usb jumpdrive and slack 10
 

I am running Slack 10 kernel 2.4.26 and I have installed this OS on 4 desktops and 1 laptop. Ok, on the desktops, i can create the directory, edit the fstab file, plug in my kanguru jumpdrive and away i go. But, on the laptop, after i create the directory, edit the fstab file, and plug in the drive, when i try to mount it, it tells me it is not a valid block device.

When i look at dmesg, it picks up my kanguru drive, and even has sda1 listed, but that is as far as I have made it.

I have read busbarns "USB card reader howto" and searched the forums, and the one consistency i have found is to compile the kernel with scsi and usb options enabled. I have done this and it still does not work.

I enjoy working with slack, and with the great advice that gets posted on these forums, i have found that slack is not nearly as daunting as what i had heard it was, and this is the only thing i have had trouble with. If someone could please at least just point me in the direction i need to go from here, i would greatly appreciate it.

Oh, and please let me know what other information you might need, so i can look it up and post back. Thanks again.

when i installed slack 10, i had my jumpdrive plugged in, and it found the partitions and kindly set up the mount points for me.


you might try plugging it in, and re-running the install scripts that set up the fstab. just dont format any drives, and quit before it starts installing software. It should be a nice cheat for you.


Let us know if that works.

Hotplug controls that. Most likely it's not getting executed on the system you're having problems with. Make sure /etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug is executable. If it wasn't then fix that:

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug

and start it:

/etc/rc.d/rc.hotplug start

If that doesn't fix your problem, then poke around in /etc/hotplug & /etc/hotplug.d to see if somethings out of whack with it.

Try using sda instead of sda1. My /var/log/messages said mine was sdb1, sdb2, sdb3, and sdb4 (all at once) but I had to use sdb to get it to mount.
ta0kira

Thanks for the replies.

Kahless: Tried your suggestion. Still couldn't get it to work.


ta0kira: I tried that also. One of the other pc's i have, that is what i had to do. But it didn't help on this one.


DaHammer: I haven't thought about checking that. I am not at the laptop right at the moment, but the first chance i get, i will try that and post back here to let you know how it went.

Again, thatnks for the suggestions everyone.

Thanks for the replies, got it working, but i honestly am not sure how. Ended up just reinstalling slack, just finished trying to mount the usbdrive, and at first it wouldn't work, but i kept messing with it and now everything is working fine. Thanks again guys.

mount -t vfat /dev/sda /mnt/usb always works for me. I don't modify my fstab or anything.