Mounting an USB-Device as CD-Rom

DieVirulenz · 12-30-2008, 07:56 AM

Hello to everyone on this forum.

As you can see this is my first post here and I will give my best to do it in a proper way. But if I happen to forget anything or just do it wrong (ie. wrong Forum, forgot any details, etc.), my apologies. Just bare with me, for I´m here for your help and will take any steps necessary to achieve it. Also I have to admit I only come across Linux or Unix based systems at work from time to time, so my experiences are limited but still I´m willing to learn what I need to know.

That said here comes my problem:

I work for a company wich produces banking-USB-devices. We got a support call from a customer who operates an Ubuntu 8.10 system. On his machine the USB-Stick when plugged in is mounted as an CD-Rom drive. We set up a similar system over here, but here of course the stick is mounted as it should be.

So my question is:
How can we reproduce that behavior?
Or does anyone around here know why this might happen?

I tried Google of course but all I manged to pinpoint so far is that it might be caused by installing Ubuntu from an USB-device in the first place. Still I´m a bit lost here and thought maybe someone with more experience could shed some light on it.

If there are any question feel free to ask, I´ll try to answer asap.

Thanks in advance and for setting up such a great place for newbies like me!

michaelk · 12-30-2008, 08:24 AM

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

You will have to further explain your banking-USB-device and how it is designed to function. Is it just a regular flash drive? There still might be some differences between your customer and the similar system. Do you have any details about the customer's system other then running Ubuntu?

DieVirulenz · 12-30-2008, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

You will have to further explain your banking-USB-device and how it is designed to function. Is it just a regular flash drive?

No it isn´t. It´s a usb-dongle with a flash memory and an
integrated (SIM-) cardreader. So the "flash-part" is usually mounted as /dev/usb/hiddev0 under /mount/M-IDentity, but I´m not sure if that is the kind of information you need. Would you need a productID or Vendor or anything?

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

There still might be some differences between your customer and the similar system. Do you have any details about the customer's system other then running Ubuntu?

Unfortunaltey not yet. We are currently inquiring for more details. All we know is that he is on a Ubuntu 8.10. I will post more info as soon as I get them.

Thanks for the quick response

greetings
Nicholas

EDIT: Just wanted to add I just got a big Log-File created on the customers machine, but I´m not sure if it might be of any service. Ought I post it or attach it? Anyways I also received a screenshot which might be of more help...

These are the error messages the customer gets when plugging in the device:
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/1...rmfoto5hs3.jpg

Maybe this helps anyone to get a better hold of where the problem lies? Are those maybe "common" errors or something?

thanks again for your patients and time!

michaelk · 12-30-2008, 09:12 AM

A first guess would be to take a look at udev.

DieVirulenz · 12-30-2008, 09:40 AM

Ok that´s what I got about the udev rules from the log file:

Code:

--------------- Udev-Rules-INFO ------------
/etc/udev/rules.d/20-names.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", \
/etc/udev/rules.d/20-names.rules:# Legacy usb_device class equivalent to above
/etc/udev/rules.d/20-names.rules:SUBSYSTEM!="usb_device", GOTO="usb_device_end"
/etc/udev/rules.d/20-names.rules:IMPORT{program}="usb_device_name --export %k"
/etc/udev/rules.d/20-names.rules:LABEL="usb_device_end"
/etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GOTO="usb_serial_start"
/etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", GOTO="usb_serial_start"
/etc/udev/rules.d/45-libmtp7.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GOTO="libmtp_usb_device_rules"
/etc/udev/rules.d/45-libmtp7.rules:LABEL="libmtp_usb_device_rules"
/etc/udev/rules.d/024_hpmud.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", GOTO="pid_test"
/etc/udev/rules.d/024_hpmud.rules:SUBSYSTEM!="usb_device", GOTO="hpmud_rules_end"
/etc/udev/rules.d/85-brltty.rules:SUBSYSTEM!="usb_device", GOTO="brltty_rules_end"
/etc/udev/rules.d/45-libnjb.rules:SUBSYSTEM!="usb_device", ACTION!="add", GOTO="libnjb_rules_end"
/etc/udev/rules.d/40-basic-permissions.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", MODE="0666"
/etc/udev/rules.d/40-basic-permissions.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device",		MODE="0666"
/etc/udev/rules.d/45-libmtp8.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GOTO="libmtp_usb_device_rules"
/etc/udev/rules.d/45-libmtp8.rules:LABEL="libmtp_usb_device_rules"
/etc/udev/libmtp.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GOTO="libmtp_rules"
/etc/udev/libmtp8.rules:SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GOTO="libmtp_usb_device_rules"
/etc/udev/libmtp8.rules:LABEL="libmtp_usb_device_rules"

David1357 · 12-30-2008, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieVirulenz

Maybe this helps anyone to get a better hold of where the problem lies?

If we could get the output of "dmesg" or the contents of "/var/log/messages", that would probably help us more. Then we might be able to see why the kernel is detecting the device as a CD-ROM, instead of a hard drive.

knudfl · 12-31-2008, 10:26 AM

USB key with "CD file system" ( CDFS )

> > Sandisk U3 technology
http://www.everythingusb.com/u3.html

( googling .. make u3 usb .. )

It is done by a proprietary tool, some of the tools
are available for windowsXP, e.g. for erasing cdfs.
....

michaelk · 12-31-2008, 05:25 PM

knudfl, From the information provided it is not a U3 device. The exact function was not mentioned but probably some kind of software license key sometimes referred to as a dongle.