SD card reader

jp-lack · 08-30-2006, 06:03 PM

Laptop: HP pavilion zt3010US
OS: slackware current

does anybody know how to make the SD card reader work? or can you point me in the right direction?

I just got a new camera and it would be easier/faster to transfer the pics from the card instead of plugging the camera using USB cable.

thanks in advance

macemoneta · 08-30-2006, 07:26 PM

Can you post the output of the 'lspci' command?

jp-lack · 08-30-2006, 07:43 PM

Code:

root@zion:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 01)
02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 20)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
02:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
root@zion:~#

I know the card reader should be seem as an USB controller but when I insert the card slckware cant see it and there is nothing on dmesg.

cathectic · 08-30-2006, 07:50 PM

Quote:

I know the card reader should be seem as an USB controller

Not necessarily, a lot of these built in card readers use proprietary interfaces (e.g. Texas Instruments) or if its just SD, then they use the standard SDHCI interface

In this case, the SDHCI driver that comes with 2.6.17 and newer kernels should let you use the card reader (at least, Google seems to suggest it's compatible with the ENE CB1410 chip).

macemoneta · 08-30-2006, 08:03 PM

OK, I wanted to make sure you didn't have one of the proprietary SM/SD chipsets that have no support. If it's a USB device they are normally just plug and play on most current kernels. Google seems to indicate that the Slackware kernel is still 2.4 based, with the 2.6.13 kernel available, which is still a little back-level. USB device support is added/updated/modified frequently, so the more current the kernel the better.

There was a Fedora Core LiveCD announcement in the last couple of days... here. It has the most current kernel I've seen on a LiveCD. Perhaps you could give that a try to see if your USB device is properly recognized? It won't write to your hard drive; it runs completely in memory, booting off the CD.

Alternatively, you could download and build the most current vanilla kernel from kernel.org.

jp-lack · 08-30-2006, 08:19 PM

thank you for point me to right direction -- the kernel -- I did not know it was a option that support sd/mmc cards. I jusr recompiled the kernel and is working now. althought the card is beeing recognize as mmc but I'm not sure if thats the way it has to be or not hehe ... anyway, the card reader is working now

Code:

mmcblk0: mmc0:a7fc SD256 247040KiB
 mmcblk0: p1

thx again for your help guys....

cathectic · 08-31-2006, 06:18 AM

Quote:

the card is beeing recognize as mmc

That's correct - the SD card specifications are kept under lock and key and cost a lot of money to obtain, whereas MMC is reasonably "open" in comparison, and all SD cards are backwards compatible with MMC anyway.