PCMCIA Flashdisk not recognized
 

I'm new to Linux and trying to get an Actiontec PC750 Card Reader to work with SuSE 9.3 running on an AMD 86_64.

The goal is to access a 20MB PCMCIA SunDisk FlashDisk. The card is a 16bit ATA PC Card, the reader is a 32 bit CardBus.

So far, Linux doesn't recognize the flashdisk. Windows XP, on the same computer, reads the card just fine.

The KDE Control Module shows:
Cardbus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI 1225 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Actiontec Electronics Inc: Unknown Device 0293
...followed by other messages indicating interrupt and memory assignments, etc.

Since I'm just starting out, I'd appreciate some advice about what to do next. I don't know much about the command line, but can follow directions if they are clear <g>

Thanks in advance....

Rob

I rebooted a 2nd time, and the card is now recognized upon insertion, with some problems:

1. It doesn't show up under My Computer, or Konqueror/storage media, but does appear under ~/media as idedisk
2. It can be read normally, but can only be written to from root.
3. "Cardctl eject" is apparently necessary before removing the card, but it only works from root.

Can anyone advise on how to get the card to work normally, especially how can I use it in normal user mode?

Rob

I've added a line to fstab as follows:

/dev/hde1 /media/idedisk auto noauto,users,rw,sync,unmask=0000,gid=100,uid=1000 0 0

This results in the flashcard contents showing up in "my computer", etc, but I still can't write to the card unless I'm in root. After spending nearly two full days on this problem, I'm at a loss.

Rob

Is this disk in a digital camera? My digital camera uses Memory Stick. Actually, I don't yet have one, so I use the camera's internal memory.

When I want to view the pictures, I plug it into the computer via USB cable, and then I just mount the camera in the same way I do with my USB thumb drive. Then I can download all the pics.

I know it's not exactly what you wanted, but if you can mount the camera and memory as a USB flash drive, it might still work and get you access to the data.

Thanks for your reply. This is a PCMCIA card that I use with an old DOS palmtop. I still use the palmtop because, with a monochrome screen, I get about 10 hours of "on" time from three AA batteries. And it's a full sized screen (VGA, I think). So I use it a lot for portable word processing, and would like to access the card from Linux. I've heard so much about how flexible Linux is, I'm surprised to be stopped dead in my tracks by a rigid permissions structure.

Rob

I reread your posts more carefully, it looks like you CAN read the card, and write as well (as long as you are root).

If you run `ls -l /dev/hde1`, what are the permissions on the device hde1?
It might just be a matter of setting the permissions so that everyone can write. Check in your udev files. /etc/udev/permissions.d or /etc/udev/rules.d ... I forget exactly where... sorry.

but just to test if this IS the problem, log in as root, then manually set the permissions by typing
`chmod a+r /dev/hde1`
then logout as root and try to write to the device as a normal user. I know for me, when I do this, I have to add the new permission settings to the udev configuration files, otherwise the permissions get reset when I restart the computer.

>>If you run `ls -l /dev/hde1`, what are the permissions on the device hde1?<<

drwxrwxrwx

Strange, huh? I'm wondering if the device identity is incorrect; iow, maybe my card isn't /dev/hde1. Is that possible, and how would I check it?

Rob

P.S,

ls -l /media/idedisk gives "no such file or directory," but Konqueror shows the directory, and lists permissions as rwx for root, and r for user and others. User and Group are both root. This holds for the directory and all contents (folders and files).

Rob