Trouble reading MicroSD card

Hardware
1 
System:
  Host: joey-Z140C Kernel: 4.15.0-69-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.2.4 Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina 
  base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Mustek product: Z140C v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Mustek model: YN8DE serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends 
  v: 8.16 date: 10/26/2018 
Battery:
  ID-1: axp288_fuel_gauge charge: 83% condition: N/A model: N/A 
  status: Charging 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Atom x5-Z8350 bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Airmont rev: 4 L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 11520 
  Speed: 480 MHz min/max: 480/1920 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 610 2: 483 
  3: 480 4: 480 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series 
  PCI Configuration Registers 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics (Cherrytrail) 
  v: 4.5 Mesa 19.0.8 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series 
  Imaging Unit 
  driver: N/A bus ID: 00:03.0 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-69-generic 
Network:
  Message: No Device data found. 
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 43.74 GiB used: 15.78 GiB (36.1%) 
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: SLD32G size: 28.91 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/mmcblk2 model: SC16G size: 14.84 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 27.83 GiB used: 15.78 GiB (56.7%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/mmcblk0p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 200 Uptime: 10d 1h 57m Memory: 1.87 GiB used: 1.10 GiB (58.5%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.4.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 
  inxi: 3.0.32

I use an HP Stream which, with it having no HDD, I find it perfect (for example to have my vehicles manuals available in a very easily portable and robust device). I have installed a 32 GB micro card with no problems.

Now the above print out is from a similar Mecer that I got for my wife who loves to play card games and has many photographs she needs easy access to - I felt that this type of Laptop would be ideal for her.

I have Mint 19.2 (Cinnamon) on both the above machines.

Now my problem: When I installed a 16 GB micro card into the micro slot on her Mecer it is not “seen” by the laptop although it is in fact shown as one of the drives…

However, if I place the 16 GB micro card via a USB adapter into a USB slot it shows up perfectly…

Hope I am making a simple mistake!!

Many thanks

Clive Liddell
Pietermaritzburg
South Africa

1 Like
2

if you can run lsblk in a terminal to determine which card you are booting from, that will be a good start. for example, mine looks like this (irrelevant bits excerpted):

NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 223.6G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 46.6G 0 part /
mmcblk0 179:0 0 1.9G 0 disk
└─mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 1.9G 0 part /media/user/D448-6593

the / at the end of the line starting with sda1 shows that i am booting from that disk (sda) and partition (1). the mmcblk0 entry is my sd card.

once you know that, if you can run mount | grep mmcblk* (replacing the * after mmcblk with the number of the entry that does not have / after it in lsblk) and share the output i think that would help get things started. it will also be helpful if you can run that command with the card installed regularly (when it isn’t being “seen”) as well as when it is in the usb adapter so we can take a look at the difference between the two.

this is what mount | grep mmcblk0 output looks like for my card:

mount | grep mmcblk0
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/user/D448-6593 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,showexec,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro,uhelper=udisks2)

3

an easier and quicker test would be to see if another card works in that slot.

4

Hi cordx,
Thanks, in reply to your first post:

I’m not sure how to get the results to you (easily). I think it confirms my initial rambling that, with the card in the USB adapter I get results similar to yours - no results with the card in the micro slot…

Just fetching the card from ‘my’ laptop now to try it.

1 Like
5

My other (good) micro card also does not respond in the ‘lsblk’ command so it seems that the recently bought Mecer laptop could be faulty??

6

that is what it sounds like. if multiple cards don’t work in the slot (especially ones that work on other systems and in a usb adapter), it is a good bet the slot itself is the problem.

7

Yes, thanks for the help. It’s uncanny that with different equipment I get almost word for word the same as you on the working adapter!

I will go to the dealer and get them to sort it out :>)

Regards
Clive

8

happy to help :slight_smile: we both use distributions based on ubuntu (i use bodhi linux) so it makes sense that they would mount similar storage devices with similar settings and parameters. it certainly seems to make it a bit easier to help others.

good luck with getting things sorted at the dealer.