I'm trying to use Monta Vista Linux 3.1 on an embedded system and trying to mount a USB thumb drive but failing. Do I need to format teh USB drive using Linux first?

No, assuming that support for FAT 16/32 is included in the kernel (which generally should be).

What type of errors are you getting?

When I try to mount a thumb drive on a Monta Vista Linux 3.1 Embedded System I get an Error.

When I plug in the USB Drive I get this message:
# hub.c: new USB device CYEZ-Host-1, assigned address 2
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: Memorex Model: Mini TravelDrive Rev: 6.51
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 1952767 512-byte hdwr sectors (1000 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
Partition check:
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2


Here's the command I type:
# mount -t vfat /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /mnt/usbcf

I then get the following error:
Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
I/O error: dev 08:01, sector 0
FAT: unable to read boot sector
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1,
or too many mounted file systems

When I check to see what's mounted I get this
# mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
/dev/root on / type ext2 (rw)
none on /dev type devfs (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)


I don't build the Linux Kernel, it is provided in an application note.

Any idea why I can't mount the drive (a USB 2.0 Memorex Thumb Drive) to see what's on it?

It may be easier to type:
This tells mount to try to detect the file system type.

Tried that, now I get that error 8 times since it is failing each sector.