Hello:

Quite so.
That's exactly what it is.

[rant]
And why would that need to be so?
I have never needed any of that.

My three monitors have always had the same brightness values at boot.
One of the SyncMasters 940n has over 70K hours uptime so had to recap it last week but the tubes are a bit dim so a cold environment will make it bit dimmer at boot time, but it only takes a minute or so to get right.

Sure, I guess you could call it that.
But when it is needlessly foisted on the user and root cannot removed it by the usual means, it immediately turns into a nuisance.

As you know, the list of crap like that in today's Linux distributions is endless.
[/rant]

Thanks for your comment.

Best,

A.

Hello:

It is much more frequent than one would think.

In another life, I lost countless hours looking for complex solutions to problems with simple solutions.
eg: bad/cheap cables, dirty contacts, apparently compatible hardware, etc.

I learned long ago to always check the basics first.

Is this with the same hardware?
ie: same laptop, same cable, same external monitor

Does the monitor have two ports ie: VGA and HDMI?

A monitor I use (Dell P1914S) does, it detects which port is being accessed and flashes it on the screen* when I switch on the box and before the system is up.
* after the cable has been disconnected and reconnected, even if the monitor is not connected to mains. 

Let's see: please boot your laptop without the HDMI cable / monitor connected and then run this in a terminal:

~$ xrandr

And then repeat the operation after rebooting with the HDMI cable / monitor connected.

Please post the terminal printout of each.

Edit:

With the monitor not connected you should see something akin to this ...

~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 600,
maximum 4096 x 4096
LVDS1 connected primary 1024x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 220mm x 129mm
1024x600      60.00*+  65.00
1024x576      59.90    59.82
--- snip ---
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
~$

... and with the monitor connected something akin to this ...

~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 600, maximum 4096 x 4096 
LVDS1 connected primary 1024x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 220mm x 129mm
1024x600      60.00*+  65.00
1024x576      59.90    59.82
--- snip ---
VGA1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)  # <- external VGA monitor on
1024x768      60.00 +  75.03    70.07                           VGA port of a netbook
832x624       74.55
--- snip ---
~$

Best,

A.

Hello:

Good.
It will serve as a precedent to other users.

Before we continue:
When posting a quoted text, for easier reading, the text must be placed between quote blocks.
Just like when posting a printout or code but with a different block.

eg:

quote
quoted text goes here
/quote

That way what the reader sees is this:

You can generate a pair of quote blocks by clicking on [ quote ] while editing / replying.

---

Indeed ...

This is because on one hand, xD cards (xD-Picture Card) is a proprietary format developed by Olympus / Fujifilm and on the other, that format is now obsolete.

Proprietary is also a suitable synonym for expensive. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XD-Picture_Card
Same goes for the proprietary memory sticks used by Sony cameras.
Such is life ...  8^°

No cable connection to a PC?
ie: serial to proprietary connector, USB to proprietary connector, USB A to USB Mini B?

I recall most if not all camera vendors either included a cable to connect to a PC.
But others had the cheek to offer you one as a very expensive accesory.

I still have a crappy Konica Minolta Dimage X31 that actually came with a cable.
But the power supply to use it without batteries and the protective pouch / case sold separately were accessories.

Edit:
I forgot to add this link: https://www.linuxquestions.org/question … ost3606104
If you have a cable for your camera it may work, this chap basically uses the camera itself as an xD card reader to unload the photos.
Clumsy but effective.

It would be nice if that were so, but apparently not.
At least I have not found a solution on-line.

In an ideal world, maybe.

I will try to explain why with this example, please bear with me:

My Devuan Daedalus box runs three monitors connected to a pair of matching PCIe NVidia Quadro FX 580 cards.
It has been that way since ~2015.

I always used the proprietary NVidia drivers made available to the Linux community by NVidia, albeit with quite a few caveats as to what capabilities they would enable. Corporations such as Nvida* are never that generous.
* not the only one, the list is a very long one.

In spite of that, the cards and the drivers worked well enough with every distributon I tried till I settled on Devuan.
At first, there were no native Linux drivers to speak of until nouveau came to light.
But it was difficult / a bit buggy and lagged way behind, so the NVidia drivers were preferred choice.

Then the time came for NVidia to phase out the Quadro FX580 line (have to sell more hardware, you understand) and as a result stopped making the drivers available to the Linux community.

The driver modules used up to that point could not be used with the newer kernels because these had evolved in various ways and that brought along the need to rewrite / update the modules so as to work with the upgraded kernels, which was not possible / feasible without support from NVidia.

And that was it.

Many years ago, I had to retire a pair of very (very) expensive and prefectly working Matrox G450 PCI cards for that very same reason. 
I still shed a tear when I remember ...

I hope my explanation is undertsandable.

That said, I understand that some digital cameras with xD card slots will accept adapters to SD cards.
You wilol have to check your camera's manual or ask the OEM.

Check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9lNxOKAPoo

You're welcome.

Do let us know if you solved your problem.

Best,

A.

Hello:

I see.
Seashell (?), larger screen (?) than mine.

Yes.
I've noticed that.

