# Blackberry USB Mass Storage

## palmer

I have a Blackberry Pearl (8130, Verizon) running v4.3.0.60 (Platform 3.1.0.32).  I am trying to use the mass storage mode on the SD card in gentoo (2.6.24-gentoo-r8, amd64).

The device mounts fine, but does not read files correctly.  Every time I mount the device, the files contents is different (probably because of caching).

Sometimes (if I open the directory in Konqueror), the first half of the images will be readable before they go corrupt.  The device will then hang with a red LED and I have to pull out the battery to reboot it.

The blackberry has no problems reading or writing to the card.

```
palmer@desktop ~ $ mount /mnt/usbstick/

md5sum /mnt/usbstick/BlackBerry/pictures/IMG00036.jpg

5fad8ef716d62546249cd5d414d1fe6e  /mnt/usbstick/BlackBerry/pictures/IMG00036.jpg

palmer@desktop ~ $ umount /mnt/usbstick/

mount /mnt/usbstick/

palmer@desktop ~ $ md5sum /mnt/usbstick/BlackBerry/pictures/IMG00036.jpg

fead52ae8e5adaa4b7805eeea3f271e8  /mnt/usbstick/BlackBerry/pictures/IMG00036.jpg

palmer@desktop ~ $ umount /mnt/usbstick/
```

When reading from the command line, I get the following dmesg (repeated many times):

```
sd 25:0:0:0: [sdd] ASC=0x0 ASCQ=0x0

sd 25:0:0:0: [sdd] Sense Key : 0x0 [current]
```

The crash in Konqueror produces (dmesg, again):

[code]FAT: Directory bread(block 649) failed

[code]FAT: Directory bread(block 650) failed

[code]FAT: Directory bread(block 651) failed

...

FAT: Directory bread(block 712) failed

usb 3-2: USB disconnect, address 25[/code]

or sometimes:

[code]FAT: Directory bread(block 649) failed

[code]FAT: Directory bread(block 650) failed

[code]FAT: Directory bread(block 651) failed

...

FAT: Directory bread(block 712) failed

FAT: unable to read inode block for updating (i_pos 10397)

I have bcharge autorunning (thanks to the udev rules provided in the ebuild), so I don't think it's a mode problem (the pearl seems to be happy about the current).

I have tried a different computer, different cable, and different kernel (2.6.22).

Formatting the memory card (from the blackberry or from linux) does not help.[/code]

I don't have any other devices to try the card in.

Any ideas?

Thanks

-palmer

----------

## Kathars!s

i have no problems with my blackberry 8800 (vodafone), 1gb noname micro-sd card, bcharge, gnome and nautilus.

 *palmem wrote:*   

> The device mounts fine, but does not read files correctly.  Every time I mount the device, the files contents is different (probably because of caching).
> 
> 

 

you could try this: remove the sd card and plug the pearl to access it's internal storage. if you can read or write files here, the problem is surely related to the sd card.

----------

## palmer

I can't seem to get the pearl to allow access to its internal storage via USB (I just get /dev/sdc, which says "mount: No medium found")

However, I found a card reader that takes MicroSD, and everything works fine with that.

One curiosity: I found that the Pearl stays stable for small files (smaller than 75kb), but will crash with anything larger (larger than 150kb).

1024x768 photos at medium quality seem to transfer fine, but anything larger seems to crash it.

-palmer

----------

## Kathars!s

do you have the newest software version ?

the only problem i had in the past which was related to the mass storage functionality was that it completely refused to mount after 3 or 4 times plug->mount->umount->unplug (but there were 100s of bigger problems, e.g. java exceptions, continues beeeep sound from the speaker when taking a call, no more caller-id display, ... all gone with the software update).

if there is no newer version from verizon, you could flash the original blackberry software, which you can put on after tweaking a vendor.xml file which comes with the software update.

you could also try the software from the blackberry cd (which is definitely abĺe to access the internal storage, works in vmware), or adding files to the card w/o the software but from a windows box.

----------

## destroyedlolo

Hello,

Is someone been ever able to use a blackberry as an USB stick ?

I own a Bold 9000 under 4.6.0.303 and transferring anything from or to it from Linux is a nightmare (it's a bit better from m$-windows but not ideal as well).

I did some try with Gentoo (kernel 3.0.6) and Ubuntu 10.4 as well : same result.

As per my investigation, there is loooonnnngggg latencies b/w each 64k transfered. I can see also lot of reconnection attempts ... it's working more or less but due to the latency, transferring images took almost 15'  ... per image.

Transfering a video from the PC -> the BB can result of memory corruption due due to transfer interrupted.

It seems the situation is worst if several processes are trying to access simultaneously the device (i.e PCManFM or Nautilus trying to refresh image's icons while they are copied to the PC).

If someone has a clue ...

Bye

Laurent

----------

## PaulBredbury

 *destroyedlolo wrote:*   

> ever able to use a blackberry as an USB stick ?

 

It's perfectly reliable for me. Maybe you have a faulty USB cable.

----------

## destroyedlolo

Hum, which is the BB you have and what is its OS version ?

----------

## destroyedlolo

It seems the problem is mostly to access internal memory.

It's working with external memory card ...

Any tip ?

----------

## PaulBredbury

The internal memory is nasty - try barry (I recommend a git checkout, to get the latest code).

----------

## destroyedlolo

Hi Paul,

I did a try with barry some months back but it isn't doing what I'm looking for : I don't want to backup my calendars/contact or whatever BB related, what I would like is to access to photos and videos stored in this internal memory.

It's working using m$-windows XP but I'm facing all those disconnect when connecting from Linux (whatever I wan't to get or put).

Bye

----------

