6.20.7 kernel but no luck... now i'll go get a latest kernel and see if there smth more apparent there...

i'll keep you posted
nass

yup, the latest kernel does offer support for sony memory sticks...
i included as modules those in a fresh custom kernel and im all set now...:)

thank you for your help
nass