Sarge can't find my USB harddrive

Adamant1988 · 05-30-2006, 09:38 AM

Yeah, like the title says I want to be able to access my ext. harddrive so I can use the laptop for media collection and document collection. It also holds all of my desktop backrounds and pictures that I want to use.

When I plug it in there is not noticeable detection. So, I go to the 'computer' icon, and see that it lists floppys (2 floppy drives, which is weird because I only have one), a CD drive (Which is strange because mine is a dvd drive), and the option to delve deeper into the filesystem. When I look in dir media (where my drive is usually put when it's mounted) I see nothing, and I checked in /mnt/ too. nothing. I can't figure out what's going on... I've never had this problem with another distro.

I'm using debian sarge also.

ssfrstlstnm · 05-30-2006, 10:38 AM

Try something like:

Code:

mkdir /media/usbdrive
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive

Of course change ext3 to whatever filesystem type you are using on the drive. Your drive may be under sda2, sda3, sdb1, sdc1, etc. depending on what else is plugged into usb or sata ports. When you find out where it is, you can add a line to /etc/fstab for easier mounting.

farslayer · 05-30-2006, 11:20 AM

Open a shell and su to root

# tail -f /var/log/messages

Plug in USB Drive, the infromation of what drive the system detected it as will scroll onto the screen

You can then quickly determine the file system using fdisk.. verify your mount points, now you have all the info needed to mount the drive.

Code:

itg-debian:~# tail -f /var/log/messages
May 30 12:12:40 localhost kernel:     ACPI-0286: *** Error: No installed handler for fixed event [00000002]
May 30 12:12:40 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using address 2
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel: SCSI subsystem initialized
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel: scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel:   Vendor: OTi       Model: Flash Disk        Rev: 1.89
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
May 30 12:12:42 localhost kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
May 30 12:12:42 localhost usb.agent[26361]:      usb-storage: loaded successfully
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel: sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel: Current : sense key Unit Attention
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel: Additional sense: Not ready to ready change, medium may have changed
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 128000 512-byte hdwr sectors (66 MB)
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel: sda: assuming Write Enabled
May 30 12:12:43 localhost scsi.agent[26417]:      sd_mod: loaded sucessfully (for disk)
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel:  /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
May 30 12:12:43 localhost kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

itg-debian:~# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 65 MB, 65536000 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 250 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         250       63983+   6  FAT16
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(248, 15, 32) logical=(249, 15, 31)


itg-debian:~# ls /media
cdrom  cdrom0  floppy  floppy0  usbdrive

itg-debian:~# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive

itg-debian:~# mount
/dev/hda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/hda6 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /media/usbdrive type vfat (rw)

if that all works you can create an entry in fstab to make it easy for any user to mount the drive..

Adamant1988 · 05-30-2006, 12:11 PM

ok it's finding the drive, it sais that new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 3.

usb-storage: already-loaded

what do I do from here?

I've tried typing in "/dev/sda1 (through 3)" and each time I'm told that permission is denied, even though I'm root... what gives?

ssfrstlstnm · 05-30-2006, 01:11 PM

You can't access the device directly, you need to mount it.

farslayer · 05-30-2006, 10:01 PM

When you plugged in the drive did it giver you a device sda, sdb, etc as I showed in the example above ?

when you do lsmod are scsi_mod and usb_storage loaded ? the system should have given you a device name when you plugged in the drive.