[Lenovo Thinkpad T420] SD card reader non-functional

[Daniel Manrique]

The SD card reader on this system doesn't work at all: no errors, no messages, nothing on SD card insertion. It's like it's not even there.

I think it shares the card reader with the systems reported on bug 773524, but the symptoms reported there were different.

This was reported working on Natty, so I'll try to install Natty and validate that it does. I'll report back once I know for sure.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: linux-image-3.0.0-12-generic 3.0.0-12.20
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 1507 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xd2520000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Intel CougarPoint HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:14f1506e,17aa21ce,00100000 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 20
   Simple ctrls : 8
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw unknown'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC (unknown)'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 1
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [on]
Date: Fri Oct 21 17:21:29 2011
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=2c372dc1-d737-42d0-aa62-1a3856ab7e63
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
MachineType: LENOVO 4177Q2U
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=d42b5863-55f3-48b0-84f6-a7bbd7f09cce ro quiet splash initcall_debug initcall_debug vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-12-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.0.0-12-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.60
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: mei
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/31/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 83ET53WW (1.23 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4177Q2U
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr83ET53WW(1.23):bd03/31/2011:svnLENOVO:pn4177Q2U:pvrThinkPadT420:rvnLENOVO:rn4177Q2U:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4177Q2U
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T420
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Thanks for checking if this works in Natty. This could also be a duplicate of bug 880229

Also, would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . If possible, please test the latest release candidate kernel (Not a kernel in the daily directory). Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag(Only that one tag, please leave the others). This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed by the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream-KERNEL-VERSION'. For example, if kernel version 3.1-rc9 fixed and issue, the tag would be: 'kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.1-rc9'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Thanks in advance.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Hi Joseph,

So far I've tested the 3.1.0-rc10-oneiric kernel and the daily kernel from 201110025:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/daily/2011-10-25-oneiric/linux-image-3.1.0-999-generic_3.1.0-999.201110250407_i386.deb

Both exhibit the exact same behavior, i.e. they don't recognize the card reader at all, no error messages, no timeouts, nothing.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

Just to confirm, it doesn't work on Natty either, but:

with the 2.6.38-8 kernel I get this on syslog:

mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card

But with the 2.6.38-12 kernel, which is supposed to have the quirk fix from bug 773524, I also get nothing, as with kernel 3.0 and 3.1.

I won't mark as regression based on this, but it looks like a) the quirk is getting triggered by this reader, but b) it doesn't work on this particular model.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

This issue appears to be an upstream bug, since you tested the latest upstream kernel. Would it be possible for you to open an upstream bug report at bugzilla.kernel.org [1]? That will allow the upstream Developers to examine the issue, and may provide a quicker resolution to the bug.

If you are comfortable with opening a bug upstream, It would be great if you can report back the upstream bug number in this bug report. That will allow us to link this bug to the upstream report.

The bugzilla.kernel.org may still be unavailable due to the recent break-in. One alternative would be to report this directly to the subsystem maintainer or to the Linux Kernel Mailing List - <email address hidden>

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel

[Florian Burger (mfg-burger)]

This bug does also affect the Thinkpad T420s under Oneiric. The card reader (express card) is not recognized at all.

[Scott Howard (showard314)]

Un-marking duplicate:
Bug #773524 is fixed for all users except T420 Thinkpads.

It doesn't work for me, and comments #48, 59, 66 say that the workaround doesn't fix T420 thinkpads as well. It appears to be a different bug.

[Scott Howard (showard314)]

This is a duplicate of bug 717435 in the SD card read for thinkpads:

0d:00.0 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e823 (rev 08)