USB drives undetected in Fedora 11

Azul Rondo · 07-22-2009, 06:01 PM

Hey all.
For some reason the machine listed in my signature won't detect any usb drives. I can't figure this out. Any help or information would be appreciated.

Here is what dmesg says about my system.

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SCSI subsystem initialized 
libata version 3.00 loaded. 
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs 
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub 
usbcore: registered new device driver usb 
 
 
sd 1:0:1:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk 
sd 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 
ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver 
ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver 
uhci_hcd: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver 
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: PCI INT D -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: UHCI Host Controller 
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 
uhci_hcd 0000:00:07.2: irq 19, io base 0x0000cce0 
usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001 
usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1 
usb usb1: Product: UHCI Host Controller 
usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.29.5-191.fc11.i686.PAE uhci_hcd 
usb usb1: SerialNumber: 0000:00:07.2 
usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice 
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found 
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected 
 
 
 
usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev 
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid 
usbhid: v2.6:USB HID core driver 
 
 
SELinux: initialized (dev usbfs, type usbfs), uses genfs_contexts

[root@server1 /]# df -h

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Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on                                            
/dev/mapper/vg_server1-lv_root                                                                    
                       26G  6.2G   19G  25% /                                                     
/dev/sdb1             194M   14M  171M   8% /boot                                                 
/dev/sda1              20G  2.8G   17G  15% /media/DATA                                           
tmpfs                 502M  400K  502M   1% /dev/shm

kilgoretrout · 07-23-2009, 11:06 AM

I take it that the d-link usb2 card is what you are having trouble with. Could you post the relevant portion of your lspci output for that card. Also, plugin a usb drive and run:

$ dmesg | tail

and post the output here. Then, run as root:

# lsmod | grep usb

and post the output.

Azul Rondo · 07-23-2009, 11:48 PM

Thanks Kilgoretrout

Yes, I think the USB card or the mb may be the problem, though I do have the latest bios.

[root@server1 /]# lspci

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0:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21152 (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)

[root@server1 ~]# dmesg | tail

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eth1:  setting half-duplex.
virbr0: starting userspace STP failed, starting kernel STP
SELinux: initialized (dev proc, type proc), uses genfs_contexts
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
SELinux: initialized (dev proc, type proc), uses genfs_contexts
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
eth1: no IPv6 routers present
CPU0 attaching NULL sched-domain.
CPU0 attaching NULL sched-domain.
SELinux: initialized (dev fuse, type fuse), uses genfs_contexts

lsmod | grep usb in root doesn't produce anything.

Thanks again.
Rondo

kilgoretrout · 07-24-2009, 08:42 AM

For some reason, you have no usb modules loaded (no output from lsmod | grep usb)and as a result, the kernel is not reacting to the insertion of a usb mass storage device(see dmesg output).

Do you have usb ports on the motherboard and on a pci expansion card? Your lspci output indicates that may be the case. If so, are they both causing problems? If the usb ports on the motherboard are not working, you may want to check your bios and see if they have been deactivated. A PIII vintage box probably came with usb1.1 and the usb expansion card was added later to get usb2 support. The original owner may have deactivated the usb1.1 ports on the motherboard when the usb2.2 card was installed. Just to be sure, post the output of:

$ lspci | grep USB

That should hopefully list all your usb controllers. Your usb expannsion card could also be bad; it's pretty easy to blow out usb ports. It may be purely a hardware problem.

You may want to state what distro you are using as well. However, any modern distro should automatically load the necessary usb modules when a usb controller is detected. Since that's not occurring, that does point to a hardware problem. You can try manually loading the usb modules and see if the external hard drive is detected by running as root:

# modprobe usb_storage

And see if the external drive is picked up by running:

# fdisk -l

which should list all detected drives and partitions.

Azul Rondo · 07-25-2009, 11:02 PM

Hi Kilgore
I'm using:

Fedora 11
Kernel Linux 2.6.29.6-213.fc11.i686.PAE
GNOME 2.26.3

and modprobe is not installed and I don't know whether to install it or use something else. I've seem some posts claiming you shouldn't use modprobe on fc11 but, they are all about a problem with sound.

lspci | grep USB produces
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)

so I'm guessing there may be a conflict between on board and the pci usb or as you say the pci board is dead.

Thanks, Rondo

kilgoretrout · 07-26-2009, 12:57 PM

I'm sure modprobe is installed in fedora. Try running:

# /sbin/modprobe usb_storage

RH has the annoying habit of not putting /sbin in PATH so you have to give the full path to anything in /sbin. I think your confused about /etc/modprobe.conf which is a traditional configuration file for loading modules at boot time which is now deprecated in fedora.

However, more disturbing is your lspci output. I don't see your pci usb2 card listed, only the usb controller on the motherboard which is apparently of PII vintage. Have you tried using these usb ports instead of the ones on your usb2 pci expansion card? Do they even work? Since your usb card is not being detected at all, I think you can assume it's either blown or not properly seated in its slot. Pop the box open and try reseating the card. Also, visually inspect the card for damage.

Azul Rondo · 07-26-2009, 04:30 PM

Yeah, I found a Dell utility for configuring Poweredge systems that showed all of my pci cards except the usb card. I'm going out today to buy a new card and will let you know how that goes.

As it turns out modprobe is installed and works when the path is included though there was no output with the drive attached.

Thanks, Rondo

Azul Rondo · 07-31-2009, 05:46 PM

Thanks for all your help. I gained some valuable experience and a new USB Card. Yes that was the solution. Just a note to other newbies,in the hardware forum there is a valuable tutorial that could help diagnose similar problems.