Hi there,

I have a USB flash adapter that allows me to connect Compact Flash cards to my computer. It works automaticly under Win2k but I cannot get it to work under Linux. I have read various HOWTO's and threads on this site. Most of them are concerned with mounting the device. My problem is that the device appears to be configured but it is not connected to any device in /dev. I have tried various sd sg and hd devices in /dev.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem is.

Following is the output from /var/log/messages and lsmod

Thanks

Paul


Apr 7 18:14:40 paul2 kernel: hub.c: USB new device connect on bus2/1, assigned device number 2
Apr 7 18:14:41 paul2 kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x7c4/0xa400) is not claimed by any active driver.
Apr 7 18:14:44 paul2 /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup usb-storage for USB product 7c4/a400/113
Apr 7 18:14:44 paul2 kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Apr 7 18:14:44 paul2 kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
Apr 7 18:14:44 paul2 kernel: usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 1424
Apr 7 18:14:44 paul2 kernel: scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Apr 7 18:14:44 paul2 kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.




Module Size Used by Not tainted
usb-storage 62000 0
sr_mod 18136 0 (autoclean)
cmpci 35944 0 (autoclean)
soundcore 6500 4 (autoclean) [cmpci]
parport_pc 19108 1 (autoclean)
lp 8996 0 (autoclean)
parport 37152 1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
autofs 13348 0 (autoclean) (unused)
tulip 43552 1
iptable_filter 2412 0 (autoclean) (unused)
ip_tables 14840 1 [iptable_filter]
ide-scsi 10512 0
ide-cd 33608 0
cdrom 33696 0 [sr_mod ide-cd]
nls_iso8859-1 3516 3 (autoclean)
nls_cp437 5116 3 (autoclean)
vfat 13084 3 (autoclean)
fat 38744 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
mousedev 5524 1
keybdev 2976 0 (unused)
hid 22244 0 (unused)
input 5888 0 [mousedev keybdev hid]
usb-uhci 26188 0 (unused)
usbcore 77056 1 [usb-storage hid usb-uhci]
ext3 70400 1
jbd 52212 1 [ext3]
advansys 93568 0 (unused)
sd_mod 13552 0 (unused)
scsi_mod 107144 5 [usb-storage sr_mod ide-scsi advansys sd_mod]

The USB mass storage module is a little funky, check "dmesg" and see if you have anything that looks like:

The actual channel info doesn't get logged to /var/log/messages sometimes depending (plus the distros monkey with it, so I've gotten partial to dmesg, its purer.)

Cheers,

Finegan

Ok I looked at dmesg. The output looks like this

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1/3, assigned device number 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x7c4/0xa400) is not claimed by any active driver.
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 368
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 3
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 3 rqt 128 rq 6 len 18 ret -84
usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 3 rqt 128 rq 6 len 18 ret -84


Any idea what the problem is. The error does not mean anything to me. Informantion I forgot to put in my first post is that the USB device is a Jenoptik Jenreader. The system is RH8.0.

Thanks

Paul

Mine was attached to sda1. It was a Lexmark Jump Drive.

I've encountered the same.
And I find to resolve it very easy.
Just like this:

first,
cat /proc/partitions

get the detailed information on every mounted partitions

then,
cd /lib/modules/2.4.x-x/kernel/drivers
insmod ./scsi/scsi/scsi_mod.o
insmod ./scsi/sd_mod.o
insmod ./scsi/ide_scsi.o
insmod ./usb/usbcore.o
insmod ./usb/usb_uhci.o
insmod ./usb/usb_ohci.o

and see the partitions information again,

cat /proc/partitions
mount -t vfat /dev/sdax /mnt/usb_flash_memory

Hmmm...

It works.

Hope this help.

Oh, but for every different version of distributions on linux, you may should change you file path.

good luck!

cdrecord -scanbus as root should tell you where your drive is on the scsi bus. Then you can make a symbolic link to mount it.

I have tried the suggestions above but still no mountable device. The error "usbdevfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed dev 3 rqt 128 rq 6 len 18 ret -84" suggests that the device is just not configuring properly. The card reader device is probably not compatable with Linux.

Thanks for the help

Paul

The device probably was not compatible with linux, what kernel and distro are you running, and if its 2.4.18 and RH8.0, that's a year and a half old kernel when a TON of usb support for mass-storage devices was added in both 2.4.19 and 2.4.20, I know, the PNY CF adapter I bought didn't work with 2.4.18, but worked with 2.4.19 which came out on the same day I bought the drive.

Cheers,

Finegan

Just a thought...do you have to update your fstab to tell it where to mount? It would probably be a line that looks like this:

/dev/sd0 /mnt/usbdisk auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

and you'd have to create the mount point /mnt/usbdisk
Anyway, this is what I had to do get my USB storage stick to work. Good luck!

SenorPedo

Sorry, that should be /dev/sda0 or possibly /dev/sda1 not sd0. Hope this helps!

The idea about the Kernel is a good one thanks. I am waiting until I can download RH9 then I will try it again.

Thanks for the suggestion

Are you sure you have compiled the appropriate support? When you configure your kernel, under the general category "USB Support" you should find modules for different flash card readers.

In my case, I have been using a Microtech CF card reader with no problems. I remember that when I started using it, I had a kernel earlier than 2.4.18 (I think it was 2.4.17 because 2.4.16 had some broken USB drivers). This card reader worked fine with 2.4.18, 2.4.19 and now 2.4.20. My deistributions have been SuSE (now I have SuSE 8.1, but I upgraded its kernel to 2.4.20). Yes, what was said above, that every time you change kernel or distribution the CF shows up as different partition, seems to be true. I consider this a small price to pay. (Under Windows, what happens if a new device takes up an available drive letter and then software "breaks" because it expected a different drive?)

The CF cards show up as VFAT partitions. My digital camera is a Nikon Coolpix 990, which seems to have major problems with its USB because it does not run very well even under Windows. A few times I think the camera screwed up the file structure or partition of a card. I had to re-attach it to the camera and review some pics and then remount it under Linux. Reviewing those pics probably forced the camera to put the card file structure back in order.

I have a scandisk 6n1 reader (reads 6 different media types).. and I can mount a compact flash (havent tried the rest) fine with no problems.

the device (in redhat 8/9) is under /dev/usb/...
I'm not at my RH box right now.. and wont be back to it till Monday...
when I inserted the 6n1 reader, RH8/9 both made folders in /mnt/flash , all I had to do is issue a mount command from the /dev/usb/... to /mnt/flash and it worked. I didn't have to mess with the kernal.. (though I was useing the lated kernal from redhat via their RHN update)