[SOLVED] get serial number and model of USB drives

izghitu · 02-07-2011, 04:41 PM

Hi,

I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

I have a script that prompts you to insert a USB HDD/memory stick then it needs to determine its serial and model and save it to a file.

The script can determine the device file of the inserted drive(ex: /dev/sdc) and if hdparm -I /dev/sdc works then all is ok. The problem is that not all USB HDDs/memory sticks work with hdparm. When it does not work I get the following:

Code:

root@izghitu:~# hdparm -I /dev/sdc

/dev/sdc:
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid exchange

The other command to get the serial for USB devices of any kind is lsusb -v or lsusb -D /path/to/bus/address

The problem of the first one(lsusb -v) is that it lists all USB devices and there's no way for me to script it to detect the inserted USB drive/memory stick and get the serial/model for it.

The problem with the second one(lsusb -D /path/to/bus/address) is that I do not know how to get the correct USB bus address of the inserted USB drive/memory stick.

So my questions are:
Is there any other way to get the serial number/model of a USB HDD/memory stick using its /dev/sdc device file?
Is there any way to link the /dev/sdc device file with the /dev/bus/usb/address device file so I can then use the lsusb -D command to get the required info?
Any other ideas?

Please help

Thanks

prodev05 · 02-08-2011, 03:42 AM

You can find the info by issuing the command 'dmidecode'. For more information in dmidecode refer "man dmidecode"

izghitu · 02-08-2011, 03:46 AM

did not work

simply running the dmidecode command does not say anything about the USB drive.

running it using the -d switch says the following:

Code:

root@izghitu:~# dmidecode -d /dev/sdc
# dmidecode 2.9
# No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found, sorry.

anyway I found another workaround. Whenever a USB drive/memory stick is inserted I can see this in dmesg:

Code:

[366230.279366] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk

9 from the 9:0:0:0: thing can be used to determine the right device:

Code:

root@izghitu:~# cat /proc/scsi/usb-storage/9
   Host scsi9: usb-storage
       Vendor: USB
      Product: Flash Disk
Serial Number: 7006AD3DCCBF2DF1
     Protocol: Transparent SCSI
    Transport: Bulk
       Quirks:

prodev05 · 02-08-2011, 03:52 AM

All the best.