why would my onboard SD/MMC reader suddenly stop working?

[Liam Proven]

On 11 November 2012 17:58, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Nov 2012, Liam Proven wrote:
>
>> Download, burn & try a live CD or two, then.
>>
>> Got any other cards you can try?
>
>   ok, booted an old (ubuntu) kernel:
>
> $ uname -r
> 3.2.0-33-generic
> $
>
> and now SD card mounts just fine:
>
> /dev/sdc1 on /media/boot type vfat
> (rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush,uhelper=udisks)
> /dev/sdc2 on /media/Narcissus-rootfs type ext3
> (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
>
> so it's clearly something i've done stupid in rolling my own kernel.
> "uhelper=udisks"?  not sure what that's all about, something i haven't
> adusted in udev?  thoughts?

Bingo.

TBH, I suspected as much.

I can't really help any further - I have not rolled my own kernel
since about 2005. I have not had the need since then; nowadays,
everything Just Works for me and has done for many years.

(Around 2006, Ubuntu stopped working on my oldest 21st-century
Thinkpad and no amount of kernel furtling helped at all. About 3-4y
later it started working again and still does, the last I tried,
although adding the almost-undocumented everyone-advises-against-it
"acpi=force" kernel parameter still helps. That's when I stopped
trying to roll my own. Life is too short.)

Can you install some of the vanilla kernels alongside your own and use
the GRUB menu to switch between them? Indeed, can you get at the GRUB
menu? If so, you may find that there are a bunch of old ones still
there under "Previous versions". That might help.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
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