External TB HD not recognized by OpenSUSE 11.3
 

I am a Newbie to Linux and am loving it. I have gone through Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, and continue using them on different PCs but I recently had a problem with my graphics card on new releases.. another story all together.
So I am using OpenSUSE 11.3 on my Dell inspiron 1526 AMD 64 bit. I have always been able to plug in my external HD and have it show on my desktop. Now with OpenSUSE something is different. I tried other flash drives, all show up and open to view on their own, but my 1GB ext HD doesn't. I am not a pro with the Terminal yet but I prefer to use it and am good at reading and copying commands from online.. I saw this earlier and maybe it will help

jason@linux-z81g:~> lshal -m

Start monitoring devicelist:
-------------------------------------------------
04:35:12.017: computer_power_supply_battery_BAT0 property battery.voltage.current = 12479 (0x30bf)
04:35:17.813: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738 added
04:35:17.833: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if1 added
04:35:17.839: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if0 added
04:35:17.843: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if0_scsi_host added
04:35:17.865: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if1_logicaldev_input added
04:35:18.676: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if0_scsi_host_0 added
04:35:18.676: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if0_scsi_host_0_scsi_device_lun0 added
04:35:18.681: usb_device_1058_1102_57442D574341553432313937303738_if0_scsi_host_0_scsi_device_lun0_scsi_generic added
04:35:19.116: storage_serial_WD_My_Book_57442D574341553432313937303738_0_0 added
04:35:19.538: volume_uuid_D2DC_22C9 added

as you can see it says "My Book" which is the name of my ext TB but where is it and how do I mount it? Thanks and hope this isn't too long for a first question

Go to system>preference> removable drives .
With option are on look for Mount removable when hot-plugged in

It should also show in your Dolphin File Manager.

If you want to find it by command try as root

cat /proc/partitions

this should list your ext hd. If you have problems figuring which one, unplug your hd and run command then plug hd and rerun command.

plug the disk in and type

dmesg | tail -20

and post the output. In case you haven't solved it already.

@almatic

linux-z81g:/home/jason # mesg | tail -20
is y


@Larry Webb it didn't change plugged in or not


linux-z81g:/ # cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

8 0 625131864 sda
8 1 2103296 sda1
8 2 20972544 sda2
8 3 602054656 sda3
linux-z81g:/ # cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name

8 0 625131864 sda
8 1 2103296 sda1
8 2 20972544 sda2
8 3 602054656 sda3

this should work...
unplug the drive then run: sudo tail -f /var/log/messages
then plug in the drive and look for a log message that mentions sda or sdb or sdb1 ...

then to mount manually it would be something like:

@ron lauw
 

Go to system>preference> removable drives .
With option are on look for Mount removable when hot-plugged in

I don't see removable drives anywhere, not in control center nor Ya2t

@schneidz


Jan 16 16:56:01 linux-z81g kernel: [82131.296058] usb 1-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 26
Jan 16 16:56:07 linux-z81g kernel: [82136.370103] hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2

I don't see any of those

this concerns me:maybe that is why it is not automounting.

any suggestions? what does it mean?

I can plug it into usb on the PS3 or an Ubuntu laptop I gave to my daughter and it works but I need it for mine. Is something wrong with this kernal?

If other usb storage will work with the same machine - same plug - suse 11.3 then I am lost. If you have time try 11.2 and see if there is a difference. If there is another usb slot try it. I am running 11.3 but do not have an external hd but do use storage cards and they auto mount. I think I did have a problem with one that did not have a partition, the device showed but did not have a partition to mount. If nothing else before I gave up I would try a different distro and make sure it worked under the same situation. I am curious, please let us know if you find a solution.

is there an easy way to change the kernal to 11.2 or do I need a complete install? It has taken me a lot of effort to just get my 64 bit Chrome and Flash and Picassa and VLC on this beast, I hate to have to do it all again. The wife thinks I like my computer more than her lol
Its like everything is working perfect except this one problem!

Leave it alone, if can install a distro on a usb flash then try out your hd while booted to the flash distro. That would be a safe work around. The flash needs to be 2 gig or larger. They say you can get by with one gig but I load too much junk.

Another train of thought, have you tried that hd on that machine using a different distro and had it work? The reason I ask is usb backward compatibility, I always thought they all were backwards compatible.

it has worked on every distro I have tried, which were the ones I mentioned at first. They just all stopped supporting my video card in recent updates which gave me problems with graphics or full screening youtube among other things. I had to plug it in to an Ubuntu laptop earlier to tranfer files to a USB flash that I then plugged into here, and copied them. I even used the exact same port.. and all of them. They all recognize everything except the TB. You saw above that it sees it.. there has to be a simple explanation/answer. By the way thank you for looking at this problem!

I think this may be related
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-b.../msg00185.html

I guess that the only option will be to change distros once again. Any suggestions?

i would try fedora live-usb to make sure it is not something wrong with your pc's usb port. we are sure that the harddrive is fine since it works on other computers so now we have to figure out if your pc is bad or if suse is doing something flunky...

edit: never mind. i see you basically did that in your response #14.
(at this point consider it mite be easier to solve your graphics issues the other distros ?

It seams this would be an easier fix. I mean SUSE sees it connect like I showed earlier, even calls it by name.
What does " unable to enumerate USB device on port 2 " mean anyways? Is there a way to manually enumerate it or something? Maybe I can boot from a different distro, copy what I need to home and reboot but wow, seems a lot for plug and play. How can it not work when everything else does? Am I missing something that lets SUSE read from that big of an external drive?

this seems related:
google(unable to enumerate USB device on port 2)[2] = http://www.absolutelytech.com/2010/0...ling-ehci_hcd/

I had tried that already from a Google search. It didn't work for me but I will give it another shot .. no it still didn't work.

I just switched it to Fedora 14 last night and everything works great. Thanks for your time and effort. Should this be marked solved since I don't really need further help with it?

I would think not, it may have solved your problems but I would think your solution would be considered a work around. If they read your post they should figure that you do not need more suggestions. Someone may run across a fix and post which might help someone else.