UDisks.Device.DriveDetach() permanently powers down card *reader*

Bug #871307 reported by Jason Gerard DeRose
18
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
udisks (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

The UDisks.Device.DriveDetach() DBus method will permanently power-down a card *reader*... if you remove the card and insert it again (or insert a different card), nothing happens. The only way to get things working again is to unplug the card *reader* and then plug the card *reader* back in again.

DriveDetach() is what gets called (apparently) when you right click on the Launcher icon for a card and "Safely remove"... same effect, and you have to unplug/replug the card *reader* to get things working again.

This is fundamentally a problem in UDisks, but I feel "Eject" vs "Safely remove" is horrible, horrible UX... this is just forcing the user deal with the fact that UDisks and/or the kernel isn't smart enough to really understand the hardware details. Considering how broken things are, I strongly feel than Unity should only present the "Eject" option. "Safe remove", in my experience thus far, will never do something useful and intuitive for the user. Plus it's just bad branding... Ubuntu lets you perform an "Unsafe remove"? Why should I have to manually pick a "Safe remove"? Why would I ever want anything else?

For what it's worth, this kind of stuff makes it very difficult to present Ubuntu as a viable platform for pro video users. Card readers are standard equipment in pro video (and photo) workflows, and currently things are embarrassingly broken.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: udisks 1.0.4-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Oct 9 08:02:15 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Beta amd64 (20110921.2)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=99836a48-007a-45a5-9adc-2750052761af ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: udisks
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/08/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 2001
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: M4A87TD/USB3
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr2001:bd03/08/2011:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnM4A87TD/USB3:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

Revision history for this message
Jason Gerard DeRose (jderose) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jason Gerard DeRose (jderose) wrote :

BTW, this is the card reader I'm currently testing with:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050C9ZMC

Same behavior whether plugged into USB2 or USB3 port.

Revision history for this message
David Jordan (dmj726) wrote :

I can confirm this on my card reader as well. After safely ejecting the card, SD cards in the reader will not be recognized until the card reader itself is unplugged and plugged back in.

Changed in udisks (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
eitch (eitch) wrote :

I've seen this same problem with my card readers. I now have a built in card read in my system and I have to be very careful not to use the safely remove function because, well, i can't just unplug and plug in the card reader as it is internally cabled...

Revision history for this message
Jason Gerard DeRose (jderose) wrote :

@dmj726 - thanks for confirming this on a different brand of card reader.

@eitch - thanks for confirming on an internal card reader... hadn't thought about that, sounds extra horrible... so only fix is to reboot?

It seems like "Safely remove" does the right thing so seldom that it really shouldn't be presented to the user at all.

Revision history for this message
oshunluvr (stuartksmith) wrote :

Not to complain (much) but this bug has been around in various forms since at least 2009 and still is. I'm one of those with an internally mounted USB bus sd card reader that powers down if you use "Safely Remove." Un-mount works well, but I am left to using the command line to do it.

Is anyone interested in getting this fixed? I've literally read dozens if not a hundred different reports of this.

Revision history for this message
AceLan Kao (acelankao) wrote :

Try this
in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks.policy
search
   <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
and change the 'yes' to 'no'

Revision history for this message
AceLan Kao (acelankao) wrote :

From bug 504440, Martin Pitt (pitti) says the issue had been fixed in 13.04.

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