USB Flash Memory problem... help :) ?

POW R TOC H · 07-08-2008, 10:41 AM

Hello.
In my first month of using Linux (about 4 months ago) I wanted to try and install a live version of DSL on my USB flash stick, and messed something up. I can't really remember what I did there, but whatever I did, my USB drive is history. It's not recognized as a mass storage device any more. (I should probably mention that I failed at installing DSL Live to it). However, I did the following :

Code:

ls /dev | grep usb > ~/usb1
#Then I inserted the flash and waited for a few secs
ls /dev | grep usb > ~/usb2

diff usb1 usb2

So after plugging in the device, three more devices appeared in my /dev directory:

Code:

> usbdev5.2_ep00
> usbdev5.2_ep01
> usbdev5.2_ep81

These are all the same device, but with different end points (if ep## stands for 'end point'), so I figured USB core found it but failed to assign a driver to control it. (I'm not an expert on this, so I'm sorry if I said something stupid, as I just wanted to give as much info as I can so someone can find a solution.) This 'revelation' gave me no solution... I have no idea as to how USB mass storage devices work, and what could of gone wrong, so fixing this is beyond me.

So, I guess my questions are :
Is there a way to examine the device, in order to provide more info on what's wrong (because I can't remember exactly what I did)?
I don't really want to throw away a 1Gb flash, so is there any way to fix this?

And yes, sorry if my English is bad, it's not my native language...

bigrigdriver · 07-09-2008, 04:24 AM

Don't be too hasty to throw away the flash drive. Let us do a simple diagnostic first.

Boot the system without the flash drive. Copy the contents of /etc/mtab (fstab shows available mountable devices; mtab shows which devices are currently mounted).

After copying mtab, plug in the flash drive and wait a few seconds, then make another copy of /etc/mtab. There should be one new addition to mtab, showing the device and the mount point for the flash drive.

For the sake of example, let's say the new device is /dev/sdb. Run 'fdisk -l /dev/sdb'. What is the output of fdisk?

If fdisk shows more that one partition on the flash drive, you should be able to remove them all, then make one partition for the entire flash drive, and format it to the filesystem of your choice.

POW R TOC H · 07-09-2008, 08:46 PM

Well, that's the problem

There are no changes in mtab or fstab...
What should I do next...? (Except throw it away)

PS : Thanks for helping

syg00 · 07-09-2008, 09:09 PM

After you stick it in what does "dmesg" have to say ???.

POW R TOC H · 07-10-2008, 07:50 AM

Yes, it does :

Code:

[67516.928441] usb 5-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
[67517.061230] usb 5-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[67517.061574] scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[67517.061802] usb-storage: device found at 3
[67517.061806] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[67522.050591] usb-storage: device scan complete
[67522.051088] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Freecom  USB Card         5.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[67522.052696] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 2072064 512-byte hardware sectors (1061 MB)
[67522.053311] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[67522.053315] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[67522.053318] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[67522.055430] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 2072064 512-byte hardware sectors (1061 MB)
[67522.056055] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[67522.056059] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[67522.056061] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[67522.056065]  sdb: sdb1
[67522.057216] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[67522.057260] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

After disconnecting :

Code:

[67593.013744] usb 5-3: USB disconnect, address 3

And here is what fdisk says :

Code:

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 1060 MB, 1060896768 bytes
33 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1012 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2046 * 512 = 1047552 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0006cff8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        1012     1035275+  83  Linux
$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb1

Disk /dev/sdb1: 1060 MB, 1060122112 bytes
33 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1011 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2046 * 512 = 1047552 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

syg00 · 07-10-2008, 07:55 AM

How about (as root) "file -s /dev/sdb1" ???.
You've obviously got a (valid) partition - I'd just run mkfs and mount it.