usbfs usb
 

Sorry, checked archives and couldnt find a procedure to help.

My problem:
I was given a 256mb USB pen drive as a present.
I plan to use this device as a replacement for CD's. I already do not use floppies.
I use a linux distro at home (SLackware 10.0) only, no Windows. However, I still want to set the USB drive up with fat32 so I can use it on Windows and Linux as I use Windows at work.
I am a nooby with usb drives. I have deduced that I can detect the drive in:

/proc/bus/usb

If I run ls here, I find a whole lot of numbers, one number for each of my usb ports (I think). Each umber is a directory.

001 002 003 004 005

I know it detects the presence of my pen drive as there is a read-write file corresponding to the usb port I have the drive in 001.

For example, If I use port 2 I have the files 001 and 002 inside my /001 directory.

If I use port 4, I have 001 and 004 in my /001 (mount ?) directory.

Also, I know I can actually boot off this device as my VIA motherboard automatically detected its presence on boot and added an entry into the bios boot sequence (without my permission : / )

Of course, it fails to boot as it has no Linux boot kernerl on it..



My goal.

1. If possible I want 2 paritions on this drive. One smallish partion with enough space for a very tiny linux kernel so I can boot my computer with this drive. The scond partition: FAT32 so I can transfer betwween Win and Linux.

2. If the above is not possible, (The reason probably being that a linux boot kernel might disrupt the Win autorun ) I am willing to settle for a FAT32 only solution.

I just need a procedure of some kind to format my usb drive in linux and read and write to it in linux...


Please help. My system specs are in my sig.

If you modprobe usb-storage and then plug it in and type dmesg, does it say anything about the device? Usually they show up as /dev/sda1 . Root can mount it with
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

I'll try it. Not at personal computer now. Thanks.