Tricky USB mount problem

chris1407 · 02-12-2022, 03:57 PM

Hello there, this is my first post here as I'm trying to switch from Win 7 to Fedora (35).

I have a strange issue with one of my USB ports. I read a couple of threads about mounting USB devices, but haven't found the answer.

So I'm using a laptop connected to Dell monitor. The monitor is connected via HDMI, but it can also serve as an USB hub (if I connect it via USB additionally).

The problem is that when I try to connect a pendrive to one of the monitor's USB ports - it's not mounted. I can't see any difference typing lsusb command with the pendrive plugged in, and without it being plugged in. There is nothing in "Disks" app about my pendrive either. When I plug the mouse in, then it works fine. When I reboot the system with the pendrive plugged it, it also works fine, and mounts automatically. However, when I unplug it, I'm unable to plug and mount it again (unless I reboot the system again).

On Linux Mint, it works fine - it's recognized each and every time.

What can be the problem?

Thanks,
Chris

pan64 · 02-13-2022, 09:06 AM

probably you forgot to umount it first (before unplug).

hazel · 02-13-2022, 09:09 AM

Does Fedora automount disks? Not every distro does.

chris1407 · 02-13-2022, 09:43 AM

Thanks for the replies!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

probably you forgot to umount it first (before unplug).

Tried that, but no success. It unmounted correctly, but didn't want to mount again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

Does Fedora automount disks? Not every distro does.

Not sure how Fedora behaves as I encountered three different behaviors depending on what I do:

1. HDD (inserted in a caddy, in the place of CD/DVD ROM => needed to set it in Disks app to make it mount automatically
2. Pendirves connected via USB directly to my laptop => they always mount automatically
3. Pendrives connected as described in my first post => not visible in Disks or in the file manager (until I reboot the system)

ondoho · 02-13-2022, 09:47 AM

Give us something to work with.

pan64 · 02-13-2022, 09:55 AM

yes, it looks like the gui does not mount it automatically. Which desktop is it? (also check post #5 about detection of hardware)

chris1407 · 02-13-2022, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Give us something to work with.

I ran:

Code:

dmesg -w

waited until it calms down, and plugged the pendrive. It didn't show anything new.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

yes, it looks like the gui does not mount it automatically. Which desktop is it? (also check post #5 about detection of hardware)

It's Gnome (41.3)

business_kid · 02-13-2022, 11:07 AM

Let us be the judge of that. You show us the lines from dmesg, unless there were no lines. Then tell us there were no new lines added. We use the information you provide to diagnose your problem. It sounds like your usb key is borked, I'd just like a bit more before calling it.

ondoho · 02-13-2022, 12:39 PM

Is the USB connection actually supposed to run through the HDMI cable?
So in the end it runs through your GPU if I'm not mistaken.
Maybe there's a decision in there somewhere to allow mice, but not actual data USBs. Or maybe that decision already happens inside the monitor.
Of course the fact that it then shows up after a reboot is somewhat counter...
But, if dmesg shows nothing when you plug the USB in...
Another test: plug the USB in, then unplug the monitor, do the dmesg thing, and replug the monitor.
Does it show up then, either in dmesg or on your desktop?

chris1407 · 02-13-2022, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Is the USB connection actually supposed to run through the HDMI cable?
So in the end it runs through your GPU if I'm not mistaken.
Maybe there's a decision in there somewhere to allow mice, but not actual data USBs. Or maybe that decision already happens inside the monitor.
Of course the fact that it then shows up after a reboot is somewhat counter...
But, if dmesg shows nothing when you plug the USB in...
Another test: plug the USB in, then unplug the monitor, do the dmesg thing, and replug the monitor.
Does it show up then, either in dmesg or on your desktop?

There are 2 connections between the monitor and the laptop - HDMI and USB. If there is only HDMI, then I can't use the USB ports in the monitor. If I plug the USB cable to the laptop, then it extends it with these additional USB ports in the monitor.

So I did another test - I unplugged the USB cable from the laptop (stop USB hub), and plugged it again. In that case the USB HUB started to work (had another HDD in another port plugged in), and

Code:

dmsg -w

showed this

Code:

[  396.249665] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[  396.376145] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0451, idProduct=8044, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  396.376158] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
[  396.376163] usb 3-1: SerialNumber: 28000071F77F
[  396.379046] hub 3-1:1.0: USB hub found
[  396.379085] hub 3-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[  396.489684] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[  396.501914] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0451, idProduct=8046, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  396.501930] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[  396.503200] hub 4-1:1.0: USB hub found
[  396.503241] hub 4-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[  396.653594] usb 3-1.1: new low-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
[  396.737262] usb 3-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=413c, idProduct=2003, bcdDevice= 3.06
[  396.737276] usb 3-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[  396.737280] usb 3-1.1: Product: Dell USB Keyboard
[  396.737283] usb 3-1.1: Manufacturer: Dell
[  396.744230] input: Dell Dell USB Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.1/3-1.1:1.0/0003:413C:2003.0004/input/input19
[  396.795891] usb 4-1.3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[  396.796105] hid-generic 0003:413C:2003.0004: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell Dell USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:14.0-1.1/input0
[  396.809162] usb 4-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=174c, idProduct=55aa, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  396.809174] usb 4-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
[  396.809179] usb 4-1.3: Product: ASM1156-PM
[  396.809182] usb 4-1.3: Manufacturer: ASMT
[  396.809184] usb 4-1.3: SerialNumber: 00000000000000000000
[  396.812899] scsi host6: uas
[  396.823450] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     ASM1156-PM       0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[  396.837502] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[  396.851394] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 1465149168 512-byte logical blocks: (750 GB/699 GiB)
[  396.851400] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 4096-byte physical blocks
[  396.851544] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[  396.851546] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
[  396.851808] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[  396.855358] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Optimal transfer size 33553920 bytes not a multiple of physical block size (4096 bytes)
[  400.189169]  sdc: sdc1
[  400.279059] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[  400.841019] ntfs3: Unknown parameter 'windows_names'

The last line is red.

