USB devices, drivers and linux

Is a driver needed to use USB card reader with linux?

[Trisha]

I've been wanting to get a digital camera for ages - I think I may have even posted about it here before - but still haven't done it yet.

I was told by someone at a Best Buy that I could get a 5 in 1 USB card reader and would have no trouble using it with linux and could use that to get the images from the camera to the computer. But I just read elsewhere that a driver for the USB device would still be needed. (And likely wouldn't be available for linux)

I really don't understand hardware issues too well, and linux is new to me too - so does anyone know if this is true or not?

And if not, any idea of how to get images off camera and onto linux?

[futuresky]

I've successfully managed to get piccies from a usb card reader. If I can remember right, the usb card reader should be /dev/sda or maybe /dev/sda1 . Try mounting this somewhere, for example

mkdir /mnt/pictures
mnt /dev/sda /mnt/pictures

... and just seeing if you can view the piccie files in konqueror or just by
ls -AlF /mnt/pictures

I'm no expert in kernel stuff but if this doesn't work, I think you may need to ensure that you've got the right usb options compiled in your kernel.

[MattyMoose]

I usually use my USB Card Reader in FreeBSD rather than plugging my camera in, mostly because I'm used to doing things that way.

But, I should mention that gphoto2 ( [gphoto.org...] ) and its GUI front end gtkam, is a pretty good app, that was able to detect and use my brand new Canon PowerShot A520. It is a free app that most distributions would include on their CDs, I'm sure, or you can find an installer/package for it somewhere.

HTH!
Matt

[Trisha]

futuresky - I will try that. Even mounting devices is a challenge for me though!

This computer does have a 3 in 1 card reader on it, that I have never used. So I guess if I get a camera with a type of card that this reader recognizes, I won't need to get an external USB reader. I don't even know what 3 types it reads though - but I asked about this in a different forum!

[futuresky]

May be an idea to buy a card before dishing out on the camera to ensure it's compatible with your reader - can always use the card as a spare or additional storage. Just a thought.

[Trisha]

yeah, that's what I had been thinking, buy an external card reader and some cards and see if it works at all. Our plans have changed slightly though - my husband really wants a camera too. For some of my needs I would need a more expensive one with more features - but he doesn't and his work computer runs XP - so he could use anything.

But still, when I use the camera it would be nice to be able to get the images directly onto my computer too. And eventually I'd still like to get a much better one that I would definitely need to be able to use with my computer.

So I guess we will go to some local store in the next few days and buy a relatively cheap one and that will give me a chance to try it out with my computer too.

[krod]

there is a program called ndiswrapper which allows you to use windows drivers under linux ;)
I use it for my wireless cards