Ubuntu, Acer Netbook, SD card reader

[wavinwayne]

I have a 2009 model Acer Aspire One D250 netbook that originally came with Windows XP installed. I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on it, and wiped out XP completely. I am very happy with Ubuntu on the netbook except for one thing; the SD card reader does not work, and never has worked with Ubuntu installed. It worked fine on XP.

Any idea what I could try to get the SD card reader to work on Ubuntu?

 

[SrDriver]

Go to Synaptic Package Manager and install libccid
Post and let us know the results.

 

[simple_gifts]

I found a Sony 237 to 1 USB card reader particularly effective

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: SrDriver
Go to Synaptic Package Manager and install libccid
Post and let us know the results.


Installed. No dice. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[SrDriver]

You can pickup a USB adapter SD Reader.

Have seen them at Target and assume Walmart may have them too.

.

 

[The_Jeff]

See if it works logged in as root/superuser. Might be a permissions thing.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: SrDriver
You can pickup a USB adapter SD Reader.

Have seen them at Target and assume Walmart may have them too.

.


Probably what I'll do if I can't get anything else to work.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
See if it works logged in as root/superuser. Might be a permissions thing.


Newbie question - How to log in as root/superuser?

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

Newbie question - How to log in as root/superuser?


You can't.

You need to sudo -s from a user that has been granted admin access. FYI: When you are prompted to type in your password, such as doing updates, installing software etc, the system is escalates your privileges to "root" access (admin)

If you installed the OS, the user you set up has automatically been authorized "sudo -s" access.

Once running as "root" like using the terminal window you can pretty much blow up anything.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

Newbie question - How to log in as root/superuser?


You can't.

You need to sudo -s from a user that has been granted admin access. FYI: When you are prompted to type in your password, such as doing updates, installing software etc, the system is escalates your privileges to "root" access (admin)

If you installed the OS, the user you set up has automatically been authorized "sudo -s" access.

Once running as "root" like using the terminal window you can pretty much blow up anything.


I tried this to no avail. Guess I'll just pick up a USB card reader and be done with it.

 

[wavinwayne]

Dang it!!! I just discovered that the netbook's USB drives don't work with Ubuntu, either.

 

[97tbird]

Weird...I wonder if this is a laptop specific issue...

Both my old card readers that worked on XP, they work fine with Ubuntu 10.10 (full install, no XP anymore) on my old ThinkPad...
I didn't have a single driver problem with Ubuntu 10.10 ...never needed to upgrade/install anything... all USB devices work just like in XP.

One of my card readers is a Crucial, the other is a brand called "Ohm"..

 

[simple_gifts]

If you want to see what the issue is, insert the USB or SD drive; open a terminal and type 'dmesg' (no quotes)

post bottom 50 lines or so. Might look like this

Quote:

[ 4230.733699] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate FreeAgent Go 0148 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[ 4230.734471] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[ 4230.737695] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773167 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[ 4230.738335] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 4230.738343] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
[ 4230.738348] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4230.739668] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4230.739676] sdc: sdc1
[ 4230.798906] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4230.798912] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[ 4231.440194] EXT4-fs (sdc1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 4230.733699] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate FreeAgent Go 0148 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[ 4230.734471] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[ 4230.737695] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773167 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[ 4230.738335] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 4230.738343] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
[ 4230.738348] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4230.739668] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4230.739676] sdc: sdc1
[ 4230.798906] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4230.798912] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[ 4231.440194] EXT4-fs (sdc1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)

 

[wavinwayne]

simple_gifts,
As requested, see below. This was with the USB thumb drive attached. Let me know if any of this makes any sense to you.


[ 19.490761] [drm] initialized overlay support
[ 19.820080] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 20.406727] alloc irq_desc for 45 on node -1
[ 20.406737] alloc kstat_irqs on node -1
[ 20.406770] atl1c 0000:03:00.0: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 20.407774] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 20.438907] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x37
[ 20.448338] fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
[ 20.448345] drm: registered panic notifier
[ 20.466593] Slow work thread pool: Starting up
[ 20.469555] Slow work thread pool: Ready
[ 20.469584] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[ 20.470041] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 20.470168] alloc irq_desc for 46 on node -1
[ 20.470175] alloc kstat_irqs on node -1
[ 20.470202] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 20.470266] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 20.544105] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 20.614193] hda_codec: ALC272X: BIOS auto-probing.
[ 20.923829] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[ 21.649352] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 21.780240] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 22.597672] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600
[ 23.084211] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 23.116191] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 23.160196] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 23.192193] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 25.900132] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 26.730428] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600
[ 31.332047] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[ 34.808153] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 34.844199] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 34.876198] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 34.912193] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 35.172216] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 41.171194] Skipping EDID probe due to cached edid
[ 60.288162] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
[ 60.486325] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[ 60.486695] scsi4 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0
[ 60.487033] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 60.487042] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 61.490000] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB Flash Memory 6.50 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 61.491429] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[ 61.494683] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 1952767 512-byte logical blocks: (999 MB/953 MiB)
[ 61.497320] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 61.497334] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 08
[ 61.497343] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 61.507220] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 61.507255] sdb: sdb1
[ 61.518306] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 61.518321] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

