[ABANDONED]SD Memory Card not recognized/mounted by built-in card reader

[PJJ]

My Toshiba Satelltie A45 has a built-in card reader I never used before. I found that it does nor recognize, read, mount or do anything at all with the card.
I searched this forum and tried most of the solutions for similar problems without success.
The card is not shown in Dolphin; QParted does not show it; fdisk does not see it; lsusb comes up empty handed and so does dmesg. Attempted to find additional drivers. No additional drivers used.

It is like the card does not exist, but I am holding it in my hand (before I insert it, of course).

The SD card works fine in the camera. Therefore I presume that it is formatted. I suspet that the Linux driver for the built-in card reader is missing.

Question: Where cqan I find the necessary driver, do I need one for Kubuntu 12.10 and/or 13.04 or what else can be done to get the card to be recognized.

By the way, the card is a Kodak, 16 GB, SDHC.
Since the laptop is an older model, could it be that the reader cannot handle newer cards?

[dibl]

That's kinda weird, in my experience. I guess you do not know, for sure, what the filesystem is? Mickeysoft recently came out with exfat which at the moment is not supported by Linux. But I would not expect to find that on a 16GB SDHC card for a camera. If your card reader itself is not being supported by Linux, then maybe you could benefit from the purchase of one of these:

http://www.sandisk.com/products/memo...in-one-usb-30/

They're not expensive -- I use a slightly earlier version of that Imagemate to deal with SD cards, and have not yet found any card that I can't read from Linux, on multiple computers.

[claydoh]

You might also check if the reader is not disabled in the bios. Did it not read this one card, or any card at all?

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

[oshunluvr]

Two things here at work: 1. the card reader (device) and 2. The card (media).

One or both could cause this. First thing is to verify function of the reader. It should show up in lspci

Also, it appears there are many version of the A45. Your exact model may be helpful.

[dmeyer]

Common solutions:.

1. You could try exFat fuse module that would help if you can't mount the disk but it should still show up. Almost all flash memory cards come with exFat but the fuse module is fantastic.
2. Reboot the computer with the disk in the reader (this has been the solution for me countless times.) Seriously, of all the Linux solutions this is the most Windows like!
3. Check your bios.Sometimes these things get disabled.
4. Maybe you should check if udev doesn't have an issue.

Does it work in Windows? Try a different distro LiveCD.

[jlittle]

By the way, the card is a Kodak, 16 GB, SDHC.
Since the laptop is an older model, could it be that the reader cannot handle newer cards?

Definitely. The card reader in my 2006 desktop can't read my 16 GiB SD. A simple USB reader can be had for about $10.

Regards, John Little

[PJJ]

. . .First thing is to verify function of the reader. It should show up in lspci

Also, it appears there are many version of the A45. Your exact model may be helpful.

It shows up in lspci as:
Toshiba America Info Systems SD TypA Controller rev 05

According to googled material this reader does not have a Linux dirver - at least it did not have one in 2007 and up to 2010, I found out. There are bug reports regarding this reader and a "no fix" decision from launchpad.
It still does not work in 12.10 and 13.04.

Leaves only a workaround, a new external reader or the connector cable.
Or the Ricoh/Intel workaround which is mentioned in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=857119

Since this involves windows drivers I doubt it can work in Linux - unless maybe it would work via Wine? I never got Wine to do anything useful for me. Otherwise I would run my 3g/4G modem under Wine.

I will check out the other solutions suggested here and report back.

Over four years ago some hackers were working on creating a Linux driver for SD readers. One of them came close to complete a driver but then 'lost' his toshiba laptop.
He published his work here: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux...ypa+controller.

Maybe someone is interested in completing the job and earn some laurels and a reputation in the Linux world?

[oshunluvr]

Wine won't work. Neither will Vbox in this case. Unless someone picks up the development I'm afraid you're SOL. You should go to the bug report for this device and add your report. You never know if someone will notice it and pick up the thread.

Seems your most likely path will be to buy a cheap card reader and forget it.

[PJJ]

. . .

Seems your most likely path will be to buy a cheap card reader and forget it.

You are so right. I went and bought an external card reader for under 5 dollars.
It works.

It is not worth the hassle to try to get the built-in reader to work unless Toshiba releases driver info.

I am marking this thread as 'solved', though it is only sort of by cheating.

[oshunluvr]

Abandoned might be more correct. Sorry I couldn't help.

[PJJ]

Correct, but there is no provosion for such caption.

I will eventually find the time to get to the bottom of the problem, which appears to be the lack of a suitable Linux driver.

[jlittle]

I will eventually find the time to get to the bottom of the problem, which appears to be the lack of a suitable Linux driver.

If the problem is that the reader doesn't support a 16 GiB card, a driver may not help. My system hangs in the BIOS on startup if there is a 16 GiB card in the reader. Nor will windows xp (on that box) read it.

Regards, John Little

[Teunis]

Indeed, because of age the reader might not recognise this size card.

[PJJ]

At this time nobody could help as far as I know. The inability of the built-in Toshiba reader is listed as a "bug" in launchpad. Toshiba does not make the driver available to interested parties.
My research found many instances of an unresponsive card reader (and the identical error message) all over the Linux world. the problem does not only affect Ubuntu/Kubuntu but basically all Linux kernels.
That is the reason I gave up on the thread. It's cheaper to spend % 5.00 for an external reader than to waste weeks and months trying to get the Toshiba reader to work. Next time I purchase a laptop (even for only $ 25.00 like this one) I will make sure it is NOT aToshiba.

[dibl]

I have found Toshibas to be, for the most part, very well designed computers, however it is a fact that Toshiba clearly do not give a fig for Linux users. I have a Toshiba NB205 which is a marvelous netbook -- way better than the EEE-PC that I had. The NB205 has a SD slot and has no issue reading any size SDHC card that I have stuck in it. I think it is probably a USB interface. So don't dismiss them all out of hand. But it is true that if Linux works well on a Toshiba, it is a happy accident, not a plan by Toshiba.