IOGEAR/Feiya Technology Corp. USB SD card reader is always detected as write protected.

[Kunjan Shah]

Binary package hint: hal

I have one of the keychain USB SD card readers, exactly this one http://shopper.cnet.com/flash-memory-adapters/iogear-pocket-card-reader/4014-8898_9-32597996.html

Its always detected as being read only. The SD card in it is SDHC, and my kernel supports that fine.

uname --all
2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 21:45:15 GMT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

this is on 7.10

dmesg output:

[ 736.793148] usb-storage: device found at 5
[ 736.793150] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 738.791496] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 738.793038] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic 6000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 738.802627] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 7861248 512-byte hardware sectors (4025 MB)
[ 738.804224] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is on
[ 738.804229] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 4b 00 80 08
[ 738.804232] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 738.806319] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 7861248 512-byte hardware sectors (4025 MB)
[ 738.807418] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is on
[ 738.807423] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 4b 00 80 08
[ 738.807425] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 738.807429] sda: sda1
[ 738.807927] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 738.807961] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

lsusb output
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 090c:6000 Feiya Technology Corp.

[Kunjan Shah (t-launchpad-kunjan-net)]

ah and it does write protect on only with SDHC cards. the reader is supposed to be SDHC also. And I believe it is. non SDHC cards have the write protect off done right.

[Helmut A. Bender (ubuntu-helmut-bender)]

I have a similar problem here:

uname -a
Linux brookida 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 07:42:25 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

Kubuntu 7.10

Card Reader: Delock 91628 (http://www.delock.de/produkte/gruppen/Card-Reader/USB_20_CardReader_35_34_in_1_91628.html)

lsusb
Bus 005 Device 007: ID 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp.

From syslog:
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.919750] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 125440 512-byte hardware sectors (64 MB)
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.920631] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is on
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.920638] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 80 00
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.920643] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.921495] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 125440 512-byte hardware sectors (64 MB)
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.922370] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is on
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.922376] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 03 00 80 00
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.922378] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
Feb 16 11:45:48 brookida kernel: [242597.922382] sdc: sdc1

Tested with two different MMC without write protect switches.
A CF card works.
The cards are not write protected in another card reader (Bus 005 Device 008: ID 07c4:a600 Datafab Systems, Inc.)

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Guys,

Care to test the latest Hardy Alpha release? This may actually be kernel related. You can download and try the new Hardy Heron Alpha release from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/ . You should be able to then test the new kernel using the LiveCD. If you can, please verify if this bug still exists or not and report back your results. General information regarding the release can also be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks.

[Helmut A. Bender (ubuntu-helmut-bender)]

I tried a bit further and got the following:

I bought a new SD card with write protect tab and inserted is as followed:

SD Card, not write protected => Write Protect is on
SD Card, write protected => Write Protect is on
SD Card, not write protected => Write Protect is off
MMC Card (the old one) => Write Protect is off

Reboot Hardy alpha 5

MMC Card (the old one) => Write Protect is off

Reboot Gutsy

MMC Card (the old one) => Write Protect is off

Well. Anything seems fine now. But I don't know why it didn't work and I don't know why it's working now.
For me the bug could be closed; don't know for Kunjan Shah though.

Greetings
Helmut

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Helmut, thanks for the response. I'm going to go ahead and close this since we haven't heard back from Kanjan yet.

Kanjan, if you are still experiencing issues please feel free to reopen. Thanks.

[Kunjan Shah (t-launchpad-kunjan-net)]

I actually got a chance to test it yesterday finally with hardy alpha 6. and It did the same thing. I am beginning to suspect its a bad SD card reader. I will get a replacement and see if it does the same thing.

Thanks for your help!

[Kunjan Shah (t-launchpad-kunjan-net)]

yeah it was a bad card reader. never seen one do this before... I got a new one today and it works fine with the latest 7.10 kernel.