Hello,

I'm fairly new to Linux, I have only used Linspire before, and I just installed Debian stable version (3.1)(Linux 2.6.8-2-386) The problem is that I don't have the foggiest idea how to mount the usb drive. I've downloaded pmount, but I don't know how to work it. The lsusb command found the drive:

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05dc:a300 Lexar Media, Inc.

So I know it identifies it at least.

When I ran demesg, however, I got this in regards to the USB:

usb-storage: Error in device_reset: invalid state 0

I've looked at several posting on the web, but I suspect most of the advice is out of date.

HELP

best

i never really figured out automatic mounting in debian, but the way i did it was to edit /etc/fstab

# nano /etc/fstab

and add something like

/dev/sda /mnt/usbflash vfat users,noauto,gid=users 0 0

then save it, and make the directory for it to be mounted to

# mkdir /mnt/usbflash

then mount it

# mount /dev/sda


???? i am no linux guru, but that should work

Click terminal mode and type
the "l" above is a small "L".

That should list all your usb devices. The first one should be called sda with partitions sda1, sda2...
If you have Sata disks which grab the sda and sdb notations then the USB device may be named sdc or sde.

If you can't find it in fdisk then Debian's kernel doesn't support it.

If you find the device in fdisk and want to mount it then you need to make a directory in /mnt and mount the partition on it. Before doing it you need to become a superuser to have the root privilege. You can type "su" at the terminal and then supply the root password to become the root user in Debian. Thereafter, say you want to mount sda1, the commands are just
Mounting a USB partition is no different to mounting any hard disk partition. Just make sure it is recognised by seeing it in "fdisk-l" command.

i thought lsusb was to show all usb devices? certainly works for me

This is what I got:

Disk /dev/sdb: 262 MB, 262144000 bytes
32 heads, 33 sectors/track, 484 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1056 * 512 = 540672 bytes


When I tried to mount it as saikee mentioned it said that I should specify the file type:

"you must specify the filesystem type"

That is vfat for this particular stick. Which command do I use to do this? After playign around with it a while, I found out that sdb has a superblock on it. Something I'm not familliar with at all.

best

Ok, I haven't found out how to get the usb drive working, but your tip did show me how to access my windows partition, making the usb device superfulous. Thanks saikee. It is still a little annoying that I can't get the usb to work. Oh well.

Modern Linux usually do not need to be told the file system type. the "-t vfat" or "-t msdos" can be added if needed.

I tried the method as suggested by Saikee:

fdisk -l

mkdir /mnt/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

And got the following message:

mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device.

Please help!!

In responding to the command of "fdisk -l" Linux lists all the partitions in each disk. These are the valid block devices "as found".

If sda1 is not a valid block device then your USB device may be named differently for being lower down in the disk order. Can you not see it from the list and make the adjustment yourself?

I am a newbee in the Linux world. My current laptop has RH7.3 Kernel 2.4.18-3 installed. It is not advanced enough to support hotplug USB support.

1) Here is the output from fdisk -l command:
--------------------------------------------------------

Disk /dev/sda: 5 heads, 50 sectors, 1024 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 250 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 ? 7679804 9857553 272218546+ 20 Unknown
Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(356, 97, 46) logical=(7679803, 4, 9)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(357, 116, 40) logical=(9857552, 1, 1)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
phys=(357, 116, 40) should be (357, 4, 50)
/dev/sda2 ? 5320737 7476642 269488144 6b Unknown
Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(288, 110, 57) logical=(5320736, 4, 3)
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(269, 101, 57) logical=(7476641, 4, 40)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary:
phys=(269, 101, 57) should be (269, 4, 50)
/dev/sda3 ? 2155958 7749410 699181456 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux3
Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(345, 32, 19) logical=(2155957, 2, 42)
Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(324, 77, 19) logical=(7749409, 1, 3)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary:
phys=(324, 77, 19) should be (324, 4, 50)
/dev/sda4 * 5578511 5578596 10668+ 49 Unknown
Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
phys=(87, 1, 0) logical=(5578510, 3, 14)
Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(335, 78, 2) logical=(5578595, 4, 50)
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary:
phys=(335, 78, 2) should be (335, 4, 50)

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2432 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 1150 9237343+ 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 2426 2432 56227+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3 * 1217 2425 9711292+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1151 1216 530145 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda5 2426 2432 56196 b Win95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order
---------------------------------------------------------

Please help!Thanks.

willyboy19,

If RH7.3 doesn't support it why don't you use a newer distro, say Fedora Core 5 which is 7 versions after RH7.3.

Got the feeling the geometry errors of you sda could be due to playing around with Partition Magic.