Alcor Micro AU6601 PCI-E Flash card reader controller on ArchLinux

Update. Please check this post for installation instructions for Linux kernel 4.16+.

I'm running ArchLinux on this perfect ASUSPRO BU401LG notebook by ASUS and the only problem I faced recently was sd-card reader not working at all.

lspci shows the following:


$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller (rev 09)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 0a03 (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series HECI #0 (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I218-V (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev e4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev e4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev e4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev e4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series SMBus Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series Thermal (rev 04)
02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Alcor Micro AU6601 PCI-E Flash card reader controller
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 6b)
04:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 730M] (rev a1)

There are no events in logs after inserting sd-card into slot. So, after a bit of searching here is the solution.

Thanks to Sabin Iacob there is a driver for the card reader and the only thing to do is to install it.

Driver is packaged for Ubuntu and these are the steps I've done to install it on Arch:

  • download appropriate deb-package (i386 or amd64) from packages page
  • install debtap package from AUR if not already installed
  • initialize debtap database
  • convert deb package to archlinux package using debtap
  • install generated package using yaourt -U
  • install kernel driver
  • use card reader :)

$ wget https://launchpad.net/~iacobs/+archive/ubuntu/au6601/+files/au6601-dkms_0.3-0~ppa7_amd64.deb
$ yaourt -S debtap
$ sudo debtap -u
$ debtap au6601-dkms_0.3-0-ppa7_amd64.deb
$ yaourt -U au6601-dkms-0.3-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
$ sudo modprobe au6601-pci
$ udevil mount /dev/mmcblk0p1

# profit!

Last modified: 2016-09-30 05:16:00 +00:00 UTC