I've got Slackware 10.1 and have had mild success using flash drives. Currently, the kernel thinks that my flash drive is busy or has a problem. Here's some output attempting to solve the problem:
1) Looking for my drive...
(using tail /var/log/messages)
Sep 5 23:55:56 TELDAR kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:10.4-6, assigned address 9
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(using dmesg | tail)
hub.c: new USB device 00:10.4-6, assigned address 9
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 9
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2) Errors from mounting the drive...
# mount /mnt/usbstick
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device
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# mount -t vfat /dev/sda /mnt/usbstick
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
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Note: Attempting to specify any sda* device other then /dev/sda gets me "mount: /dev/sda3 is not a valid block device" as an error.
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# tail /var/log/messages
Sep 5 23:55:56 TELDAR kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:10.4-6, assigned address 9
Sep 5 23:57:31 TELDAR kernel: sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
Sep 5 23:57:31 TELDAR kernel: sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Sep 5 23:57:46 TELDAR kernel: sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
Sep 5 23:57:46 TELDAR kernel: sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Sep 5 23:57:46 TELDAR kernel: Device 08:00 not ready.
Sep 5 23:57:46 TELDAR kernel: sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:
Sep 5 23:57:46 TELDAR kernel: sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
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# dmesg | tail
Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Info fld=0xa00 (nonstd), Current sd00:00: sns = 70 2
Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table
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3) Here's my /etc/fstab:
/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda2 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstick vfat user,noauto,umask=0 0 0
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Help! I'm exasperated. I can get it to work on other machines just fine...