 

[simple_gifts]

please type "sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt" in a shell (will prompt you for your password) and post results.

Also post results of "df -k" and "cat /proc/scsi/scsi"

Assuming this is the SD card. What did it come out of?

Thanks.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
please type "sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt" in a shell (will prompt you for your password) and post results.

Also post results of "df -k" and "cat /proc/scsi/scsi"

Assuming this is the SD card. What did it come out of?

Thanks.



simple_gifts,

I inserted the SD card, which came out of my Fuji Finepix digital camera, and entered your recommended commands into the terminal. The results, which make no sense to me, were as follows:

"sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt"
wayne@wayne-Aspire-One:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /mnt busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is already mounted on /mnt

"df -k"
wayne@wayne-Aspire-One:~$ df -k
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 150814948 4139672 139014324 3% /
none 502352 248 502104 1% /dev
none 507948 716 507232 1% /dev/shm
none 507948 204 507744 1% /var/run
none 507948 0 507948 0% /var/lock
/dev/sdb1 3862528 2336 3860192 1% /mnt

"cat /proc/scsi/scsi"
wayne@wayne-Aspire-One:~$ cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: ATA Model: Hitachi HTS54321 Rev: FB2O
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi5 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: Generic- Model: Multi-Card Rev: 1.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00


If you see anything in these results that could get my SD card reader working, I'd certainly appreciate it.

 

[wavinwayne]

YES!!!, I found the solution by accident, based on simple_gifts' procedure. In order to get my netbook to see my SD card and my USB drives, I do the following:

1. Insert either the SD card or the USB drive.
2. Open Terminal and type "sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt", and enter my admin. password.

The netbook now sees both the SD card and the USB drive; Yippeeee!!! A reboot requires that I repeat the steps above. I'm just glad I found a workable solution. THANKS simple_gifts!!!

 

[97tbird]

Great - Glad you got it sorted out

I will seek out simple gifts if I have a Ubuntu problem in the future

 

[simple_gifts]

Ok, a little addendum.

1) If you type "sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt" once, it should not have complained
Quote:

mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /mnt busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is already mounted on /mnt

Make sure you only type it once.

2) I don't know why it didn't automount upon insertion and show up on the desktop; my 500Gb Seagate does as does my HP USB sticks. I'm really a unix/linux server admin and automount is actually an abomination that I'd rather stay away from. I'd rather just do it on the command line.

3) You might find writing to the flash or USB drive you will get a "permission denied"; this has nothing to do with it "not working" All files and directories have permissions and ownership. It is a matter of understanding that and configuring the mounts appropriately. I can help you with that.

4) You can't just pull out the USB drive when the system is running; you have to make sure nothing is accessing it and then type "sudo umount /mnt" (umount, not unmount) If it just returns with no complaint, it worked; in Unix/Linux

Quote:

silence is success


You should be able to shut the machine down and not have to umount the device; the system should handle that correctly.

5) You don't have to manually mount the devices when you reboot, if you configure the system correctly (can help you there), but for removable devices it is recommended to keep the mounting manually; it creates a bigger mess if the system tries to mount it and "it int there"

Another question for W.W.

Quote:

The netbook now sees both the SD card and the USB drive


Is this @ the same time or are you using one at a time.

The /dev/sdb1 refers to one device; should both be plugged in, there is no way the one mount command mounted both devices.

Quote:

YES!!!, I found the solution by accident


How is that? I posted it.

 

[wavinwayne]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
...Another question for W.W.

Quote:

The netbook now sees both the SD card and the USB drive


Is this @ the same time or are you using one at a time.

The /dev/sdb1 refers to one device; should both be plugged in, there is no way the one mount command mounted both devices.

Quote:

YES!!!, I found the solution by accident


How is that? I posted it.

Before I typed the mount command, neither the SD card nor the USB stick would show up when inserted. If I insert EITHER, then type the mount command, the system will recognize them both. I can't explain it.