I'm completely lost. I'm trying to use a 60GB external USB HDD with SuSe 10.0. (Just to give me an even chance, I partitioned it using Windows to give 2 partitions - one FAT and one reiser. They work with Knoppix 5.0 so I know that part is OK)

In "My Computer" the icons are there for SDA1 and SDA5, but are both shown as Unmounted removable devices. I have tried to mount them using KDE but there is a message that flashes too quickly to read.

In terminal mode /mount /dev/sda1 says "Device already mounted".
I am unable to access either partition.

I've read a thread that says to edit /etc/fstab, but I can't find any listing for fstab in KDE.

Where am I going wrong and/or what am I missing?

Thanks

rogere

rogere:

you'll need to be logged in as root to edit your fstab file. this can be located at: /etc/fstab

as a useful command, you can type in on a console "mount" to see what devices are mounted and the privilages they carry.

Posting your fstab file would be of great use for us to see what's going on in your particular system.

Thanks for your reply. Here is the Fstab file

linux:~ # mount
/dev/hda6 on / type reiserfs (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/hda1 on /windows/C type ntfs (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,gid=100,umask=0002,nls =utf8)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/sda5 on /media/usbdisk type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=reiserfs)
/dev/sda1 on /media/EXTERNAL type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=floppyfss,procu id,utf8=true)
/dev/fd0 on /media/floppy type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,fs=floppyfss,procu id)
linux:~ #

In Konquerer sda5 s shown as being mounted in properties, but I still can't write to it, whereas sda1 is shown as being unmounted

Your problem may very well lie in this piece right here:

Note that your usb external drive is being told to be accessed by means of a floppy file system (vfat or ext2). You should be able to access at least the FAT partition with this.

This was taking from: http://submount.sourceforge.net/
"Currently there are two options: fs=floppyfss attempts vfat and ext2, and fs=cdfss tries iso9660 and udf."

The site also mentions setting it to "fs=auto". You may want to give that a go.

Hopefully someone will be able to help you with this today, if not, when I get back home this evening, I'll try looking into it further. Until then, see if you can access the drive via the console and also as root. Also, some additional research on how submount works would probably prove beneficial.

Although for gentoo, the usage section should remain universal: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Submount

Now I'm really confused. I can write/read to sda5 (reiser partition) in Root, but sda1 remains unmounted. I edited fstab using Kate, but depending on what I use I get 2 different versions of the fstab file. I have ruined fstab according to Konsole as it now reads as follows:

linux:/etc # mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/sda5 on /media/usbdisk type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=reiserfs)
/dev/sda1 on /media/EXTERNAL type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=floppyfss,procuid,utf8=true)
/dev/fd0 on /media/floppy type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,fs=floppyfss,procuid)
/dev/sda5 on /media/usbdisk type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=reiserfs)

Using Kate and opening the same file I get

/dev/hda6 on / type reiserfs (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/hda1 on /windows/C type ntfs (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,gid=100,umask=0002,nls=utf8)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/sda5 on /media/usbdisk type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=reiserfs)
/dev/sda1 on /media/EXTERNAL type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,fs=auto,procuid,utf8=true)
/dev/fd0 on /media/floppy type subfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,fs=floppyfss,procuid)

I'm clearly missing something here

Rogere

just a quick note: the "mount" command simply reveals what is currently mounted. It does not display your fstab file.

I think I'm OK now. I installed SuSe 10.1 leaving the USB drive plugged in during installation. Both partitions appear in fstab, and i only had to change the permissions to allow it to write to the FAT partition. It seems you can only have either sda1 or sda5 mounted at one time, but I can live with that.

Thanks for all your help. It's people like you and LQ that makes it all worthwhile

Rogere