2009/02/08

Fixing a Readonly SD Card Reader in Ubuntu

On one of my laptops running Ubuntu I noticed that my SD card was always mounted in readonly mode. My other Linux-powered laptop mounted the same SD card just fine in read/write mode. As a workaround, I could remove photo's directly from the camera or from the other laptop, but I was intriged and decided to delve deeper into this issue.

A few relevant commands stumbled upon thanks to Google:
$ dmesg | grep -i sdhci
[ 15.122623] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[ 15.122627] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[ 15.194747] sdhci-pci 0000:0a:09.1: SDHCI controller found [1180:0822] (rev 19)
[ 15.194768] sdhci-pci 0000:0a:09.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 15.197935] mmc0: SDHCI controller on PCI [0000:0a:09.1] using PIO

$ lsmod | grep -i sdhci
sdhci_pci 15360 0
sdhci 23940 1 sdhci_pci
mmc_core 58268 2 mmc_block,sdhci

$ lspci | grep -i ricoh
...
0a:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
0a:09.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
0a:09.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 0a)
0a:09.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 05)
0a:09.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)

$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
...
Feb 8 13:48:51 michael-laptop2 kernel: [ 3910.801967] mmc0: card lacks mandatory switch function, performance might suffer.
Feb 8 13:48:51 michael-laptop2 kernel: [ 3910.802543] mmc0: new SD card at address b368
Feb 8 13:48:51 michael-laptop2 kernel: [ 3910.805647] mmcblk0: mmc0:b368 E0421 501248KiB (ro)
Feb 8 13:48:51 michael-laptop2 kernel: [ 3910.806012] mmcblk0: p1
Feb 8 13:48:51 michael-laptop2 hald: mounted /dev/mmcblk0p1 on behalf of uid 1000

$ cat /etc/mtab
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/disk vfat ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077,flush 0 0
After a long search on google and in my logs, I couldn't find any clue. The SD read-only-switch was correctly turned off ; my tests on the other laptop confirmed this. Finally I rebooted my laptop under Vista and ... the SD was also mounted read-only. Conclusion: it was not an OS / driver problem and the problem was related to that PC. I then simply blew some air with a "dust remover" into the SD slot and the magic happened: the SD card mounted in read write mode... A trivial solution to a seemingly complex problem.

at

23 comments:

  1. laudicignoloMarch 4, 2009 at 4:07 PM

    I was getting crazy with the same problem oh an almost new trancend sdhc 4GB!
    Many many thanks, you saved me from madness
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. xcrowJune 3, 2009 at 4:56 PM

    I had te same problem, but I have a laptop with SD-card slot. The sntence which saved my life: "The SD read-only-switch was correctly turned off". In my case the switch was turned on. Thank you very much :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2010 at 6:00 PM

    Thanks Thanks, mine problem was also
    that dammed switch...Thanks again
    The Dane:-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. RapteRJanuary 30, 2010 at 4:48 AM

    Hi. I have the same card reader on my HP Pavilion dv6236ea - the same problem. Thanks for the information.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 26, 2010 at 11:44 PM

    thank you... thank you... thank you...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Urza9814August 22, 2010 at 9:54 PM

    Holy crap. Thank you! I was having the same problem on my Dell Vostro 1000. I just blew into the slot and it fixed the problem. So weird. Reminds me of the old Nintendo cartridges....

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2010 at 2:56 PM

    Thank you, thank you , thank you *42

    had the same problem! Didn't know dust could cause strange problem like this one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ulysesJanuary 9, 2011 at 12:13 AM

    Thanks for saving me a lot of time searching and searching ... I couldn't have imagined it. That's the magic of computers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2011 at 2:22 PM

    Excellent!! ++ on the thanks for this! I spent HOURS following other advice using mount/umount before following this simple tip. Will now be the first thing I try when having card/stick problems.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousMay 22, 2011 at 10:39 PM

    Amazing: Reinserting the micro-sd in the adapter did the trick, while reinserting the adapter into the sd-slot - off course - didn't help. Thank's a lot for finding out and publishing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownJune 19, 2011 at 9:36 PM

    Excellent, thanks a lot - this put me on the right track. My SD Card adapter's lock slider kept moving to the locked position every time I inserted the card. I'll have to super-glue it in the unlocked position!

    ReplyDelete
  12. RonnySeptember 4, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    Thank you so much. Blowing with my mouth into the slot has cured the read-only nightmare. I had also been searching the whole afternoon, thinking that it must have been some settings in the Windows CE registry that put the card reader of my GPS navigator in read-only mode. No sir, it seems to have been a simple speck of dust :-S

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    Tried 3 cards so far and was expecting heavy effort - blew in the slot, worked fine. Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  14. ShibbySeptember 19, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    I just had the same problem!

    Getting all crazy with dmesg etc.

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousNovember 23, 2011 at 8:42 PM

    same here:

    first try:
    [ 692.934651] mmcblk0: mmc0:b368 SD 486 MiB (ro)
    [ 692.936135] mmcblk0: p1
    [ 700.615993] mmc0: card b368 removed

    few more blows:

    [ 645.092688] mmcblk0: error -123 sending status command
    [ 645.092697] mmcblk0: error -123 sending read/write command, response 0x0, card status 0x0
    [ 645.092776] mmcblk0: error -123 requesting status
    [ 645.092815] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 731
    [ 645.092821] quiet_error: 33 callbacks suppressed
    [ 645.092826] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p1, logical block 496
    [ 645.092831] lost page write due to I/O error on mmcblk0p1

    head exploding:

    [ 723.172585] mmc0: new SD card at address b368
    [ 723.173017] mmcblk0: mmc0:b368 SD 486 MiB
    [ 723.174635] mmcblk0: p1

    WORKED!!!!! \o/ WHAT THE HELL!!!!

    DIE HP DIE!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. doorknob60December 12, 2011 at 5:23 AM

    Haha! I have a card reader in my Desktop that was doing this, so I googled and read this. I just stuck my face up to it, blew a couple times, and now it works :P I was pretty skeptical, but I guess it worked :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousMarch 25, 2012 at 1:52 PM

    Strange but simply blowing into the reader fixed it in my case too.
    Now, that was an easy work-around.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Migz BeatsMarch 27, 2012 at 8:35 PM

    Wowww. I was going crazy looking for a fix on the web to no avail . . .until i stumbled upon this page . .

    After blowing thru a shirt into the slot like an old school supernintendo cartridge that hasn't been used for years - i can finally use my SD card with readyboost again! =)

    thanks!

    want fresh beats? folow me on twitter @MigzBeats

    House + Hip-Hop Radio 24/7/365
    for the free
    @ Musiqsource.com


    Thanks Again!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Migz BeatsMarch 27, 2012 at 8:40 PM

    sorry about all the reposts
    the captcha kept on telling me i did it wrong .. oops

    ReplyDelete
  20. David Bartlett @CardiffInternetOctober 17, 2012 at 7:46 PM

    Another happy customer of yours. First blow did nothing, fifth time lucky. Thanks a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  21. ennuiDecember 11, 2012 at 6:34 PM

    same issue on a ricoh r5c822 (sd card reader on the lenovo x220). i literally blew once into the sd card slot and it worked right after.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Sergii GetmanMarch 23, 2013 at 2:35 PM

    Thank you very much!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousAugust 11, 2013 at 1:37 AM

    Wooooooooah! It worked, thanks!

    ReplyDelete