This is my first time posting a question, so please excuse any problems.
I am trying to mount a usb storage device onto RedHat enterprise server 3.0. It had been previously mounted, so I know the Kernel supports usb. This is what I did :

Physically attached the USB device.

Mount -t usbdevfs usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb
...succeeds
mkdir /mnt/backup
...succeeds
Mount -t usbdevfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup
...succeeds

ls -al /mnt/backup

All I see is directories 001,002,003,004,devices and drivers.

cat /proc/scsi/scsi
shows only one attached device - a WD disk.

ls /proc/scsi/usb-storage-0/
shows one file called 2 ( I tried /dev/sda2 - same result )
The last line of this file shows attached=No

Then unmounted /dev/sda1 and tried
mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup
got message "wrong fs type or too many mounted filesystems"
Then tried
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup
got message "must specify file type"
Then tried
Mount -t usbdevfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup
...succeeds
but
ls -al /mnt/backup

All I see is directories 001,002,003,004,devices and drivers.

Any advice appreciated

Thanks

I noticed your preference is to use usbfs so this may help?
http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x173.html

but I do it differently.....Mandriva has a HAL daemon...a kind of hw detection...and I have an entry in my /etc/fstab like this

/dev/uba /mnt/flash xfs noauto,users 0 0

the device is inserted and I click on a device icon in KDE to mount it....then right hand click the icon to umount it.

btw if you use a CLI its umount and not unmount but I am sure you knew that

Did you reformat the usb drive for ext2? They usually use a fat filesystem, and the type to mount would be vfat.

Also, the version is recent enough to where a usb drive may be handled by udev.

In any event, you might try
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup -o defaults,umask=000,rw,noatime
or
sudo mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup -o defaults

Also, check /proc/filesystems and see if vfat is listed. You might need to "modprobe vfat" first.

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup
must give filesystem type

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/backup
wrong fs type

cat /etc/filesystems

ext3
ext2
nodev proc
nodev devpts
iso9660
vfat
hfs
--------------------------------------------

I then unplugged it and replugged it in and checked
tail /var/log/messages

Aug 18 13:33:18 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: Device 08:00 not ready.
Aug 18 13:33:18 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 24
Aug 18 13:33:19 PC35261-RHEL3 devlabel: devlabel service started/restarted
Aug 18 13:33:19 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: hub.c: connect-debounce failed, port 6 disabled
Aug 18 13:36:45 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.7-6, assigned address 4
Aug 18 13:36:48 PC35261-RHEL3 /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: ... no modules for USB product 4cf/8818/a301

------------------------------------------
dmesg

hub.c: connect-debounce failed, port 6 disabled
hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.7-6, assigned address 4
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 4
FAT: bogus logical sector size 0
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:01.

------------------------------------------

I am learning lots but still cannot mount this device.
Having just done the above - decided to stick my usb memory stick in
and guess what...

tail /var/log/messages
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: Vendor: SanDisk Model: Cruzer Mini Rev: 0.1
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sdb at scsi3, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: SCSI device sdb: 501759 512-byte hdwr sectors (257 MB)
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: sdb: Write Protect is off
Aug 18 15:04:59 PC35261-RHEL3 kernel: sdb: sdb1
Aug 18 15:05:02 PC35261-RHEL3 /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup usb-storage for USB product 781/5150/10
Aug 18 15:05:03 PC35261-RHEL3 devlabel: devlabel's temporary ignore list /etc/sysconfig/devlabel.d/ignore_list has been emptied due to a change in device configuration.
Aug 18 15:05:04 PC35261-RHEL3 devlabel: devlabel service started/restarted
-------------------------------------

Thanks for all your help - I thought I was doing something wrong - now I believe the device is corrupt or a llose connection, since Redhat clearly succeeds in recognizing my usb stick

Thanks again - my first time doing anything like this - amazing

I once had a pen drive that wouldn't mount in Linux or Windows. It looked blank in Windows but I knew it wasn't. I used fdisk on the device and found that the partition type had been changed somehow. Fixing that fixed the problem.

did you notice RH detected it as a sdb1?