asked on

big dummy with freeBSD

i have a dual boot "feed yer family and bleeding edge" freeBSD and i am apparently
completely inept. i have used the vi editor for 20 years now but this is the first
time i have owned an actual UNIX box. i got an MSCS in Physiology and Biophysics
but i freeked out because i could never figger out the Borland c IDE. in my BSCS
obtained in 1989 they only made me learn how to make c programs werk and one
course was in PASCAL. i also had to do machine language but apparently the
university of wisconsin at madison totaly held my hand thru that.

i can't see my SD card, i don't know how to do basic administration of my hardware,
despite i am supposed to be ceritified "open/unix" by the city college of san francisco
i have mounted devices i can su to root, i can follow directions in terms of "do this
command from a root prompt"

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

bytta

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kayvey

ASKER

Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 103> fdisk -I
******* Working on device /dev/ad0 *******
fdisk: can't write fdisk partition table: Device busy
Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 104>

can't see the SD card right now here is a listing of /dev

Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 104> ls /dev
acd0 consolectl lpt0.ctl ptyp5 ttyv5
acpi ctty mdctl random ttyv6
ad0 cuad0 mem stderr ttyv7
ad0s1 cuad0.init net stdin ttyv8
ad0s1a cuad0.lock net1 stdout ttyv9
ad0s1c devctl net2 sysmouse ttyva
ad0s2 devstat net3 ttyd0 ttyvb
ad0s2a fd net4 ttyd0.init ttyvc
ad0s2c fido network ttyd0.lock ttyvd
ad0s3 fw0 nfs4 ttyp0 ttyve
ad0s3b fw0.0 nfslock ttyp1 ttyvf
ad0s3c fwmem0 null ttyp2 ums0
ad0s4 fwmem0.0 pci ttyp3 urandom
agpgart geom.ctl ppi0 ttyp4 usb
apm io psm0 ttyp5 usb0
ata kbd0 ptyp0 ttyv0 usb1
atkbd0 klog ptyp1 ttyv1 usb2
bpf0 kmem ptyp2 ttyv2 usb3
bpsm0 log ptyp3 ttyv3 xpt0
console lpt0 ptyp4 ttyv4 zero
Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 105>

bytta

I'm not sure but the /dev/usb* stuff sounds like a good candidate...

try
fdisk -l /dev/usb (or
fdisk -l /dev/usb0, fdisk -l /dev/usb1, etc..)
and see if it gives you info on your card - then continue the first post

kayvey

ASKER

i have usb ports.. 4 of them.. my mouse is in one of them.. they are in the back of the puter.. seems to me
that usb0-usb3 should correlate to those, but i'm a big dummy..

the SD card is on the side of the puter.. it runs on the pci bus..

umm.. just a sec..

Path: /home/kayve (kayve@www) 101> su
Password:
bind: Command not found.
Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 101> fdisk -I | /dev/usb
/dev/usb: Permission denied.
fdisk: can't write fdisk partition table: Device busy
Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 102> fdisk -I | /dev/usb0
/dev/usb0: Permission denied.
fdisk: can't write fdisk partition table: Device busy
Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 103> fdisk -I
******* Working on device /dev/ad0 *******
fdisk: can't write fdisk partition table: Device busy
Path: /home/kayve (root@www) 104>

kayvey

ASKER

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21476740/how-to-mount-the-SD-card.html

is another question.. basically the same one.. we are doing all sorts of debug probes on this over there..

kayvey

ASKER

hmm... dunno what's going on here.. better wait for that HD..

SOLUTION

gbonne

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gbonne

Meanwhile I saw your other question which is basically the same as here and where another expert ha sbeen helpingout for a LOOOOONG time.... And the thread is probably the longest on experts-exchange (I think a record here, dmesg copies do help but seem not te be half of the text).

You do not have a USB SD card reader but a laptop PCIMCA version and it is not on the hardware supported list.

Please either just delete this question or (like you did in your many other mad posts) just giveaway the points to any of us bot, i.e. bytta or me or even better split them up between us).

If you want to use that reader for the fun of it... Then please do go on with the other thread (looks like fun... Go for the Guinness record of longest forum thread in the world).

If you really need to access data on a SD card then PLEASE forget about the builtin reader and get one of those cheap 15$ USB readers that always work as scsi mass storage devices.

I have spent several hours with your litterature at the time of this writing... Peace and Season's Greetings!

Gerald.

kayvey

ASKER

i don't like more crap to lug around its not about the $15 it is about wtf can't i get software to do this i am a purist and i think it is absurd that i can't make this happen
i will learn to program a patch into freeBSD myself if i have to i am supposed to be getting an MSCS but clearly this is only a nominal title if i can't accomplish this.

gbonne

Yes I agree... However not all and everything is supported... Very old HW gets unsupported and the latest newest is not yet... Support from Asus in the matter could be helpfull... Did you check the Asus system/base CD contents? Maybe they have some driver for FreeBSD... You never know, sometimes the solution is only one step away while we keep looking for it miles around.

And their web site... Based on the exact laptop model specs you may find something to download?

Anyway good luck in your search.

kayvey

ASKER

my devices are /dev/ad..

i think

gbonne

To this I can only say RTFM... The FreeBSD handbook also online at FreeBSD.org.

/dev/ad means ATA Disk... Basically your IDE based disk drivers.
/dev/da means Direct Access... Basically SCSI based drivers (from which USB mass storage device are part (at least in Linux... I'd have to check it out for sure in FreeBSD).

But you have proprietary hardware here... A good start would be a full technical manual of teh card reading device... To get some background on the technology used for communicating with the rest of teh system (USB/IDE/etc...).

If the kernel does not recognize it at all and the tech is unknown or new you may well see nothing at all in dmesg (I have a similar issue with FreeBSD 5 and floppies in Qemu, Qemu is a freeware virtual machine. With FreeBSD 4 all works nicely).

In fact, in order to help efficiently an in depth diag/analysis of your entire laptop would help gaining lots of time here.

But I'll leave the rest of this discussion for the other question thread where another expert has been helping out for a longer time. He sure has been patient enough analyzing all your dmesg reports ;-)

kayvey

ASKER

to tell you the truth the whole project is sort of a back burner thing. i did something about ASUS on the other question umm.. i am not sure
where to go with that stuff. .. i think i had some files..

btw.. the harddrive has long since crashed now i have a new one.. i haven't booted on freeBSD for a while..

arr.. i have to set a bunch of stuff of there i think

kayvey

ASKER

for now i'm having tom and jerrys

gbonne

Would Tom and Jerry mind that you just split your points for this question here?

I'd be glad to continue exchanging entertaining e-mail messages.

And I think that the experts-exchange moderators would appreciate that we stop going too much off topic here.

gbonne

I just realize that e-mails are hidden here.. Mine is zen at tonton dot be.

kayvey

ASKER

okay kill this one.. will the content here still be up here if it is kilt? maybe i need to do what these guys said some more someday when i have time