udev or kernel or both do not properly recognize Mac harddisk when connected via a SATA to USB adapter, while Fedora does.

[perpetualrabbit]

Description:
------------
A user came along with a Mac he spilt a drink in, and asked me to copy his harddisk to the network. I have this "Serial ATA & IDE to USB adapter", from conceptronic, which is a very handy gadget in which you can plug any harddisk and connect it to your computer via USB. Normally this works flawless with ubuntu. I do have the hfsplus, hfsprogs, hfsutils and libhfsp0 packages installed.
Normally the disk is mounted automatically and I set up Nautilus so that it automatically opens a window for each partition found on a harddisk so connected.
Only with this Mac harddisk, the system was not able to find any partitions. dmesg reported a USB mass storage device connected, but with fdisk -l it did not show up.
However, with a fedora 10 machine, the disk mounted immediately and without problems. A copy was made for the user without any problems. So clearly this is an ubuntu problem.

I am not sure where to file this issue, but kernel or udev seem to be the logical places to look for the cause. Maybe there is a different partitioning scheme that Mac disks uses, and which has not been compiled into the ubuntu kernel. Or there is some flaw in udev or its scripts which causes it to fail making the device files for the Mac partitions.
Please put this bug in the right category: udev, kernel or whatever. I am not sure where the problem is, but I guess udev.

Ubuntu release:
-----------------
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

Packages possibly involved: ( I do not know which one(s) is/are to blame)
------------------------------
udev:
  Installed: 147~-6.1
  Candidate: 147~-6.1
  Version table:
 *** 147~-6.1 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     147~-6 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic/main Packages

linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic:
  Installed: 2.6.31-14.48
  Candidate: 2.6.31-14.48
  Version table:
 *** 2.6.31-14.48 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

hfsplus:
  Installed: 1.0.4-12build2
  Candidate: 1.0.4-12build2
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.4-12build2 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

hfsprogs:
  Installed: 332.14-7
  Candidate: 332.14-7
  Version table:
 *** 332.14-7 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

hfsutils:
  Installed: 3.2.6-11build2
  Candidate: 3.2.6-11build2
  Version table:
 *** 3.2.6-11build2 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

libhfsp0:
  Installed: 1.0.4-12build2
  Candidate: 1.0.4-12build2
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.4-12build2 0
        500 http://repository.lorentz.leidenuniv.nl karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Expected to happed:
----------------------
A window should pop up after plugging in the USB cable of the adapter, asking me if I want it to be mounted, or even come up with a Nautilus window immediately, if Nautilus is so configured by the user. It does work like that, with the same disk and adapter on a fedora 10 machine. I should be able to examine partitioning with fdisk -l or with parted. After mounting I should be able to read the content at least, and probably even write it.

Happened instead:
--------------------
No mount, no popup, no file browser window. Only a short message in /var/log/messages that an USB storage device was connected, but it reports only the top level (/dev/sdg) but no partitions (/dev/sdg1, /dev/sdg2 etc.). fdisk -l does not list the disk at all, and fdisk /dev/sdg does not work either. Device files for partitions are not made.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Nov 10 12:20:06 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027.1)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP xw4600 Workstation
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: udev 147~-6.1
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda6 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: udev
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 01/29/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 786F3 v01.06
dmi.board.asset.tag: CZC8063TDQ
dmi.board.name: 0AA0h
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CZC8063TDQ
dmi.chassis.type: 6
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr786F3v01.06:bd01/29/2008:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPxw4600Workstation:pvr:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn0AA0h:rvr:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct6:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP xw4600 Workstation
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello
Is this problem present with the latest updated Karmic's or Lucid's packages?
Thanks in advance
Fabio

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!