And going back to the very first scenario described (same test as above - but the pendrive plugged in in another port => unplug USB cable from the laptop, and plug it again):

Code:

[ 1180.536041] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[ 1180.930508] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0451, idProduct=8044, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 1180.930521] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
[ 1180.930525] usb 3-1: SerialNumber: 28000071F77F
[ 1180.934123] hub 3-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1180.934148] hub 3-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[ 1181.044065] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
[ 1181.056277] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0451, idProduct=8046, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 1181.056291] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[ 1181.057585] hub 4-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1181.057642] hub 4-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
[ 1181.210036] usb 3-1.1: new low-speed USB device number 14 using xhci_hcd
[ 1181.293456] usb 3-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=413c, idProduct=2003, bcdDevice= 3.06
[ 1181.293469] usb 3-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 1181.293473] usb 3-1.1: Product: Dell USB Keyboard
[ 1181.293476] usb 3-1.1: Manufacturer: Dell
[ 1181.300784] input: Dell Dell USB Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.1/3-1.1:1.0/0003:413C:2003.0007/input/input22
[ 1181.352808] hid-generic 0003:413C:2003.0007: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell Dell USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:14.0-1.1/input0
[ 1181.582028] usb 4-1.2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[ 1181.595846] usb 4-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=13fe, idProduct=5200, bcdDevice= 1.10
[ 1181.595859] usb 4-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1181.595863] usb 4-1.2: Product: Patriot Memory
[ 1181.595866] usb 4-1.2: Manufacturer:         
[ 1181.595869] usb 4-1.2: SerialNumber: 07013453703C4852
[ 1181.597155] usb-storage 4-1.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 1181.598001] scsi host6: usb-storage 4-1.2:1.0
[ 1182.603443] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access              Patriot Memory   PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 1182.603802] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 1182.604003] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 60566016 512-byte logical blocks: (31.0 GB/28.9 GiB)
[ 1182.604318] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[ 1182.604321] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 45 00 00 00
[ 1182.604651] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 1182.686326]  sdc: sdc1
[ 1182.689618] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

In this case, no errors are displayed, and all works OK. But when I unplug the device, I can't mount it back (without unplug/plug in again)

ondoho · 02-13-2022, 01:26 PM

I don't think that last NTFS error is relevant, but you could test with a "normal" FAT32 formatted USB drive.

Some more searches...
https://community.clearlinux.org/t/t...in-monitor/656
Looks interesting.
It could be a USB power saving "feature" in your laptop, or in your monitor.
Go through your laptop's BIOS, and through your monitor's settings menu.

https://www.startpage.com/do/search?...e+not+detected
Some more interesting chunks in this search.

chris1407 · 02-13-2022, 02:28 PM

Oh, looks like there are some issues with that. I went through BIOS/monitor settings, but there don't seem to be any related ones. One trick I tried (turn the monitor on/off) worked well, but in the long run that would be a bit inconvenient (doing that each time I wanted to use the hub).

Could it be some linux drivers? I tested it a bit on linux mint live cd, and I need to correct myself - I went too far in my first post saying it mounts there each and every time - actually I might have been lucky when I was testing it, because most of the time it doesn't work there either...

The most counter-intuitive thing is, that I've been using it for a while in Windows, and I remember it happened maybe once or twice, but 99% it worked just fine. Not sure what can I do now, as there is not much info on how can I actually fix it.

Oh, one more thing, even when it mounts (somehow), there seems to be an issue with file (and folder...) names. If they contain non English characters, the letters are replaced with question marks. Strangely enough, it doesn't happen, when the same USB stick is plugged directly to the laptop...another mystery

Thank you for the help!

ondoho · 02-14-2022, 12:57 AM

You're welcome, I'm glad we're getting somewhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris1407

Could it be some linux drivers?

That's a super vague question. But you seem to be implying that there's some sort of software malfunction - the way I see it, what you experience might be the desired behaviour, at least from a technical POV (my last post, power saving).
The inconsistent behaviour could be due to a race condition.

That said, I think some people in the search results I posted had sth to say about that.

Quote:

Oh, one more thing, even when it mounts (somehow), there seems to be an issue with file (and folder...) names. If they contain non English characters, the letters are replaced with question marks. Strangely enough, it doesn't happen, when the same USB stick is plugged directly to the laptop...another mystery

Is this anecdotal, or reliably reproducable?
If the latter, it has something to do with your drive being formatted NTFS. It could also contain weird flaky files, or even be physically in an unsound state. I asked you before, test with another drive, preferably one that is FAT32 or vfat formatted.

chris1407 · 02-14-2022, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Is this anecdotal, or reliably reproducable?
If the latter, it has something to do with your drive being formatted NTFS. It could also contain weird flaky files, or even be physically in an unsound state. I asked you before, test with another drive, preferably one that is FAT32 or vfat formatted.

It's reliably reproducable. Actually this one is FAT32 formatted. When mounted via USB hub, some of the file names are displayed with question marks. If plugged directly into the laptop, all displays correctly.

I observed the same behavior with VeraCrypt drives. I created them in Windows some time ago, and now when I mount them the same happens.

ondoho · 02-15-2022, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris1407

I created them in Windows some time ago

Is this a common trait to the files on your USB drives? It might have sth to do with the problem, but how it goes together with the monitor's USB ports behaving erratically, idk.
But 1 problem at a time, and it seems we haven't solved the 1st one yet. With a bit of luck, the 2nd will resolve itself.