Realtek Card Reader not working

Question

I have an internal card reader in my HP Pavilion DV6-6155ca and the card reader is a "multi-card media reader" (I know this means nothing but trying to be though) and the device is the RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader. I am running ubuntu 12.10.

When I insert a sd card nothing happens at all. The card is readable from other devices and I have used at one point in another version of Ubuntu.

uname -a
Linux Ketterer-Ubuntubook 3.5.0-24-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Thu Feb 7 01:50:30 UTC 2013        x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The output of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM         Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor   Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Caicos [Radeon HD 6400M/7400M Series]
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
0d:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (rev 34)
13:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
19:00.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04)

The outout of lspci -vmmnn | grep -A4 -B2 Realtek:

Slot:   13:00.0
Class:  Unassigned class [ff00]
Vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. [10ec]
Device: RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader [5209]
SVendor:    Hewlett-Packard Company [103c]
SDevice:    Device [1656]
Rev:    01

Output of lsusb:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 138a:0018 Validity Sensors, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 5986:02ac Acer, Inc 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 1058:0748 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 8086:0189 Intel Corp.

Answer 1

I suggest using the driver found at and following the steps found here.

Clones the github repository under /usr/src and uses dkms to install the driver.

Steps to be performed as a superuser. Prepend each line with sudo if required.

Install git, if you don't have it already
sudo apt-get -y install git

Switch into /usr/src
cd /usr/src

Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/chrisnew/rts_pstor.git rts_pstor-1.11

Compile and install through dkms
dkms install rts_pstor/1.11

Load the module
sudo modprobe rts_pstor

Done (no reboot required)

This worked for me on an Acer Aspire One D257 running Ubuntu 16.04.

lspci output:

Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

dmesg output after driver install with card inserted:

[  744.395191] Initializing Realtek PCIE storage driver...
[  903.017115] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 1234
[  903.052409] mmcblk0: mmc0:1234 SA16G 14.6 GiB 
[  903.054433] mmcblk0: p1

Answer 2

I had the same problem. I fixed it by editing /etc/modules as follows:

sudo -H gedit /etc/modules

Then, I added the following line to the end of /etc/modules:

tifm_sd

Save the file and reboot. The SD card reader should now function normally.

Answer 3

There is a module for this:

look here: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/02/card-reader-not-working-hp-mini-ubuntu

Fixing SD card reader on HP Mini 110 and other netbooks This guide will walk owners of HP Mini 110 series and Compaq Mini CQ10-500 series netbook owners – along with any one else owning a device using a Realtek rts5159 card reader – through downloading and installing the required driver.

To identify your card reader model run lsusb in a Terminal.

Download the ‘Unix (Linux)’ driver for the Realtek rts5159 from this link.

Once downloaded, extract, move the folder to your home directory.

Now we need to install the driver. Open a new terminal session. Run each of the following commands deperately:

cd rts_pstor
make
sudo make install
sudo depmod

Once completed, reboot the computer and the card reader will be working.