Dear Lazyweb, if you:

• Use Fedora;
• Have a reasonably fast x86 CPU (2GHz+);
• Are able to get files off of a CompactFlash card at USB 2.0 (or FireWire) speeds;

then please tell me what motherboard and CF reader you are using so that I can go buy one.

Actually, if you're able to do it even at USB-1 speeds, tell me that too, but really, in this day and age, USB-2 should not be asking for much.

<LJ-CUT text=" --More--(17%) ">

In the last two years, I've gone through permutations of three different motherboards (and associated CPU and RAM "upgrades"), two different PCI USB boards, four different USB CF readers, switched from SCSI to IDE disks, and tried all of RH8, RH9, FC2, and FC3. To this day, the only reliable way I've found to get pictures off my camera's card has been "plug it into my girlfriend's Mac."

So as you can see, I've tried to make this problem go away by throwing copious amounts of money at it. I am prepared to continue doing so, but I don't have any fucking idea what to buy next.

Currently my motherboard is an ASUS A7V880 VIA KT880 with an Athlon 3200+ (2.2GHz.) It has onboard USB-2, and the only thing plugged into it is an IDE drive and an Nvidia e-GeForce FX 5700 Ultra.

The card readers I have tried are:

• Vantec UGT-CR912 11-in-1 USB 2.0 reader;
• Dazzle USB 2.0 reader, no model number apparent;
• Lexar Jumpshot USB005 USB 1.0 reader;
• SanDisk ImageMate SDDR-31 USB 1.0 reader.

The CF card I am currently using (though I have tried other, smaller ones in the past) is a "Lexar 2GB 40x part 2260 Rev A."

All of the card readers do some variant of this when I plug them in (card present or not):

usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using address 52
usb 5-1: device not accepting address 52, error -71
usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using address 53
usb 5-1: device not accepting address 53, error -71

usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 5-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
usb 5-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71

usb 5-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 5-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
usb 5-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
usb 5-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71

Both the ehci_hcd and uhci_hcd drivers get loaded. I have kernel-2.6.10-1.741_FC3 at the moment, but I've also tried dozens of previous 2.6, 2.4, and 2.2 series kernels.

I have, at various times, seen the latter three of these cards work erratically on previous versions of Linux, though I think the last time was FC2. I have, in fact, even seen the Dazzle work at USB-2 speeds, but not lately. Generally they'd work once, then I'd have to reboot to get them to work again.

One of the Red Hat guys sent me a kernel patch that he thought might help, but it didn't. I'm so out of ideas that I offered to ship him my motherboard and all my card readers, but he declined.

So, dear Lazyweb, I turn to you.

(Don't make me ban you, ok?)

Update: Yeah, apparently I still have to spell it out for you fucktards. If you say "get a mac", I just ban you. If you say "it works great on my laptop", I just ban you. Clear yet?

Update 2: I will now jinx it by saying that I think I got it working, by 1) turning off USB on my mobo; 2) using a new "Vitex USB 2.0 PCI OHCI/EHCI" card; and 3) using the Vantec reader. (The Dazzle reader worked once, but then no longer worked after I rebooted.) We'll see how long this state of grace lasts...