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    Can't read MMC cards on your laptop with a Ricoh R5C832 controller? Try this.

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by philipl, Sep 11, 2007.

  1. philipl

    philipl Newbie

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    Although SD cards are more commonly used, many people have MMC cards and would very much like them to work with their card readers. I have a Dell XPS m1330 and I certainly do!

    The controller in this laptop and many others is configured in such a way that MMC cards can't be used in Linux, but we now know how to fix it!

    http://intr.overt.org/blog/?p=59

    Enjoy!
     
    philipl, Sep 11, 2007
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  2. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    It's good to see Dell's Linux plans have helped the community. I'd rather see Memory Stick support though.
     
    Paul, Sep 11, 2007
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  3. lemur

    lemur Emperor of Lemurs

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    Thanks for reporting, philipl. My Sager NP2090 (Compal IFL90) never recognized any card but with that fix, I can now read the SD cards I use in my Treo. Yay!
     
    lemur, Sep 11, 2007
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  4. philipl

    philipl Newbie

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    Well - that means you actually had MMC cards. But I'm glad to hear it works!
     
    philipl, Sep 12, 2007
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  5. vallaird

    vallaird Notebook Consultant

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    Wow, thanks for the tip.
     
    vallaird, Sep 12, 2007
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  6. lemur

    lemur Emperor of Lemurs

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    My card is an SD card and is identified as such by Linux and my Treo. You're free, however, to believe whatever you want. The fact of the matter was that on the IFL90, *no* card *whatsoever* was recognized before I used the fix.
     
    lemur, Sep 12, 2007
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  7. fafler

    fafler Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a IFL90 too, and mine wouldn't indentify either MMC or SD cards until now. Same as Lemur.

    The SD cards are probably put in 1 bit mode (kind of MMC legacy, that's how my iPaq with Linux handles SD cards.) by the controller, and therefore working slower. The 256 mb Sandisk card i have here gets 4.6 MB/s with time dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/dev/null. I'll test it against a USB 2.0 reader when i get home.

    Now i just need Robson, fingerprint reader and TV output. Awesome.
     
    fafler, Sep 15, 2007
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  8. philipl

    philipl Newbie

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    Ok, I believe I understand why this procedure fixes SD on this IFL90 laptop. I believe that the laptop, by default, _disables_ the SD controller. But in the step where you set 0xCB=0x02, you are setting the MMC disable bit, but also, as a side effect, unsetting any other disable bits (such as the SD one).

    I believe if that if you look at the value of 0xCB before using setpci, you would see it is 0x80 - which I think means that SD is disabled.
     
    philipl, Sep 20, 2007
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  9. philipl

    philipl Newbie

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    Hi all.

    Could I ask the owners of the IFL90 a big favour? Could you please give me an "lspci -xxx" dump of the firewire controller from _before_ any of the setpci manipulation is done? I'd like to see the original register state that was preventing SD cards from working.

    Thanks!
     
    philipl, Sep 21, 2007
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