usb problem

[RobEoh]

I have an HD install and can't seem to get a usb device recognized on the system. On boot, I see in the text that scrolls by that /dev/sda1 filesystem is not recognized. The device happens to be a ScanDisk compact flash card reader and I can see the LED on the device is off, despite booting with the it plugged in. I've tried it with other usb devices too.

When I 'lsmod', the only references to usb are:
usb-storage
usbcore
Should there be other entries here?

When I try to mount the device, I get the error 'not a valid block device.

I searched up and down google and can't come up with anything. Any ideas? Thanks.

Rob

[fingers99]

SanDisk are a bunch of nitwits who produce stuff which isn't fully standards compliant (although it seems to work well enough in Windows).

I'm loosing track of the number of stories of woe I hear when people try and use their junk in Linux.

I'd borrow something else (almost anything else!) to test your system on. If it works (and it should work pretty much out of the crate) I'd sell your SanDisk stuff to someone who'll only run Windows.

For what it's worth, I use a Microtech Zio card reader and 3 different (non SanDisk) CF Cards with no problems (on 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Knoppix, HD and CD) and el cheapo W:MG flash drive.

Sorry for the bleakness of this post, but I think persevering with that kit is a waste of time.