Hello all.

Just signed up and registered as i had a quick look around the forum and couldn't find what i needed (although that is probably my fault... ).

Anyway, i am trying to mount a usb stick in redhat, with kernal version 2.4.20-20.9. Now, i am a complete linux newbie, and am completely puzzled! From the command "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" it picks up the usbstick on scsi0 channel00.

However, i then fail to be able to actually mount the device, regardless of what type of filesystem i specify.
As stated above, i am a complete linux newbie and know very little about it.

I believe i might need to edit the /etc/fstab file to en-able redhat to mount it, but don't want to do that unless i am 100% sure and know exactly what to put in there I have looked around the forum and searched google but don't seem to find an "idiots guide"

Any help would be appreciated, remember the above mentioned cluelessness in any answers please!!

Cheers

I wrote a linux answer that might help.

Cheers for the reply, and this is a very useful faq, but unfortunately it wont help me

From the command "cat proc/scsi/scsi" i get the output -

Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: Tiny Disk Model: 2003-09-25 Rev: 1.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02

which i have had since before i asked for help.

From the "dmesg" command however, i get a good start, as it picks ups the tinydisk on scsi0, and trys to mount it, but then gives up with unable to read errors, these errors get repeated many times, below is a very small copy from the output

hub.c: connect-debounce failed, port 2 disabled
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2, assigned address 9
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 1 port detected
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-2.1, assigned address 10
usb.c: USB device 10 (vend/prod 0x67b/0x2517) 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
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: TinyDisk Model: 2003-09-25 Rev: PROL
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 10
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-2 address 9
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:07.2-2.1 address 10
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Info fld=0xa00 (nonstd), Current sd00:00: sense key Not Ready
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Info fld=0xa00 (nonstd), Current sd00:00: sense key Not Ready
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
Device not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 64
Device not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Info fld=0xa00 (nonstd), Current sd00:00: sense key Not Ready
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda: test WP failed, assume Write Enabled

Cheers for all the help so far, i am determined to get this working! Any further help would be much appreciated! Cheers again

what is the file system on the drive? If it's windows formatted, it's probably vfat. try this entry in your fstab:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive vfat noauto,user,rw 0 0

make sure you have created the /mnt/usbdrive directory, and then try and run mount. If it gives you a run around about partitions or invalid file system, try sda4 instead. You could also try auto instead of vfat. I get all sorts of read capacity failed errors to. I don't know why. Anyways, I hope this helps.

The drive is windows formatted, but the vfat, and auto options dont seem to work

I am just trying mount the drive manually to begin with, as its a work machine and i dont want to mess it up! It is ok to do this still?

I am using the following command
[root@bsws26 mnt]# mount -t auto /dev/sda4 /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/sda4 is not a valid block device
[root@bsws26 mnt]# mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/sda4 is not a valid block device

the directory mnt/usb has been created.

i have also tried the commnand as /dev/sda & /dev/sda1


Cheers for all your help, im begining to think that this is impossible!

did you try sda1 first? my mp3 player is also windows formatted and for some reason, it's sda1.

Yep, tried /sda1 first, and it still doesnt work - The exact error is:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

It doesnt work regardless of which /sda is specified.

Any other ideas at all? Has it anything to do with the fact that i havent added the information to the /etc/fstab file? I am trying to mount it manually just typing the commands into the terminal. As i say im new to all this but its driving me mad!!

Cheers

When you first plug in the device, leave it a few seconds and then try running fdisk -l (as root) to see if it has been picked up. Although it is usually /dev/sda1, it could well be something different. When you run fdisk you will be presented with a list of partitions on currently active devices (ie ones that have been recognised) so you should keep an eye out for a device with a single partition of the correct approximate size. This is the /dev/sdXX you want to use.

Good luck.

Cheers all for the advice.

Using Redhat 9 i get a fdisk command not found error message. Are there any other commands that i can use that will give me the same information?

Any help that you can provide will save me a long time of mapping network drives and copying to floppies!

Cheers again

Are you running fdisk as root? Try finding it and entering the whole path to fdisk (as root) by doing whereis fdisk and then type in the path (most likely to be /sbin): /sbin/fdisk