USB CF Reader, how to access it ?

[garyng]

How can I access a CF Reader with a 128MB CF(from digital camera) on KNOPPIX ? It seems that the driver doesn't support it ? Below is the outcome of dmesg :

USB Mass Storage device found at 4
FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xc00b6600 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:05.
FAT: Did not find valid FSINFO signature.
Found signature1 0x4e0005 signature2 0xc00b6600 sector=1.
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 03:05.
VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev sr(11,0).

I can access this without any problem in ME/XP or the digital camera.

Thanks for any help.

[VeeDubb]

It's a litle unclear what you are trying to do. Are you trying to use you digital camera AS a card reader or do you have a tand-alone card reader that you're trying to use with card from you camera. There's big difference.

To my understanding, the card reader should be emulated as a scsi device. On my computer with a 4 card reader, the cards are sda, sdb, sdc and sdd. And the partitions (shoul only be one on each card) are numbered just like hard drives. I found that mine were automatical recognized with a link on the desktop when I booted from CD. I haven't been able to make them work yet under a hard drive install and I don't know why.

So a litle more info and maybe between the two of us and the mountain of helpful people here we can figure out how to make a stinking card reader work.

[garyng]

I just put the CF in a stand alone card reader(USB 1.1) and want to use it like a removable hard disk.

[VeeDubb]

Okay, is it a hard drive intall or are you running from the CD?

If you're running from the CD, just have the card in the reader when you boot, you shouldn't need anything else, so stop reading here.

If you have a hardrive install, first check your fstab for a line refering to the card reader as a drive. Mine were listed as sda and so on. You may find that the line is commented out (means there is a "#" at the begining of the line). if that line is there you should be able to access it. If it's there but commented out, you should still be able to access it, after you remove the "#".

If it's not there at all, you will need to add a line to the fstab for it. The simplest way to get the setting correct is to boot from CD witht the card in the reader. You should see a little hard drive on you desk top for he card. Right click on it, and click properties. Then click on the device/location tab. See what the device is. It will probably be something along the lines of "/dev/sda1" No check the fstab for your CDboot and look for a line that refers to that device. COpy it down word for word and reboot without the CD. Now open up your fstab with kate or some other text editer, and add the line you coppied down.

If you want a little hard drive on your desktop for it, do this- On the desktop, right click and then selecet new and then hard disk A box will pop up with various options. set it how you want it and on the device tab just choose the device you added to the fstab.



New to linux and don't now what an fstab is? the fstab is a file in /etc/ that tells linux what partitions and drives are available. This is where you tell it there's a new drive or partition. the file is just named "fstab" without quotes. To edti it, right click on it and selecet "open with" and then pick whatever editer you want. I usualy use kate, but there's a half dozen at least preinstalled and many mroe available.

Of course I should point out that while all this "should" work, it has so far failed completely for me. I've been trying for 11 days now and have yet to access my card reader without booting from the CD.

[garyng]

I am running from the CD and have the card in the reader plugged in the USB port when I boot, however, I can't find anything in the fstab or the KDE desktop. I tried to manually mount /dev/sda1 but it said it is not a block device.

[VeeDubb]

did you have a card in the slot? If not it won't recognize it as a partition. If there is one there, we[ve reached the end of my expertise.

[garyng]

Yes, the CF card is in the reader plugged to the USB. Based on the message from dmesg, the module some how failed to recognize it, even though it knows it is some kind of USB storage.

As good as it is now, linux is still far from user friendly when comparing with M$ :wink:

[VeeDubb]

Yes and no. It certainly isn't as user friendly when it comes to setting up new hardware. In fact it is WAY less friendly. But, once set up it is WAY more stable and dependable. Also, because KDE is so very customizable it can be tailored to your exact preferences. Something you realy can't do in windows. And if you don't like KDE there are plenty of alternatives ranging from the over-simple to the bloated. Windows also doesn't offer you the controll over your computer that linux does.

What I will agree with is this, linux still isn't for everybody. case in point, my girlfriend. There is no better opperating systm for her than XP. It does everything she wants it to, hse likes the UI and it requires very little effort , for me, I hate XP.

The last distro I tried (lycoris) was great, but it didn't do the job for me, and ultimately I gave up because of hardware issues. Now I'm back thanks to knoppix and this time I'm here to stay. I'm going linux exclusive. (Well, I'll prbably keep a small win98 partition ana a small seperate drive with dos, but linux is now my primary OS, or will be next week when I get my new modem.

Anyway, hang in there, there's alot of people here that know WAY more than me to the point i's not even funny anymore. Rickenbaucherus is great as are mayothers .

[zzyzx]

Knoppix detects my CF reader fine and even asks whether I want to install knoppix to it with knx-hdinstall. Try cat /dev/scd0 . And look in the Control Center for it.

[rickenbacherus]

I tried to manually mount /dev/sda1 but it said it is not a block device.
Post the command you entered to mount the drive.
I would do this:
Open a root terminal:
cd /mnt
ls

This will tell you what mount points you have. Then do a:
mount -a auto /dev/sda1 /mnt/? (replace the '?' with a mount point that you have listed in /mnt.)
If you get no errors then do a:
cd /mnt/?
ls

Post back with what happens.

BTW- the "Did not find valid FSINFO signature" error you see is caused by the attempted auto mount of a filesystem in fstab. If you still have problems post your fstab too please.


Knoppix detects my CF reader fine and even asks whether I want to install knoppix to it with knx-hdinstall. That's quite hilarious is it not- Knoppix wants to install itself everywhere!! :)