RESOLVED. Hotplug no joy: VL 5.8 standard

[johnclubvec]

Please see post #6 below.

A longtime VL user, I am trying to migrate from kernel 2.4 and am experimenting with VL 5.8 standard. I am experiencing some problems. I am used to mounting USB things like memory cards manually. Primitive but worked every time. Hotplug mounting has not been successful for me in 5.8.

a) Is manual mounting even possible in VL 5.8 standard, or, if hotplug doesn't work, then does that make the USB device just unavailable?
b) 'fdisk -l' shows only harddrive partitions. Please see output of 'udevmonitor' and 'messages' below, printing immediately after I plugged in a card reader with one card inserted.

Thank you!

****

Output of 'udevmonitor':
udevmonitor prints the received event from the kernel [UEVENT]
and the event which udev sends out after rule processing [UDEV]

UEVENT[1186163577.841931] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1
UEVENT[1186163577.842010] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/usbdev1.3_ep00
UEVENT[1186163577.842051] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0
UEVENT[1186163577.842089] add@/class/scsi_host/host7
UEVENT[1186163577.842126] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/usbdev1.3_ep82
UEVENT[1186163577.842163] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/usbdev1.3_ep01
UEVENT[1186163577.842201] add@/class/usb_device/usbdev1.3
UDEV  [1186163577.842957] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1
UDEV  [1186163577.843233] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/usbdev1.3_ep00
UDEV  [1186163577.883608] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0
UDEV  [1186163577.884764] add@/class/scsi_host/host7
UDEV  [1186163577.885242] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/usbdev1.3_ep82
UDEV  [1186163577.885678] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/usbdev1.3_ep01
UDEV  [1186163577.891209] add@/class/usb_device/usbdev1.3
UEVENT[1186163583.527555] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host7/target7:0:0/7:0:0:0
UEVENT[1186163583.527597] add@/class/scsi_disk/7:0:0:0
UEVENT[1186163583.530381] add@/block/sda
UEVENT[1186163583.530398] add@/class/scsi_device/7:0:0:0
UEVENT[1186163583.530409] add@/class/scsi_generic/sg0
UDEV  [1186163583.558781] add@/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.4/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/host7/target7:0:0/7:0:0:0
UDEV  [1186163583.560076] add@/class/scsi_disk/7:0:0:0
UDEV  [1186163583.626560] add@/class/scsi_device/7:0:0:0
UDEV  [1186163583.627447] add@/class/scsi_generic/sg0
UDEV  [1186163583.639802] add@/block/sda

Simultaneous output of 'tail -f /var/log/messages':
Aug  3 13:52:57 jpk kernel: usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
Aug  3 13:52:57 jpk kernel: usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Aug  3 13:52:57 jpk kernel: scsi7 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk kernel:   Vendor: notwork   Model: CF Card       CF  Rev: 1.6E
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk kernel: sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: Starting vl-hot_mount...
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: devname: sda
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: volname: vol
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: Mounting /dev/vl-hot/sda on /mnt/vl-hot/sda/vol
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: /dev/vl-hot/sda not mountable...
Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: Finishing vl-hot_mount...

[Joe1962]

Aug  3 13:53:03 jpk vl-hot_mount: /dev/vl-hot/sda not mountable...

This means the card wasn't mountable for some reason. Please post the putput of "fdisk -l" (lowercase L) and some info about the card. Upgrading vl-hot to the latest version is also a good idea.

[johnclubvec]

Thank you for your help, Joe1962.

a) I have no idea how to find an upgrade to vl-hot. GSLAPT reveals nothing. I rooted around a little in veclinux-current; don't know where to look for it.

b) The card reader says "GE high-speed 10-in-1 USB card reader". That's all I know about it.

c) I now know that /var/log/messages says " Vendor: notwork   Model: CF Card       CF  Rev: 1.6E" no matter what card or combination of cards I actually plug in -- SD or anything else. As the mechanic said in the movie while observing that the car has no engine, "THERE'S your problem...." There is no reading of any actual card or cards, so naturally nothing can be mounted.

d) I have no problems mounting any card or combination of cards I put into this reader under my old setup, which uses kernel 2.4.

e) Output of 'fdisk -l'  after card reader with a card (or two cards, or none) is plugged in:

Disk /dev/hda: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        1224     9831748+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2            1225        1953     5855692+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3            1954        2077      996030   82  Linux swap
/dev/hda4            2078        9964    63352327+   5  Extended
/dev/hda5            2078        2442     2931831   83  Linux
/dev/hda6            2443        3172     5863693+  83  Linux
/dev/hda7            3173        9964    54556708+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1       36481   293033601   83  Linux

[easuter]

I have no idea how to find an upgrade to vl-hot. GSLAPT reveals nothing. I rooted around a little in veclinux-current; don't know where to look for it.

You need to add the patches repository to GSlapt. Run GSlapt, navigate to Edit -> Preferences -> Sources and add this repository to the sources list: http://ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/vectorlinux/veclinux-5.8/patches/
Then refresh the package list and search for vl-hot again.

The card reader says "GE high-speed 10-in-1 USB card reader". That's all I know about it.

There is bug in VL 5.8 Standard (in the kernel configuration) that could be the cause of this problem you are having. I had the same issue with my 6-in-one card reader because SCSI multiple-lun-scanning is disabled in the kernel.
This has been fixed in VL 5.8 SOHO.
So you have some options such as: recompiling your kernel to include this SCSI feature. Or, depending on your hardware specs, you could upgrade to VL 5.8 SOHO.

Either way, just ask for help if you need it! 

[Joe1962]

IIRC, there is a nice kernel upgrade for 5.8 Standard, I think it was 2.6.19.2, which uses the SOHO kernel config. You can install it from gslapt. However, that might not be the problem. AFAIR, I didn't have any issues mounting a USB multi-card reader in 5.8 Standard with default kernel, but I only tried with CF cards, then again, my memory isn't that good. However, the card type should not be a problem, as the drive should abstract this and present the media like a USB pendrive, right?

Regarding the recommended repo setup in gslapt: http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3681.0

[johnclubvec]

I used 'man slapt-get' to get more up to speed on packaging, and slapt-get to upgrade vl-hot. The new vl-hot didn't do the trick. I will try the kernel recompile strategy, which seems plausible. Give me a couple of days and I'll report back.

[johnclubvec]

RESOLVED.
The kernel recompile did the trick. Hotplugging using the card reader, including with the insertion of multiple cards, is now working correctly. For the record, from, e.g., menuconfig, go to:

Device Drivers/SCSI device support/Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device

and hit Y.

Then recompile the kernel in the usual way and reboot.

Thank you. I will be posting about nfs difficulties soon, but that's for another day.