I just bought a PNY USB2.0 512Mb Flash Drive Attache.
It says on the box that Linux kernel 2.4 and high is supported.
A few minutes after I connected it to a USB port on my laptop (Sony VAIO PCG-FX501 with RedHat9.0 kernel 2.4.20) my mouse dissappeared. I guess somehow it conflicts with my USB mouse.
Before I had a JetFlash USB drive and it was working fine. I created /mnt/jetflash and added the following line
"/dev/sda1 /mnt/jetflash vfat rw,noauto,user,exec 0 0"
to /etc/fstab and mounted it as "mount jetflash" from /mnt .
The same procedure does not work for PNY USB2.0 Flash Drive Attache. I get a message "mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device"

Can anyone tell me how to prevent my mouse from dissappering when my PNY USB flash drive is connected and how to make my laptop recognize my flash drive?


Cheers,

Irena

After plugging in the usb drive, do a dmesg and what does it tell you it detected for the device?

also, keep in mind RH 9.0 is old and pretty out-dated. You are probably running an old 2.4.X kernel, usb support is improved in newer kernel, maybe your is a bit buggy?

What's your exact kernel version?

Here is the dmesg output:

Linux version 2.4.20-8 (bhcompile@stripples.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)) #1 Thu Mar 13 17:18:24 EST 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009f000 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000c0000 - 00000000000d4000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000fef0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000fef0000 - 000000000feff000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000000feff000 - 000000000ff00000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000000ff00000 - 0000000010000000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
256MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 65536
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 61440 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Sony Vaio laptop detected.
Kernel command line: ro root=LABEL=/
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1000.064 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 1992.29 BogoMIPS
Memory: 252984k/262144k available (1312k kernel code, 6660k reserved, 996k data, 128k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line)
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: 0383f9ff c1cbf9ff 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 0383f9ff c1cbf9ff 00000000 00000000
CPU: AMD Duron(tm) Processor stepping 01
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd7cd, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
Disabling VIA memory write queue (PCI ID 0305, rev 03): [55] 8d & 1f -> 0d
PCI: Using IRQ router VIA [1106/0686] at 00:07.0
Applying VIA southbridge workaround.
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
Starting kswapd
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
pty: 2048 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
NET4: Frame Diverter 0.46
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:07.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: VIA vt82c686b (rev 40) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci00:07.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1c40-0x1c47, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1c48-0x1c4f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddio
hda: HITACHI_DK23CA-20, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c03be900, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: QSI DVD-ROM SDR-081, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 39070080 sectors (20004 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=2432/255/63, UDMA(100)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 >
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 145k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
EXT3-fs: INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem.
EXT3-fs: write access will be enabled during recovery.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 128k freed
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 17:26:20 Mar 13 2003
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI: Assigned IRQ 9 for device 00:07.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:07.3
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:0e.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:07.2 to 64
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1c00, IRQ 9
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:07.3
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:07.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:0e.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:07.3 to 64
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1c20, IRQ 9
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 2
input0: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with IntelliEye?] on usb1:2.0
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,3), internal journal
Adding Swap: 522072k swap-space (priority -1)
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,2), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
ohci1394: $Rev: 693 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:0e.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:07.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 9 with 00:07.3
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:0e.0 to 64
ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[9] MMIO=[e8004000-e80047ff] Max Packet=[2048]
ieee1394: SelfID completion called outside of bus reset!
ieee1394: Host added: Node[00:1023] GUID[0800460301135068] [Linux OHCI-1394]
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport_pc: Via 686A parallel port: io=0x378
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
PCI: Assigned IRQ 10 for device 00:10.0
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.5, have irq 5, want irq 10
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.6, have irq 5, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:0a.1
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xd08ba800, 08:00:46:59:66:bd, IRQ 10
eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'
eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Assigned IRQ 9 for device 00:0a.0
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:0a.1
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.5, have irq 5, want irq 10
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.6, have irq 5, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
Yenta IRQ list 0808, PCI irq9
Socket status: 30000020
Yenta IRQ list 0808, PCI irq10
Socket status: 30000006
cs: cb_alloc(bus 2): vendor 0x1033, device 0x0035
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.1 (0000 -> 0002)
PCI: Enabling device 02:00.2 (0000 -> 0002)
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x220-0x22f 0x378-0x37f 0x388-0x38f 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
ehci-hcd 02:00.2: PCI device 1033:00e0
ehci-hcd 02:00.2: irq 9, pci mem d08e6000
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
PCI: 02:00.2 PCI cache line size set incorrectly (0 bytes) by BIOS/FW.
PCI: 02:00.2 PCI cache line size corrected to 64.
ehci-hcd 02:00.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jan-22
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 5 ports detected
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 02:00.0 to 64
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 02:00.0 to 64
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xd08ef000, IRQ 9
usb-ohci.c: usb-02:00.0, PCI device 1033:0035
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 02:00.1 to 64
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xd08f1000, IRQ 9
usb-ohci.c: usb-02:00.1, PCI device 1033:0035
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport_pc: Via 686A parallel port: io=0x378
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!
Via 686a/8233/8235 audio driver 1.9.1-ac2
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:07.5
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.5, have irq 5, want irq 10
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.6, have irq 5, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:0a.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:07.5 to 64
ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: ADS72 (Analog Devices AD1881A)
via82cxxx: board #1 at 0x1000, IRQ 5
cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!
CSLIP: code copyright 1989 Regents of the University of California
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:07.6
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.5, have irq 5, want irq 10
IRQ routing conflict for 00:07.6, have irq 5, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:0a.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:07.6 to 64
divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device ppp0
PPP Deflate Compression module registered
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-1, assigned address 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0xd7d/0x1600) is not claimed by any active driver.
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 378
usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
hub.c: already running port 1 disabled by hub (EMI?), re-enabling...
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-1 address 3

My exact kernel version is 2.4.20-8 .
Before I bought PNY flash drive I used JetFlash (provided by my employer) and it worked without any problems.
I don't understand why I have these problems (especially disappearance of my mouse) with my new PNY flash drive.

according to what you posted, look like there is a bug about this device and your usb hub... thus I don't know exactly what cause it or to what it refer. My guess would be to update the kernel, but it's just a wild guess.

I am not very good at replacing kernels. Could you give me a guide how to do it and where to get a new stable kernel from (with AMD Duron processor support)?
I have lots of additional software installed on my laptop. Will a new kernel affect its performace? In particular, I am worrying about my modem drivers - it took me ages to make my modem working "by trial and error" . I am not sure I will be able to repeat it.

Thanks,
Irena

I only trust "vanilla" kernel from www.kernel.org, but if you want, you could find one from RH, it would be far easier to install.
But yes, you will most likely have to reinstall your modem drivers and other drivers you installed by yourself....
If you still want to try it, I could give you a general guide, but the first kernel you compile on a computer is always a "guess and try" game.

If you want to stick with 2.4 series....try 2.4.22 and up