Conflict between gpilotd, Palm m515 USB craddle and an USB2 Card reader

[Olivier Smeesters <Olivier Smeesters net>]

Hi,

I encounter the following issue.
I'm running Linux 2.6.7 (Gentoo) with Gnome2.
I've a Palm m515 connected through an USB craddle and a 8-in-1 card
reader connected via USB2.

Whenever I'm logged on in Gnome, my card reader is very slow to respond
(more than 30 sec to copy a file, mount the drive, etc).
If I try the same access via the text console (not being logged on in
Gnome), access is as expected (less than 1sec to copy the same file).
I noticed that when I'm logged in Gnome, the Power led of the reader is
flashing and it's not when I'm out of Gnome.
I started stopping applications to finally discover that it stopped
blinking when I killed gpilotd.
If I reconfigure gnome-pilot, pretending to use a serial port, the LED
does not blink either. So it seems that accessing the USB craddle from
gpilotd is the source of the problem...

Did somebody encounter this already ?
Or better, does somebody have a solution for this ?

Thanks in advance,


Olivier

--- Some more information about the config where it happens...
Sweetie root # uname -a
Linux Sweetie 2.6.7-gentoo-r13 #2 Tue Aug 17 23:42:36 CEST 2004 i686 AMD
Athlon(tm) Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Sweetie root # lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365
[KT133/KM133] (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133
AGP]
0000:00:04.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super
South] (r ev 40)
0000:00:04.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT82 3x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:04.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1 Contr oller (rev 16)
0000:00:04.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB
1.1 Contr oller (rev 16)
0000:00:04.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI]
(rev 40 )
0000:00:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB12LV23 IEEE-1394
Control ler
0000:00:0a.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
0000:00:0a.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41)
0000:00:0a.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02)
0000:00:0c.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C /8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97]
(rev 06)
0000:00:11.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc.
PDC20265 (FastTrak100 Lite/Ultra100) (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce
FX 5200 ] (rev a1)

Sweetie root # lsusb
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0424:223a Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 059b:0053 Iomega Corp. CDRW55292EXT CD-RW
External Drive
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Sweetie root # cat /etc/devfs.d/visor
# If someone looks up for /dev/pilot, create the node.
# Ensure that gnome-pilot will be able to find the Palm even when it is
# not currently syncing...
LOOKUP  ^pilot  EXECUTE /bin/mknod /dev/pilot c 188 1