Hello all!
I'm trying to get a SanDisk ImageMate flash card reader,
parallel port version, working under Linux, and having
little luck.
I know about the SanDisk USB reader that is supposed to work
with Linux, but I got the parallel one for compatibility
with an older non-USB W*nd*z* box. It worked just fine with
that machine, but I'm having trouble with it on my Linux box.
The reader specs (from the label) are:
SanDisk ImageMate
Part No. SDDR-01
Serial No. SD99114505426
Made in Taiwan
Approvals: VCCI, FCC, CE, (check mark) N532
Shuttle Connects
That last wording and logo made me hopeful. I opened it up
(peel back the end of the sticker closest to the cord to
reveal one Philips-head screw) to find a small circuit board,
about 7cm x 6cm. There is a 1.5 cm x 2 cm SMT chip labelled
SHUTTLE TECHNOLOGY EP1234-01 9927D . The circuit board is
labelled WHALE-CFII SCM Microsystems Rev 3.1 AUG 1999 .
It has no "eject" button for the flash card; you just pull
it out with your fingers.
The connection to the computer is via a 36-wire cable.
One end of the cable has the reader, and the other end
has male and female DB25 connectors, plus a coaxial jack
for DC +5V power. In normal operation this is "stolen"
with another adapter cable from the keyboard or mouse
port. The 8 data bits from the PC are passed to both
the reader and the output parallel port - just a simple
"Y" cable. The 9 control bits from the PC go directly
to the reader, and the 9 control bits for the output
port come from the reader on different wires - the
reader intercepts these lines.
I have been trying to use the paride device drivers, since
they mention compatibility with the Shuttle chips used in
some parallel->IDE external devices. I have tried both the
pd (IDE disk) and pf (ATAPI disk) drivers with no success.
The reader has two LEDs, a green "power" one and an orange
"activity" one. When used with W*nd*z*, the orange one
blinks dimly at about 1 Hz whether a card is installed or
not. When a flash card is put in, the orange one lights
up brightly for a moment, and a "SanDisk" drive icon appears
in Explorer. When you are transferring data to or from the
flash card, the orange LED also lights brightly, just like
the "activity light" on a standard rotating-media IDE or
SCSI hard disk.
I can load the paride and epat modules with no problem.
When I try to load the pd or pf modules, the epat autoprobe
fails. However, the orange "activity" light on the reader
flashes during the pd autoprobe. It does not do this with
the epia module. I have twiddled the options to epat
(force master/slave, differing delays) with no effect.
Doing 'strings' on the Windows miniport driver (IMGMATE.MPD)
returns a few references to "EPAT", so I believe this
is the right protocol.
I put in a bit of code to do a hex dump of the 'scratch'
buffer used by the epat_test_proto function and can
provide dumps if needed. I get some response on modes
2d, 4, and 5:
pda: epat: port 0x378, mode 0, ccr 0, test=(255,255,0)
pda: epat: port 0x378, mode 1, ccr 0, test=(255,255,0)
pda: epat: port 0x378, mode 2, ccr 2d, test=(255,255,464)
pda: epat: port 0x378, mode 3, ccr 0, test=(255,255,0)
pda: epat: port 0x378, mode 4, ccr 0, test=(255,255,447)
pda: epat: port 0x378, mode 5, ccr 0, test=(255,255,506)
Looking at the code, it seems to step through the 'scratch'
buffer. The even bytes are "expected" to go 0-255 and the
odd bytes go 255-0. If a byte in the buffer doesn't match
this pattern, this fact is recorded.
There is also some code above this that writes 170 xor (0-255)
to register 2 and and 85 xor (1-255) to register 3, and then
reads register 2. If it doesn't equal the value just written,
this fact is also recorded.
These two facts are taken together to create the return value
of epat_test_proto . I'm not quite sure yet whether this
is supposed to be simply 1 or 0 (device found or not) or
where there is a list elsewhere mapping return codes to
what device was found.
I have a feeling that this device is simply using some extension
or newer version of the EPAT protocol that the current driver
(I have v1.01) doesn't address. I haven't been able to find
a DOS SanDisk driver, so I don't think I can do the dosemu
debugging thing. I may be able to hack it under Wine, though.
I know the reader is working, as I can use in on a laptop
with Win98 and another desktop with Win95. The port is
working, as my parallel ZIP drive works on it, as well
as a printer. (I do not have the lp or ppa modules loaded
when trying to make the SanDisk reader work - it's the
only thing on the port.) The port is set to EPP mode,
and when I use the Zip drive, ppa driver does find it and
uses 32-bit EPP mode.
I'm running RedHat 6.1, kernel 2.2.12-20. paride is all
built as modules. Hardware is a Gateway 2000
Intel Aladdin motherboard, which used to have a P5-100,
but now has an Evergreen AMD K6-400 upgrade, including
the Evergreen-supplied MR BIOS. I'm using the parallel
port on the motherboard, not an add-in card. The system
has 64MB RAM. Other devices in the system include 10GB
and 3GB IDE hard disks, Mitsumi 4x IDE CD-ROM, Adaptec
AHA1520 SCSI card with HP 2x SCSI CD-ROM, Colorado floppy-tape
drive, Sound Blaster 16 ISA, and ATI Mach64 PCI video.
All of these devices have been working fine...the only
change I've made is to add the SanDisk reader.
Has anyone gotten this device to work under Linux? Am
I on the right track with the paride drivers or should
I use something else?
Any information or pointers would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!!
Matt Roberds
mroberds@worldnet.att.net
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