Can't mount SCSI drives on Compaq Server

Lahru · 09-13-2007, 10:52 AM

Debian 4.0 r0
There are 4 SCSI Hard Drives in my server. 17GB x2 and 33.9GB x2
The OS is installed on 1 of the 17GB drives and that runs fine, but when I try to mount the others via the GUI I get an error "unable to mount the selected volume", with the following details:

libhal-storage.c 1401 : info: called libhal_free_dbus_error but dbuserror was not set.

process 3211: applications must not close shared connections - see dbus_connection_close() docs. this is a bug in the application.

error: device /dev/sdd1 is not removable

error: could not execute pmount

jhwilliams · 09-13-2007, 12:29 PM

what gui app is this? why not just mount the things the normal way by adding them to /etc/fstab - or if you only want them sometimes, just mount via commandline ?

mikieboy · 09-14-2007, 07:40 AM

Did you look at this doc?

Quote:

- see dbus_connection_close() docs. this is a bug in the application.

What does it say?

Lahru · 09-14-2007, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhwilliams

what gui app is this?

Gnome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhwilliams

why not just mount the things the normal way by adding them to /etc/fstab - or if you only want them sometimes, just mount via commandline ?

Cuz I'm newb I guess, not sure how to do this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikieboy

Did you look at this doc?
- see dbus_connection_close() docs. this is a bug in the application.

What does it say?

Umm no, I don't know where it is.

jhwilliams · 09-14-2007, 10:57 AM

Lahru -

I recommend the fstab route - this is the proper way of mounting devices. This webpage is helpful: http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

basically, you'll add a line to /etc/fstab that says:

Code:

/dev/sdd1 /your/mount/point ext3 defaults 0 0

where the device is /dev/sdd1, you want to see it appear at /your/mount/point, and it is an ext3 filesystem. (be sure you know what it is.) no need to get fancier than that yet - but read up on it if you want to.

Lahru · 09-14-2007, 11:48 AM

thank you jhwilliams, I am reading up on this now. Your assistance is very much appreciated!

farslayer · 09-14-2007, 12:51 PM

Are the other drives already partitioned and formatted ?

fdisk -l

Lahru · 09-14-2007, 01:01 PM

I edited the /etc/fstab and mounted the other drives as follows:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/sda1       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/sdb1	/mnt/sdb1	auto	auto,user,exec,rw,sync	0	0
/dev/sdc1	/mnt/sdc1	auto	auto,user,exec,rw,sync	0	0
/dev/sdd1	/mnt/sdd1	auto	auto,user,exec,rw,sync	0	0
/dev/sda5       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hda        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0

sdb1 still doesn't mount however and the error says "you must specify the file system type."

I'd like to reformat these drives to a file system that can be read by both Windows systems and Linux systems without too much alteration of the Win machines, would this be done best with FAT?

I don't know what utility to use to alter the partitions.
When I do a

Code:

fdisk sdb1

I get : Unable to open sdb1

The same goes for sdc1, and sdd1, but oddly (to me anyway) when I use the GUI (Gnome) to double click on sdc1 and sdd1 it opens a window for the drives and I can create directories and such on them.

farslayer · 09-14-2007, 01:37 PM

The previous command I posted would list all your drives, their partitions, and file system types..

Code:

it-etch:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         851     6835626   83  Linux
/dev/sda2             852       19452   149412532+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5             852        1181     2650693+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6            1182       19452   146761776   83  Linux
it-etch:~#

to run fdisk you need to specify a drive to run it on, not a partition.. so the command would be:

fdisk /dev/sdb

man fdisk for more details

fdisk will allow you to create and delete partitions but does not create a file system on them. If you delete a partition you will loose all the data that was on that partition, so make sure you pay close attention to what you are doing.

To create a file system on a partition (necessary in order to mount the partition) you would use mkfs

man mkfs for more details
also
man mkfs.ext3
man mkfs.vfat

mikieboy · 09-14-2007, 02:37 PM

Re dbus_connection_close() docs. The URL appears to be http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/api/html/files.html

However, I had a look at this and couldn't make head nor tail of it so I wouldn't bother.

From Googling however, I get the impression that this is a NTFS problem. So if those drives are NTFS, try making the drives mountable as root only. See if this works. Alternatively, change them to VFAT.

Lahru · 09-17-2007, 11:45 AM

umm, hmmm.
I enter the command

Code:

mkfs /mnt/sdb1

and get this:

Code:

/mnt/sdb1 is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n)

I don't understand.

farslayer · 09-17-2007, 03:02 PM

Could you post the output of fdisk -l please..