Biometric USB stick unmounts by itself

[sm8ps]

Binary package hint: linux-image-generic

After up-grading to 2.6.31-16 from .15 my SanDisk Cruzer Profile 1GB USB stick with integrated biometric sensor behaves in a peculiar fashion. The public partition is auto-mounted and appears on the Gnome desktop. As soon as I try to unlock the hidden partition by activating the fingerprint sensor, the stick is unmounted and the public partition is remounted shortly thereafter.
This used to work just fine up to and including .15. More precisely, there never used to be this type of problem. The hidden partition never got mounted automatically, though.

When mounted, then 'mount' outputs:
/dev/sdb1 on /media/591D-C828 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=devkit,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,flush)

'lshal | grep -i sandisk' gives:
  info.vendor = 'SanDisk Corp.' (string)
  usb_device.vendor = 'SanDisk Corp.' (string)
  usb.vendor = 'SanDisk Corp.' (string)
  scsi.vendor = 'SanDisk' (string)
udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_0'
  block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_0' (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_0' (string)
  info.vendor = 'SanDisk' (string)
  storage.serial = 'SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008-0:0' (string)
  storage.vendor = 'SanDisk' (string)
  block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_0' (string)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_0' (string)
  scsi.vendor = 'SanDisk' (string)
udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_1'
  block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_1' (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008_0_1' (string)
  info.vendor = 'SanDisk' (string)
  storage.serial = 'SanDisk_Cruzer_Profile_SNDK14050608B1007008-0:1' (string)
  storage.vendor = 'SanDisk' (string)

In /var/log/messages, I read:
[ 506.955044] pcmcia: Detected deprecated PCMCIA ioctl usa
[ 506.955048] pcmcia: This interface will soon be removedakage unless you upgrade to new tools.

[ 506.955050] pcmcia: see http://www.kernel.org/pub/linufor details.

[ 1196.885961] usb 1-5: USB disconnect, address 9

[ 1197.260191] usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using ehc
[ 1197.393302] usb 1-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 cho
[ 1197.395916] scsi9 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storag
[ 1202.396943] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access SanDisk Cr
[ 1202.397428] scsi 9:0:0:1: Direct-Access SanDisk Cr
[ 1202.398223] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

[ 1202.398439] sd 9:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0

[ 1202.421764] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] 36864 512-byte logical blo
[ 1202.422502] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off

[ 1202.422878] sd 9:0:0:1: [sdc] 1964032 512-byte logical blo
[ 1202.423626] sd 9:0:0:1: [sdc] Write Protect is off

[ 1202.425946] sdb: sdb1

[ 1202.432386] sdc:

[ 1202.432880] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk

[ 1202.441644] unknown partition table

[ 1202.453402] sd 9:0:0:1: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

which repeats time after time the device unloads.

I hope these information provide helpful. I am wondering if this bug affects also other such biometric sticks since I consider getting a bigger one.

Thank in advance you for your time and consideration!
Stefan Mueller, Switzerland

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: stefan 2302 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'ICH6'/'Intel ICH6 with ALC655 at irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC655 rev 0'
   Components : 'AC97a:414c4760'
   Controls : 41
   Simple ctrls : 26
Date: Mon Dec 7 01:02:50 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=f23ec415-266a-4df7-b31e-863b248cac99
MachineType: Acer TravelMate C310
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-16-generic 2.6.31-16.52
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=ee17c371-1896-4371-841a-fa782b7def89 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_CH.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.52-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-16-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.25
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic i686
WpaSupplicantLog:

XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2375): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:2405): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2442): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2405): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_hash_table_remove_internal: assertion `hash_table != NULL' failed
dmi.bios.date: 02/23/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: V1.11
dmi.board.name: CanaryII
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Rev
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: None
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrV1.11:bd02/23/2006:svnAcer:pnTravelMateC310:pvr0100:rvnAcer:rnCanaryII:rvrRev:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: TravelMate C310
dmi.product.version: 0100
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[sm8ps (sm8ps)]

Hang on! I have got reason to suspect that there is a hardware issue with the biometric usb stick. It seems to have started diing just the same day I upgraded to 2.6.31-16. The behavior was reproducable also under Windows XP. So my quick testing under 2.6.31-15 (where the device worked) must have simply been due to fortunate circumstances.
Sorry for any stirrup that I may have created.
Cheers!
Stefan Mueller, Switzerland

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately.]

This bug was reported against the linux-meta package when it likely should have been reported against the linux package instead. We are automatically transitioning this to the linux kernel package so that the appropriate teams are notified and made aware of this issue.

If this bug really is a bug in the linux-meta package you can move it back to linux-meta and tag it kj-linux-meta, or contact us on the #ubuntu-kernel channel on the FreeNode IRC server. Thanks.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.