Knoppix 3.9 / USB

uah21 · 08-09-2005, 07:28 PM

Hello.

I recently downloaded knoppix 3.9 (2005-05-27 release). I'm not that new to linux, but i still have a lot to learn. Everything works fine in knoppix, except one small problem. When i boot from the CD without using any cheat codes, the computer hangs at "Checking for for USB..."

After doing some reading, i've found that i can work around this by typing the "knoppix nousb" cheat code at boot time. Using this cheat code i can sucessfully boot and knoppix works fine. However, I'd like to create a persistant root directory on my USB flash drive, but because I have to enter the "nousb" code, Knoppix doesnt list my usb drive (or any usb other devices) in K-info.

A little bit about my hardware setup (and i think this may be part of the problem): I have a 80GB internal NTFS drive, a cd burner, and a dvd burner. knoppix recognizes all three of these devices. (and both partitions of my NTFS drive). However, i have a USB connected printer, as well as a USB external 80GB hard drive (FAT32). The hard drive is not recognized by Knoppix. I also have a USB mouse, which knoppix does recognize. Lastly, the usb flash drive i'm wanting to create a persistant root directory on is a 1GB drive, with FAT file system.

Any help from all the knoppix gurus out there is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
uah21

uah21 · 08-09-2005, 11:11 PM

Here are the results of a few commands from the Knoppix terminal (while logged in as root). If more information is needed, I'm more than happy to provide it. Thanks.

Output of "cat /proc/partitions"

Code:

root@0[knoppix]# cat /proc/partitions > temp1.txt 
root@0[knoppix]# lsmod | grep usb > temp2.txt 
root@0[knoppix]# lspci > temp3.txt 
root@0[knoppix]# lsusb > temp4.txt 
root@0[knoppix]# dmesg | grep -A 3 -i usb > temp5.txt 
root@0[knoppix]# lspci -v > temp6.txt

Output of "lspci"

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) UltraATA-100 IDE Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:06.0 Modem: Broadcom Corporation BCM4212 v.90 56k modem (rev 02)
0000:01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

Output of "dmesg | grep -A 3 -i usb"

Code:

Kernel command line: ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux nousb wheelmouse
__iounmap: bad address c00fffd9
mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)
mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)
--
PCI0 HUB0 USB0 USB1 USB2 USB3 MODM UAR1 PS2K 
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).

Output of "lspci -v"

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
	Capabilities: [e4] #09 [1105]

0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at ee000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
	Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 1

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 9
	I/O ports at d800 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
	I/O ports at d000 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 3
	I/O ports at d400 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	Memory at ee080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
	I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
	Memory behind bridge: ec000000-edffffff

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) UltraATA-100 IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
	I/O ports at <unassigned>
	I/O ports at <unassigned>
	I/O ports at <unassigned>
	I/O ports at <unassigned>
	I/O ports at f000 [size=16]
	Memory at 0ff00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
	I/O ports at 0500 [size=32]

0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0147
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
	I/O ports at e400 [size=64]
	Memory at ee081000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
	Memory at ee082000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

0000:01:06.0 Modem: Broadcom Corporation BCM4212 v.90 56k modem (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 0001
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 3
	Memory at ed002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	I/O ports at c000 [size=16]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

0000:01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Dell: Unknown device 8127
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
	Memory at ed000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

uah21 · 08-10-2005, 06:49 PM

I still have had no luck mounting this SanDisk "Mini Cruzer" 1.0GB (FAT file system) in Knoppix. Please refer to my previous thread here:

www (dot) linuxquestions (dot) org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=351663

for complete hardware information, and the steps i've take to try and make this work. The primary problem still remains:

I can only boot knoppix if i use the "knoppix nousb" cheatcode at startup. But once i'm succesfully booted, there are no usb devices listed in KInfoCenter (because of the "nousb" directive).

I've found the exact drive i'm trying to mount in the HCL, and i've tried various different approaches. I tried things like

Code:

mount -t vfat 0x0781:0x5150 /mnt/usb

(where 0x0781:0x5150 is the device id from the HCL, and /mnt/usb is a directory i've created as a mount point). This command returns "The special device 0x0781:0x5150 can not be found".

I've also tried using the -L switch as follows:

Code:

mount -t vfat -L USB_DRIVE /mnt/usb

(where USB_DRIVE is the label). This command returns something like "no such partition".

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
uah21

Nathanael · 08-10-2005, 07:15 PM

hey, Welcome to LQ!

connect the usb device and post the output of

Code:

sfdisk -l

that is a lowercase L!

kencaz · 08-10-2005, 07:30 PM

mount -t vfat -L USB_DRIVE /mnt/usb

What is that???

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

more like it...

if /mnt/usb exists anyway...

KC

uah21 · 08-10-2005, 08:17 PM

Thank you both for the tips.

Nathanael - Here is the output of sfdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 77545 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
  for C/H/S=*/255/63 (instead of 77545/16/63).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

   Device Boot Start     End   #cyls    #blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1          0+      3       4-     32098+  de  Dell Utility
/dev/hda2   *      4    4861    4858   39021885    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3          0       -       0          0    0  Empty
/dev/hda4          0       -       0          0    0  Empty

kencaz - I probably didnt have the syntax right on that one. I was trying to mount like this:

Code:

mount -t [type] -L [label] [mount directory]

I did try the method you suggested, here is the output:

Code:

root@0[/]# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

kencaz · 08-10-2005, 08:20 PM

Well, it seems that if youre booting with nousb support then it would be sensable that you would not be able to mount usb devices...

what happens if you boot without the nousb cheatcode???

KC

uah21 · 08-10-2005, 08:24 PM

Thats an excellent question that i should have answered previously. If i boot without using "knoppix nousb", it hangs at

"Checking for for USB..."

(yes, the word "for" is repeated). I've tried booting without nousb, and left the computer for almost half an hour.. when i came back, it still hadn't booted.

uah21 · 08-10-2005, 08:27 PM

btw kencaz... those are some nice screenshots!

kencaz · 08-10-2005, 08:31 PM

When you boot normaly do you have any USB devices pluged in? If so then maybe try to plug in the usb devices after boot....

Also just for testing purposes, try some other Live Distros and see if you have the same problem... At least you can narrow it down to a hardware or software issue...

KC

J.W. · 08-11-2005, 12:14 AM

Mod Note: please do not start a second thread in order to continue the discussion from a previous thread. Instead, just add any additional comments to the original thread. Thanks

I have merged the two threads together. -- J.W.

uah21 · 08-11-2005, 08:53 PM

JW - my apologies, I won't do that again. The reason for starting a new thread is because I made the mistake of posting a reply to my original thread (supplied more HW information), and questions with zero replies are more likely to be answered than questions with 1 or more replies. This is a really great forum, and I've been extremely impressed with the generosity and helpfulness of the members.

kencaz - that was it! the problem must've had something to do with my USB printer. If i boot with that unplugged, i am able to mount both my flash drive and my 80gb external. Thank you so much for the help!

Now, if i can only get Knoppix to recognize this printer i'll be all set...

One more question, does anyone know of a Direct Connect (aka DC++) client that works with Linux/Knoppix? I'm sure that the software forum would be a better place to investigate this further, so i'll try that as well.

Thanks again,
uah