no clue completely green

terrapinstation · 05-16-2012, 02:03 AM

I purchased a toshiba laptop with linux debian as the operating system I have no clue as to why the usb will not work when i plug it in. I am totally green to the lingo and computer science in general, although I am eager to learn.
when I plug in the usb I get a note saying unable to mount usb20FD
error mounting mount exited with error code 1 helper failed with etc etc,.. there were similar responses, and I suppose solutions but i have no clue as to what it all means or how to make a command etc.
please help thanks in advance
Terrapinstation

jschiwal · 05-16-2012, 02:18 AM

First enter "sudo tail -f /var/log/messages" in a terminal and then plug in the USB drive. Note the device nodes mentioned such as /dev/sdb for the entire device and /dev/sdb1 for the filesystem on the device. Sometimes a USB pendrive won't be partitioned, and the filesystem will be on /dev/sdb instead of /dev/sdb1 for example. Is there a message about recognizing a filesystem?

Here are some of the lines I get. I deleted some lines for brevity:

Code:

May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.636084] usb 2-2: new high speed USB device number 10 using ehci_hcd
May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.751793] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0781, idProduct=5406
May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.751803] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.751810] usb 2-2: Product: U3 Cruzer Micro
May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.751814] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: SanDisk Corporation
May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.751819] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 0000060412098585
May 16 02:08:35 qosmio kernel: [271621.753680] scsi7 : usb-storage 2-2:1.0
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.757098] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  U3 Cruzer Micro  2.16 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.810293] sd 7:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.810297] sd 7:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.815667]  sde: sde1
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.830035] sd 7:0:0:0: [sde] No Caching mode page present
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.830039] sd 7:0:0:0: [sde] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 16 02:08:36 qosmio kernel: [271622.830043] sd 7:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
May 16 02:08:37 qosmio dbus-daemon[1212]: **** EMITTING ADDED for /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/host7/target7:0:0/7:0:0:0/block/sde/sde1

The pen drive is /dev/sde and it has one partition, /dev/sde1. You can use the command "file -s" to get information on filesystems.

Code:

> sudo file -s /dev/sde

/dev/sde: x86 boot sector; GRand Unified Bootloader, stage1 version 0x3, stage2 address 0x2000, stage2 segment 0x200; partition 1: ID=0x83, starthead 1, startsector 63, 8000307 sectors, code offset 0x48
> sudo file -s /dev/sde1
/dev/sde1: Linux rev 1.0 ext2 filesystem data, UUID=ca98a523-dd64-47a2-a10d-63eecb85f180, volume name "suse" (large files)

If the system had problems mounting it automatically, you can try mounting it manually. Here ext2 is the filesystem. Most pendrives are fat32. In that case, use the type "vfat" instead:

Code:

sudo mount -t ext2 /dev/sde1 /mnt/

Some things that could be causing your problem.

usb drive isn't partitioned and desktop setup doesn't like that.
The filesystem is corrupt.
The kernel module for the filesystem isn't loaded. For fat32 you need the "vfat" kernel module.
Mounting removable devices is disabled using PolicyKit.

terrapinstation · 05-16-2012, 02:37 AM

what is a terminal,.. also where would i put in a command ?
in addition to the previously mentioned etc etc ,
is
mount; wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing code page or helper program, or other error in some cases
useful info is found in syslog try dmesg l tail or so

brianL · 05-16-2012, 03:33 AM

The terminal is available from the menu. You just type in the command and hit Enter. Easy, really.

BUT...you'll need the root (that's like admin in Windows) password. Who did you get the laptop from, and did they provide a password for root? Any more details would be helpful, please.

terrapinstation · 05-16-2012, 07:12 AM

I purchased it off craigslist, from a fellow who is a consultant for a software company. Unfortunately, I do not have his number any more also I do not see a menu that would allow me to open up a terminal,.. if you could could you walk me thru it ,.. it says applications, places and system up above in the left hand corner

TroN-0074 · 05-16-2012, 07:37 AM

It will be under Applications>Accessories>Termianl

Good luck to you.

terrapinstation · 05-16-2012, 07:55 AM

i typed in "password" for password in the root terminal and it seemed to let me go forward
it also says that I am a superuser
then it says
root@debian-laptop:/home/debian#(blinking cursor)
I have no idea what this means

terrapinstation · 05-16-2012, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TroN-0074

It will be under Applications>Accessories>Termianl

Good luck to you.

can you elaborate,. ok i go to applications then accessories then terminal
then the blinking cursor I type in _______________ ?
sorry but I'm no techie I need to be spoon fed this information
thanks

TroN-0074 · 05-16-2012, 08:15 AM

type su then hit enter then type the word password and see if it doesn't report anything back that means that is your root password.

From there you can follow the suggestion in post #2 skipping the word sudo.

On another note:
Having the word password as root password is not a good idea. I would suggest you to change it at some point.
you can change it by typing passwd then type the password you want to use.

You must issue this command while log it in as root though.

If you want to change the password to your user then issue the command in the form of

passwd 'username'

terrapinstation · 05-16-2012, 09:02 AM

should I try to track this fella down who sold me the computer to solve this problem,.. or do I have any alternative solutions ?

TroN-0074 · 05-16-2012, 10:03 AM

you can
1) Contact the person from who you acquired this computer and nicely ask him for the password and other information you might need in order to use the machine the way you want.
2) You can download and re install the OS adding all the settings and preferences you would like to have in your computer. Debian and other linux base distributions are distributed for free at no monetary cost at all
3) You can just use the computer the way it is right now and never worry about installing any new software, updates, nor modifying any file.

Good luck to you.

DavidMcCann · 05-18-2012, 12:30 PM

Don't despair! So far you've learned how to start the terminal and how to become the root user with "su" and the password. You say you got

Code:

mount; wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
 missing code page or helper program, or other error in some cases 
 useful info is found in syslog try dmesg | tail or so

That means that your usb thing is called /dev/sdb1, so that's something else you've learned. So, open the terminal, become root, plug in the usb stick, and then try the command "dmesg | tail" to see if it says anything useful. (Incidentally, another way to see what's happening is to use the Logfile viewer: that's in the menu under System tools.) Tell us what message you get and we should be able to see whether the problem is on the computer or in the usb stick.