A usb multi card reader

Q.. · 07-31-2008, 12:31 AM

I'm wondering if this hardware is supposed to work correctly on linux, according to lsusb it is:

Code:

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 058f:9360 Alcor Micro Corp. 8-in-1 Media Card Reader

dmesg appears to load something about scsi from /dev/sdb-sde:

Code:

sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 4:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 4:0:0:2: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 4:0:0:3: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
sd 4:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
sd 4:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
sd 4:0:0:3: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0

Putting in an sd card from a camera only makes the LED light up, but no activity is seen anywhere on the system as far as I can tell.

By a longshot has anyone out there gotten this to work?

Pearlseattle · 07-31-2008, 02:35 AM

In my case if I 1) plug in the USB-cardreader and afterwards 2) insert the sd-card, it looks exactly as in your case - the reader is recognized, but the card is invisible.
But:
If I 1)first insert the sd-card into the reader and 2) plug in the USE-cardreader, everything is recognized.

bashyow · 07-31-2008, 05:15 AM

I cant tell you exactly, because im not an expert, but I had this problem. I think its got something to do with the kernel and subsquently DBUS not being able to scan the individual LUNS on the reader. scan for luns is an option in the kernel. but, like I said, take this with a pinch of salt because Im not quite sure. hopefully someone more knowledgeable can step in and clear things up.

you could overkill the problem and unload then reload usb kernel modules, but its an absolute pain, better to try an updated kernel for your distro.

I had the same problem in Slackware 12, and then they fixed it in Slack 12.1

Pearlseattle · 07-31-2008, 08:53 AM

Hm, interesting - well, I'll have a look at the config of my kernel - currently using 2.6.25.

farslayer · 07-31-2008, 11:32 AM

I do the same thing Pearlseattle said.. i plug ithe card into the reader, before connecting it to the PC and my card reader works just fine.

Pearlseattle · 07-31-2008, 02:14 PM

bashyow, do you mean this?

Quote:

-> Device Driver
-> SCSI device support
-> Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device

Quote:

If you have a SCSI device that supports more than one LUN (Logical
Unit Number), e.g. a CD jukebox, and only one LUN is detected, you
can say Y here to force the SCSI driver to probe for multiple LUNs.
A SCSI device with multiple LUNs acts logically like multiple SCSI
devices. The vast majority of SCSI devices have only one LUN, and
so most people can say N here. The max_luns boot/module parameter
allows to override this setting.

Q.. · 08-01-2008, 03:21 PM

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I will try the idea of plugging the reader after the card, but the thing is that this is a built in reader to the case up front. I am going to get inside and try the unplugging deal when I get the chance. Hopefully that will work.

The thing about the LUNS, I checked and that was already enabled on the running kernel, 2.6.26. If that was the reference, it's not the problem.

farslayer · 08-01-2008, 04:01 PM

Ahh internal reader.. hadn't thought about that.. Mine is indeed external. still worth a shot but not a good permanent solution for you.

bashyow · 08-01-2008, 06:41 PM

Pearlseattle,

Im very sketchy on this, but here is an older post of mine in the Slackware forum. BTW my nick then was 'jukebox'

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ht=card+reader

I myself didnt actually recompile a kernel and enable "Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device", so Im not sure that was it.

what actually happened was, I switched from Slack 11, which didnt have HAL, to Slack 12, which did have HAL installed. so on second thought, it could be HAL that was the reason the card reader then started to work properly, although it is possible that the "Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device" option was enabled in the newer Slack 12 release.

have you got HAL installed on your distro?

Q.. · 08-01-2008, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bashyow

have you got HAL installed on your distro?

Yes, and usb drives and auto-loading cds work fine.

Pearlseattle · 08-02-2008, 06:07 AM

Ha! That's cool, bashyow! I now installed & started up hal ("/etc/init.d/hald start") and look at that - the card gets recognized as soon as I stick it into the cardreader - don't have to disconnect & reconnect the whole cardreader anymore.
Thanks!!!

bashyow · 08-02-2008, 07:52 AM

glad you got it working Pearlseattle

Q.., again Im sketchy on this, firstly have you checked the HCL?

also here is another interesting thread which may help point you in the right direction, again its from the Slackware forum

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ht=card+reader

ta0kira · 08-03-2008, 06:10 PM

I had a similar problem with a card reader that I've used with CF cards for years. It wouldn't take microSDHC or normal SD and neither would another card reader I tried. rc.hald didn't fix it (was already running, anyway) but compiling in LUNS fixed it with the second reader. The first reader gets hung up resetting the SD slot and finally disables read support after about 2 minutes, and if I unplug it during that time it will crash usb-storage with no way to recover other than a restart. I guess that reader predates microSDHC, or has a bad slot. The working reader is LENMAR AllIn1 and the failed reader is Belkin 15-in-1.
ta0kira

Q.. · 08-04-2008, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bashyow

glad you got it working Pearlseattle

Q.., again Im sketchy on this, firstly have you checked the HCL?

Doesn't seem to be in there.

Quote:

also here is another interesting thread which may help point you in the right direction, again its from the Slackware forum

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ht=card+reader

Doesn't really apply, this is a strange usb reader that is internal, not pci. It is listed by lsusb.

Also, I have now tried the trick of unplugging it and plugging it again after the card, it did not work. The connectors inside aren't USB either.

bashyow · 08-05-2008, 04:30 AM

ah.

well, on the up-side, new external usb card readers are pretty cheap, I think I got mine for something like £8