no recognition of usb drive?

mma8x · 10-15-2006, 09:27 PM

using debian unstable, 2.6.18 stock kernel. when i plug in either a card reader or a pen drive, nothing happens. i get no output at all in dmesg. a usb wireless dongle is recognized normally. all usb drives work without prob on my ubuntu system. all the troubleshooting that i find starts with the assumption that something happens in dmesg when you plug in (lights on both light up when plugged in, btw.) any ideas on where to start?

Samotnik · 10-16-2006, 01:42 AM

After plugging pen drive in check the tail of /var/log/syslog for the recognition messages (system should find sd drive, e.g. sda), if it is, then mount it.
If recognition fails, than check your system for udevd daemon running, there is the one that plug new devices.
If it is, then your kernel may be compiled withot usb mass storage devices support.

mma8x · 10-16-2006, 06:01 PM

nope. nothing in the logs. udevd is running, and everything related to scsi/usb is enabled in the kernel. as i stated, it seems that a device node isn't being created (i tried creating one manually, but that didn't work either).

mma8x · 10-18-2006, 07:14 PM

anyone have any ideas on this?

mma8x · 10-19-2006, 10:21 PM

ok, so i found an app called udevmonitor, which apparently monitors all kernel/udev events. when i plug in the usb drive, nothing at all registers--there isn't a kernel event that triggers udev, so it looks like the problem is either kernel or hardware related. is there any chance that an older laptop (bios date is 1999) would recognize/trigger some usb devices but not others? doesn't seem likely, as i would think that the computer would recognize that SOMETHING was there, but i dunno...

JZL240I-U · 10-20-2006, 01:58 AM

Can't you check the hardware first on another computer?

mma8x · 10-20-2006, 03:26 PM

which hardware? both the card reader and thumb drive are recognized/work fine on my ubuntu desktop.