I have an interesting problem with my USB keydrive. I can plug it in use it, abuse it, and it works fine. Then, I unmount it, and take it out. When I try to plug it back in, it won't let me access it or mount it. Also, I have a "icon proliferation" problem where multiple icons are placed on my desktop. Right now, I have "sda 1" and "sdb 1" icons on my desktop without my USB key plugged in. Further, I have two zip drive icons (though I do have a zip disk in). I've also noticed it takes some work to get pictures downloaded from my digital camera, even though the camera is in "USB mass storage" mode.

So, I look at my fstab to see what it going on, and I see various entries with "kudzu." Having lived in Georgia, USA, kudzu generally seems to be a big problem in the real world, and I have no idea what it is doing in my fstab. Earlier posts suggested going to the mandrake control center and turning off supermount and allowing users to mount stuff (even though user is in most of the entries). So, I am about to do that, but here is my fstab as it currently stands.

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/dev/hdc6 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdc1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdd1 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrecorder auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hda,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/removable auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/removable3 auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
none /mnt/zip supermount dev=/dev/sda4,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb4 /mnt/zip2 auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc5 swap swap defaults 0 0

Yes, the automounter can make a mess of removable devices Myself I use manual mounting. Someting you should know though:

The first removable device you plug in after reboot gets assigned /dev/sda (assuming you don't already have SCSI hard drives Then, if you plugin another removable device it goes to /dev/sdb *even* if you removed the former device.

So in my case my /etc/fstab assigns /dev/sda1 to /zip (a parallel-port zip drive) and /dev/sdb1 to /stick (an USB memory stick). So When I boot linux I have to make sure I switch the ZIP drive on and off again for just a few seconds, before inserting my USB stick (just need to de this once every reboot). Otherwise my USB stick ends up in /zip and my ZIP disks end up in /stick (

This is just to say, it's a bit tricky to get it right.

Cheers,
nukkel

I changed the supermount settings, and added user mounting privilages. Still have "kudzu" entries in there. Anyone know what they are for? Also, I have two "removeable" entries for USB devices that are currently not connected. Do I need them in there, or can I mount usb-stick and camera without the entries?

Thanks.

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Updated fstab after changing and multiple reboots.

/dev/hdc6 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hdc1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hdd1 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrecorder auto user,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hda,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/removable auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/removable3 auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
/dev/sda4 /mnt/zip auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb4 /mnt/zip2 auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc5 swap swap defaults 0 0

kudzu are entries that are automatically updated by the system -- if you want the entry to remain untouched just remove the 'kudzu'...

You definitely need the entries for the removable devices. If you remove them only root can mount the removable devices

Thanks. That helps clarify things. Looks like kudzu is not as bad as I thought. ;-)

Yeah, kudzu can help out if you want all your removable devices to turn up under the same directory. The name probably sounds worse than it is