Usb Flash Drives Not Working On Linux

paq7512 · 05-14-2008, 02:16 AM

I have not a clue what I am doing wrong. My flash drives work fine in Windows on the same machine. But when I plug into linux opensuse 10.3 or Mandriva 2008 they won't mount. If i have the flash drive plugged in while the computer is booting it will work fine. Then booted on the desktop I can view my files. So what I do is unmount, but then plug in it does not work. Maybe a problem with power management? This machine is a IBM M51 8142.
I have tried 2 flash drives neither work.
Clean install won't make them work either, fully updated

b0uncer · 05-14-2008, 04:39 AM

What does dmesg show after you plug the devices in? Do you get a device file for them to /dev? If you do, try manually mounting: first make a mount directory (or use existing if you like)

Code:

mkdir -p /media/usb

then try mounting (if the device is not sdb1, change it according to your system):

Code:

mount /dev/sdb1 /media/usb

then see if there's anything in /media/usb, or if you got error messages. If there is error about the device file, it's either wrong or nonexistent.

knudfl · 05-14-2008, 09:35 AM

From my observations : When a flash disk is aging it "dies" first in linux
but can still be used in windows (xp) for some time.

paq7512 · 05-14-2008, 11:02 AM

dmesg, pulled a list of 21 pages according to openoffice.org, and i searched for /dev or dev and nothing came up. As far as the two second commands it says mount: you must specify the filesystem type

GlennsPref · 05-14-2008, 06:16 PM

I have no problems with my flash drive.
The line for it in fstab ...

# Entry for /dev/sdc1 :
UUID=D8EF-EB4A /media/GLENNSFLASH vfat defaults,user,nosuid,noauto 0 0

This line may be written..as..
/dev/sdc1 /media/GLENNSFLASH vfat defaults,user,nosuid,noauto 0 0

You must create a folder for it first.

use the -t for file system type when runnibg mount...
mount -t vfat /media/GLENNSFLASH for instance, as Bouncer0 wrote above.

I have trouble with my phone, nokia it is fat16, and although the directories can be seen,
when it can be mounted (sometimes) I cannot write to or copy from it.

Works ok in winxp with the nokia software. go figure.

paq7512 · 05-15-2008, 04:03 PM

? bump ? I am lost....

GlennsPref · 05-15-2008, 06:11 PM

Have you read the fstab wiki?
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Fstab

regards, Glenn

ps. /dev/sdc1 /media/GLENNSFLASH vfat defaults,user,nosuid,noauto 0 0 only root may mount

jkerr82508 · 05-15-2008, 06:49 PM

On 2008.1, I have no fstab entries for my USB drives. I just plug them in and Hal (and the WM) takes care of mounting them.

Jim

nafan · 05-23-2008, 08:55 PM

paq7512: can you show us the last output of dmesg?? The output relating to the usb flash drive will not have /dev/ or dev in it...

Run dmesg once, without the usb flash drive plugged in, making a note of the last few lines. Plug in your usb flash drive, wait for a few seconds and run dmesg again, then copy and paste the changed bit of dmesg's output.

For example, my usb key adds the following to the end of the dmesg output:

Code:

usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 6
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Ut163    USB2FlashStorage 0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1007616 512-byte hardware sectors (516 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1007616 512-byte hardware sectors (516 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sda: sda1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete