Ah, so that's why my USB CF reader has never worked

[DingoStick]

I've NEVER had luck getting my Delkin USB CompactFlash reader to work under Linux. The best I've done is getting hotplug to see it being plugged or unplugged into my computer, but /dev/sdX# didn't exist (in Gentoo) or didn't recognize the reader (in Slackware).

When I bought my digital camera back in late 1999, I got a CF reader with it. I used Windows at the time, so I installed the drivers and got it going without any problems. In switching to Linux, though, the reader didn't work. Could never figure it out. I'd recompiled my kernel with USB mass storage support, MTD support, etc.

But I finally fixed it.

You see, as I figured out just recently, various people in the MTU LUG have USB CF readers working fine. I got to talking with them about it, and found that theirs "just work" in both Linux and in Windows. Mine didn't work in Windows unless I installed special software for it. For these guys, they just plugged it in and Windows detected and mounted it. No software.

So it turns out my reader is too old to work in Windows without software, and too old to work in Linux. Period. So I got a new CF reader at OfficeMax yesterday (free after rebate, not too bad). What do you know? I plug it in and put a CF card in, and suddenly, I have /dev/sdb1, where I had no such device seconds before

That eliminates one of the two things that keep Windows on my desktop machine (the other being really good DVD burning software). So for those of you who haven't been able to get a CF reader working, maybe it's too old a device.
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[benca1]

Ah, good to know! I was trying to mount my Canon G3 as a card device so I can upload files to it. Anyhoo, I can't get it to work. Maybe I should just get the stupid card reader.. thanks for the post.