Mounting USB memory stick problems

[T-Diddy]

Hello All:

I have a strange problem trying to mount a USB stick on my Dell Inspiron 9400. I currently have KDE 3.5.5 running and for a while it auto-mounted my USb stick fine.

Now, however, it doesn't recognize my USB memory stick at all. It does let me use my USB wireless mouse fine, as well as the USB wireless keyboard, just not the memory.

Here are some outputs I get from the following commands:

thayes@seneca:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6 48163+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 7 5127 41134432+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 5128 14404 74517502+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 14405 14593 1518142+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris



thayes@seneca:~$ sudo dmesg | grep usb
[ 2.920000] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 2.920000] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 2.920000] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 2.920000] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3.024000] usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3.128000] usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3.232000] usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3.264000] usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[ 3.340000] usb usb5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3.788000] usb 1-1: device not accepting address 2, error -71
[ 4.212000] usb 5-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[ 4.344000] usb 5-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 4.880000] usb 2-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[ 5.068000] usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 14.788000] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[ 14.860000] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, address 2
[ 14.860000] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 14.860000] drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[ 15.028000] usb 2-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
[ 15.272000] usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 15.288000] input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Darfon Wireless Keyboard & Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2
[ 15.320000] input,hiddev96: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Darfon Wireless Keyboard & Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2
[ 42.236000] usb 3-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[ 42.416000] usb 3-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 42.468000] input: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 1.00] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1
[ 563.740000] usb 5-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
[ 563.872000] usb 5-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 564.044000] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
[ 564.060000] usb-storage: device found at 5
[ 564.060000] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 564.060000] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 569.060000] usb-storage: device scan complete


My /media/ directory contains: cdrom cdrom0 sda1 sda2

My /etc/fstab file is listed below.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/sda2 /media/sda2 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
/dev/sda4 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

And my /etc/mtab file:

/dev/sda3 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw 0 0
procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 vfat rw,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0
/dev/sda2 /media/sda2 ntfs rw,nls=utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0

Where the sda1 and sda2 are the Windows partitions (Dell Utilities and XP respectively).

Does anyone have any ideas what else to look for? Even better, do?

Cheers,

t.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Mounting USB memory stick problems

Ad hoc, I'd suggest

- to boot Windoze and check the stick's status there (does it show up, is it accessible);
- provided this were the case, return to Linux and replug the stick to a different port.

The point I'm driving at: the stick and/or the port may be defective ...

[T-Diddy]

Re: Mounting USB memory stick problems

Thanks for the advice. I usually forget to do the simple things! However, the stick does work in those ports.

Now, something weird. When I open the "System Settings" GUI from the K-menu, and go to disk and file systems, it shows that there is a device called "Swissmemory" at /dev/sdb, but there is no corresponding mount point.

On my Desktop, it mounts fine, but I always have to use:

pumount -l /media/SWISSMEMORY to unmount the stick.

Is this something hard code into my /etc/fstab file, or is there a more elegant solution using /etc/mtab? For what it's worth, on my desktop it shows up in the /etc/mtab file, which makes sense as it should only be mounted when plugged in, if I've understood the differences between /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab correctly.

So...any ideas out there about how to tell /etc/mtab to automatically create an entry for the USB stick?

Cheers,

t.

PS - I tried installing usbmount....no dice.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Mounting USB memory stick problems

I'm definitely not a friend of "automagic mounting"; therefore, may someone else please step in on this ... what I can tell you, however, is this:

Do not touch /etc/mtab (unless asking for severe trouble ...). This file is getting updated by the system at run time to list the file systems actually being mounted to this.

[T-Diddy]

Re: Mounting USB memory stick problems

Do not touch /etc/mtab (unless asking for severe trouble ...). This file is getting updated by the system at run time to list the file systems actually being mounted to this.

Ha! Thanks for the advice. Good thing I didn't try to muck around yet.

Cheers,

t.