Re: Linux friendly CF card reader

From: Danno (TOOmuchSPAM_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 01/24/04 

Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 05:50:08 GMT

David M. Bartusik wrote:

> How did you get the Datafab to work on the parallel port?

THe MDCF / MDCFE I've got has a parallel interface. I believe they also
made/make a USB interface. I am not running a USB device through the
parallel port, if that's what you're wondering... (i'd sure like to
though).

<cut'n'paste begins>
Getting it to work on the ThinkPad 560 under Slack9.1 is not that big a
deal. All you need are a few 2.4.* kernel modules. I have compiled the
parallel port support monolithically into my kernel, but built the support
modules dynamically. You will need the modules
paride epat pd
in order to succesfully interface the device. Boot the computer with the
device attatched and the compact flash card in its slot. Insert each of the
above three modules in the order they're shown
insmod paride
insmod epat
insmod pd
This will create the device pda, and if your card is built with a single
partition, it will be partition pda1 (like any hard drive/block device).
Now mount the device wherever you want to access it:
mount -t vfat /dev/pda1 /parallel_mountpoint
It is important to define the correct type of filesystem, otherwise you get
a read-write error. Some cards are formatted with FAT-12, but I think vfat
covers that.
Note that this is through a parallel port, so transfer speeds are not
super-fast relative to today's standards, but for the age of the computer,
not too bad at all. As a quick test, I moved a 51M ogg file from the card
to the hdd. It took 228 seconds, and moving it back back to the cf card
took 215 seconds. 

-- 
Slackware9.1, 2.4.24, A7V333-XP2100+, Ti4200
RLU #272755

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Network drivers that dont suspend on interface down
    ... to ensure that the interface is downed. ... the driver simply can't do anything about it, because the switch ... is hardwired to the card and either the card's firmware takes care of ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: chelsio driver and Myricom driver
    ... firmware will be automatically be updated when you up an interface on ... I just figured that out a few min ago by accident and the card looks happy now! ... Last clearing of "show interface" counters never ... input packets with dribble condition detected ...
    (freebsd-current)
  • Re: MCE 2005 Interface flickers
    ... The specs of the card on the nvidia site indicates that it does have turbo ... Do you have any problem when not using the MCE user interface? ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Design decision for a game
    ... public void addCard(Card card) { ... for (HouseListener lstnr: listeners) { ... if you _do_ want the Rule notifications to include the ... or you need to expand your RuleListener interface so that there are ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)
  • Accessing serial port interface of pcmcia Aircard 710
    ... The Memory window 0 registers from the ExCA register set of the TI ... we are able to access the AirCard's CIS ... and the Card configuration registers at 0x700 offset ... standard 16550 UART serial port interface. ...
    (comp.os.linux.portable)