can not mount usb flashdrive

I have a directory called /media/usbdrive

I have a 64mb usb flashdirve. I'm not sure if the file system is msdos or vfat, but neither works.

Also not sure if I should try to mount /dev/sda or /dev/sda1, or something else.

The flashdrive works great on windows, no problems at all.

Here are some examples of what I've tried:

# mount -t msdos /dev/sda /media/usbdrive
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so


# mount -t vfat /dev/sda /media/usbdrive
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

# mount -t auto /dev/sda /media/usbdrive
mount: you must specify the filesystem type



# mount -t msdos /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

# mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

Whats the output of the command ' /sbin/fdisk -l ' with the thumbdrive plugged in. Note you need root access to run.

Brian1

I'm not the originator, but have the same problem. My (apparently pertinant) output from the command you suggested is:

Disk /dev/sda: 129 MB, 129499136 bytes
33 heads, 32 sectors/track, 239 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1056 * 512 = 540672 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         240      126448    b  W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
     phys=(249, 32, 32) logical=(239, 16, 32)

First:

apt-get install sg3-utils
modprobe sg

Then:

sg_scan -i
sg_map -i

What's the output?

And: If one is using debian testing/unstable, make sure hotplug is uninstalled AND purged, and that udev is installed. hotplug being installed on testing/unstable can screw up quite a bit regarding detecting USB storage devices...

Does seem odd, Using root access it should mount as ' mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive '.
Only other idea is add a line to /etc/fstab and see if that works.

/dev/sda1               /media/usbdrive              auto    umask=000,users,noauto,owner,rw,dirsync   0 0

Hope this might help.
Brian

from http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_USB_Mas...roubleshooting:

If you have a vfat device and mount says "wrong fs type, bad superblock, etc" and dmesg shows errors like "FAT: cpage437 not found", you need to make a few changes in your kernel. Go into menuconfig and then open up filesystems, Natural Language Support and turn on "Codepage 437 (United States, Canada)" and "NLS ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1: Western European Languages)". Now either load these modules or reboot (depending on how you configured them) and the device should mount.

(nothing gentoo-specific here... it should work in debian)

Hi. I run slackware 10.2

I had the same problem. I tried everything sugested here and a few more
howtos. No luck. Finally I read somewhere that `SCSI disk support' has to be
enabled as built-in in the kernel. Done. Problem solved. After recompiling
the kernel it even installed sg3-utils-1.17 at the root dir.

then I added this line to /etc/fstab

/dev/sdb1       /mnt/usb2           vfat          users,rw         0   0

You might need to run:

tail -f /var/log/messages

when pluggin in your flash-drive just to make sure the special device `sdx'
id number hasn't change. In which case you'll have to change the id in
the fstab file too.

Good luck!

-West

My output from sg_scan and sg_map:

# sg_scan -i
/dev/sg0: scsi0 channel=0 id=0 lun=0 [em]
USB Disk 1.16 [rmb=1 cmdq=0 pqual=0 pdev=0x0]

# sg_map -i
/dev/sg0 /dev/sda USB Disk 1.16


Is that helpful?

No.

While you have sg0, meaning you have SCSI generic enabled into
the kernel. You have to enable `SCSI disk support', that will enable
your system to recognize `Special Devices'

I compile my kernels using the readme at:

/usr/src/linux-2.x.x/README

Search your distro documentation for the kernel configuration and
compilation. Whilst you have only SCSI generic enabled it won't work

Another change you should implement is enabling:

`Probe all LUNs on each SCSI device' This is helpful when you have
a multiple cardreader. If this option is not enabled only one `Logical
Unit Number' (LUN) will be detected.

Remember; try your distro's documentation for kernel compiling.

-West

mokele, take a closer look at the output, you'll see that /dev/sg0 is mapped to /dev/sda just like it is supposed to.


walterbyrd, /dev/sda is the device that your USB flash drive gets. And typically it is the first partition on such a device that one wants to mount, /dev/sda1.
To verify that this is the case, execute

fdisk -l /dev/sda

and the partitions on the device will be listed.

If it is the first partition and you cannot mount /dev/sda1, then there must be some other pecuilar issues going on, which I cannot really at the give an answer to what they are.

here is what I get:

# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 65 MB, 65011712 bytes
8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 496 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 256 * 512 = 131072 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 495 63344 6 FAT16

Then the following should reasonably do it, assuming the mount point exists:

mount -t vfat -o dmask=000,fmask=111 /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive

If it doesn't - then I don't know quite why... Take a look at the output on the end of dmesg to see if anything interesting is there.

dmesg | tail

I got it to work. I don't know how. It just started working.

# mount -t /dev/sda1 /media/usbdrive

Thanks for the input.

Originally posted by walterbyrd I got it to work. I don't know how. It just started working.

I love when that happens! You work for hours and hours and hours and nothing works, so you run the command one more time just for shits and giggles, and what do ya know... It works. XD

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