I've just gotten a response from SanDisk verifying that this is, in fact,
the product I think it is, so now I can write the reply.
This device not only "supports" the Linux OS, it was _designed_ for Linux.
That is to say, several months ago, I contacted SanDisk regarding support
for their devices. At that time, they asked me to sign an NDA to protect
information about their future products. They gave me a sample to work
with, and it was one of the first bulk-only devices I was testing. We
then started sharing information about the driver I was writing and the
device's internal firmware.
SanDisk has been very supportive of my efforts these past few months.
They have quickly fixed bugs that I've reported and even made enhancements
to their firmware specifically to support Linux (in particular, they added
support for commands that Windows/MacOS will never send, but Linux does).
Their engineers have been great to work with on this project.
Support for this device has been in the kernel for some time now. In
fact, the unusual_dev_list entry entitled "***SECRET DEVICE***" is, in
fact, this device. A future patch will change the name to something
nicer. Actually, the only reason that there is even an entry there is
that there are some very very minor firmware bugs that slipped by both
myself and SanDisk before the device entered the final testing stages.
However, these devices are field-upgradeable, and SanDisk tells me that
they will be releasing a newer version of the firmware which fixes all of
these bugs and posting that (as well as the upgrade utility) to their web
site. I'm currently exploring the possibility of making an upgrade
utility to run under Linux, but (for now) the utility will _probably_ only
run under Windows. However, the existing firmware works very well with
Linux. I have no qualms about using the device with this firmware.
In short, SanDisk has gone well out of their way to make a product that
works with Linux, and works _well_. I personally like this device very
much -- it has a nice physical design and has the mandatory "busy"
indicator light that shows when the card is actually being accessed. It
also feels very solid and rugged. The cable attached to the unit is also
a nice length for sitting on a desk and connecting directly to your
computer (I fold it up and connect it to a hub on my desk, which also
works nicely).
People who are looking for a CF or MicroDrive reader that is guaranteed to
work with linux should definately try to find one of these devices. Many
thanks to SanDisk for their support. I hope to be able to continue our
working relationship and make sure their future products work with Linux
too.
Matt Dharm
On Thu, 4 May 2000, Steve Pacenka wrote:
> "The new SanDisk CF ImageMate is the first CompactFlash reader on the market
> that supports the emerging Linux operating system. SanDisk�s CF ImageMate
> (which also reads CompactFlash Type II and MicroDrive cards) is USB
> compliant and supports Windows 2000."
>
> http://www.sandisk.com/pr/000502_imagemate.htm
>
> Available "now" dated 5/2/2000.
>
> No drivers for any OS for this model at their support page. Does anyone
> know if they have a driver different from the one Matt Dharm has provided in
> the 2.3.99pre6 kernels?
>
> -- thanks, SP
>
>
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--
Matthew Dharm Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Senior Engineer, QCP Inc. Work: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Now payink attention, please. This is mouse. Click-click. Easy to
use, da? Now you try...
-- Pitr to Miranda
User Friendly, 10/11/1998
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