Mount a USB device using LSUSB

nonexist · 02-02-2009, 09:08 PM

OK not sure if this is possible but let's try. I run lsusb in the terminal and I get
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0408:030c Quanta Computer, Inc.
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045e:0710 Microsoft Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

I am wondering if it is possible to mount any of those considering one of them is a hard drive(sorta).

If not that's cool too.

-nonexist

Didier Spaier · 02-02-2009, 11:05 PM

I really do not understand what you mean.

Let me quote 'man mount':

Code:

DESCRIPTION
       All  files  accessible  in a Unix system are arranged in one big tree, the
       file hierarchy, rooted at /.  These files can be spread out  over  several
       devices.  The mount command serves to attach the file system found on some
       device to the big file tree. Conversely, the umount(8) command will detach
       it again.

Now let me quote 'man lsusb':

Code:

DESCRIPTION
       lsusb  is a utility for displaying information about USB buses in the sys-
       tem and the devices connected to them.

So:
- 'mount' is certainly not reserved to hard drives. For instance you can mount an ISO image using a 'loop' option.
- if a device shows in 'lsusb', it is connected to it: that is to say the system can communicate with the device, be it or not 'mounted'. My system communicate with its keyboard hopefully, though I do not use the 'mount' command for that purpose.

Now please notice that according to the General Systems Theory - which go far beyond and is a lot more general than computer science - a system's boundaries are defined by the observer.

On that topic read Ludwig van Bertalanffy and Herbert Simon.

But may be I am off topic.

It is early in the morning here, I am awakened and have nothing to do till breakfast, this is my excuse

nonexist · 02-02-2009, 11:59 PM

Defiantly need to start reading the man pages.

But with the output I posted, it is a Zune(:/) and it seems that you could mount it since it does communicate. May be Im not clear or maybe Im just really tired

Didier Spaier · 02-03-2009, 12:13 AM

Ok, now hopefully I understand your problem.

A Zune can't be mounted because it can't be seen as a mass storage device. To allow it to communicate with the external world Microsoft uses the Media Transfer Protocol instead.

So you will need the libmtp library to use it on linux. This is how I feed my mp3 player (not a Zune, though) with classical music.

Once libmtp is installed you can use either the command line (see all the mtp-something commands) or e.g. Amarok or Gnomad2 to transfer the files between your computer and the media player.

[EDIT]After a little googling "zune linux mtp" I am not that sure that you will be able use some / any of the functions from Linux, as there *could* be some unsettled issue with a specific "handshake" protocol (mtpz) used by Microsoft which *could* prevent to really use this device outside Windows.

micha · 02-03-2009, 07:22 AM

It shouldn´t be a big problem:

First check your libmtp installation. If it is above 0.3.0 it should work without any changes. If not go to http://libmtp.sourceforge.net/ and get the newest version. After installing don´t forget to look into /etc/udev/rules.d/libmtp.rules and check if your player is listed. If not insert a new line with the data of the player and restart usbfs. Now it should be able to connect.

Regards,
micha

taylorchase · 02-03-2009, 10:55 AM

nonexist, I have a Zen Vision W that uses MTP, it works well with Gnomad2 and Amarok. The Zune, uses MTPZ so I don't know if Gnomad2 will help or not. Here is what I did to get my Zen working, hopefully it will work for you as well.

Not sure what distro you are using but in openSUSE you can install gnomad2 via Yast using the Packman Repository see here

After installation just connect your device and run the program.

Additional Links that may help on your quest:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archi...-for-linux.php

JFGI

Cheers

alMubarmij · 02-03-2009, 03:03 PM

A simple answer for your question is: No.
"lsusb" command is only for showing a list of USB devices, like "ls" command which show the list of files.