Like I wrote in another non-related thread:

I'll stay with Chimaera then, maybe go for a backported kernel if I can find a justification for doing so.
The hardware will certainly not change so at some point in the future it may well be a good idea to roll a custom kernel for it and leave it at that.

The 1000HE is the best piece of portable hardware I ever purchased (used in 2011).

Thanks for the data.

Best,

A.

Hello:

You're welcome.

Before we continue:
When posting a terminal printout, for easier reading, the text must be placed between code blocks.
eg:

code
printout text goes here
/code

That way what the reader sees is this:

printout text goes here

You can generate a pair of code blocks by clicking on [ code ] while editing / replying.

---

Now, with respect to your reader:

--- snip ---
[ 1755.552055] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 1755.803573] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0dda, idProduct=2005, bcdDevice= 1.9c      ### <----
[ 1755.803584] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1755.803588] usb 1-3: Product: Hama Card Reader
[ 1755.803592] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Hama Card Reader
[ 1755.803595] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: ABCD12345683
--- snip ---

1.
dmesg informs that your reader is id'd as idVendor=0dda, idProduct=2005, 0dda being the id of the OEM, Integrated Circuit Solution, Inc. and 2005 the id of their Datalux DLX-1611 16in1 Card Reader. In your case, it has been rebadged as a Hama Card Reader.

This means that you are not lacking a driver as it is recognised by the system and that the problem is (most probably) not the hardware.

--- snip ---
[ 1756.845648] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Hama     Card Reader   CF 1.9C PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 1756.847337] scsi 9:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Hama     Card Reader   MS 1.9C PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 1756.849084] scsi 9:0:0:2: Direct-Access     Hama     CardReaderMMC/SD 1.9C PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[ 1756.850885] scsi 9:0:0:3: Direct-Access     Hama     Card Reader   SM 1.9C PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
--- snip ---

Here you see the different slots where the "35" are plugged in.
ie: CF, MMC/SD, MS, SM, etc.

Up to that point it seems that everything is as expected.

Q1: are you using a laptop/portable machine?
Q2: if so, were you running on main or battery power?
Q3: was there any card in the reader when you plugged it in?

If there was a card in the reader, please remove the card and repeat 2. without any cards in the reader.

ie:
sudo dmesg -w

... then plug in the reader and post the terminal printout as indicated.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Starts to make sense.

/etc/init.d/brightness.dpkg-dist belongs to what is today a Daedalus installation.

But (IIRC) started as Jessie (!) and was dist-upgraded to ASCII and eventually Beowulf.
Then to a backported kernel and when Beowulf was about to be archived, almost directly to Daedalus via Chimaera.
This because the XFCE upgrade in Chimaera generated a totally unusable desktop environment.

I have to say that compared to anything MS branded I have had to deal with, it was smooth as silk.  8^ )

I don't recall ever seeing brightness in the list of services printed out by service --status-all, much less messing with debconf which I don't have a clue about.

I checked my Asus 1000HE netbook (runs on a 32bit Chimaera) and service brightness status properly reports current and saved brightness and intel brightness levels and just like in my Chimaera VM, it cannot be stopped or started. But then it is only one LCD monitor, my Daedalus box runs three monitors with two NVidia cards with brightness levels controlled individually via the monitors' screen controls

My guess is that it does not report anything with service brightness status because it is a headless VM.
ie: no monitor.

So the problem (if one at all) would be the lack of a brightness service in my Daedalus installation, situation I cannot account for.
That said, besides the curiosity it generates, I have not experienced any issues.

No problem, I look around and see if I catch something worth reporting.
If not, I'll may well leave it at that.

Edit:
I just realised that Daedalus is the first version of Devuan in which I installed the nouveau drivers for my NVidia cards.
Had no choice as there was no clear way to get the OEM drivers working in Linux.

Maybe that has something to do with the module not being present?

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

Of course ...  8^)

You and everyone else knowing how to do this properly.

Solved.
It was the lack of a comma between the commands.

# cat /etc/sudoers.d/user_eth0
groucho ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/ifup eth0, /sbin/ifdown eth0
# 

~$ sudo ifdown eth0
Killed old client process
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.4.3-P1
Copyright 2004-2022 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:4f:4a:a2:81
Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:14:4f:4a:a2:81
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE of 192.168.1.10 on eth0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67

~$ sudo ifup eth0
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.4.3-P1
Copyright 2004-2022 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:14:4f:4a:a2:81
Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:14:4f:4a:a2:81
Sending on   Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
DHCPOFFER of 192.168.1.10 from 192.168.1.1
DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.1.10 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK of 192.168.1.10 from 192.168.1.1
/sbin/dhclient-script: 88: cannot create /etc/resolv.conf: Operation not permitted
bound to 192.168.1.10 -- renewal in 13983 seconds.
~$ 

So much then for visudo -c ...  8^°
After all, it is a syntax error.

Thank you very much for your input.

Best,

A.

Hello:

No need, I know how to blacklist a kernel module.
My question was not "how to blacklist a module" but how to I could find out why these modules are being loaded.

Because whatever EEPROM resides in my box* is ID'd as read-only and I have never had  a joystick attached/installed.
* same box since ~ 2015, running on Devuan since ~ 2017

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.