Dear Linux experts,
I am a newbie in linux and this is my first post in this forum. After a long search on the web, I have finally able to use the USB pen for my linux computer with Woody 2.4.18-bf2.4. However, I still failed to mount an USB external hard disk on my linux PC although this hard disk works in windows PC.

To cut the story short. When I plug in the USB pen, I can see sda1 from the /var/log/messages, and then able to mount it using sda1. However, when I plug in the USB hard disk, the /var/log/messages shows the following error messages:

Jul 30 02:53:35 gandalf kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Jul 30 02:56:43 gandalf kernel: usb.c: USB disconnect on device 3
Jul 30 02:56:50 gandalf kernel: hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2, assigned device number 4
Jul 30 02:56:50 gandalf kernel: scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jul 30 02:56:50 gandalf kernel: usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 1206
Jul 30 02:57:02 gandalf kernel: usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 922
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: Device not ready. Make sure there is a disc in the drive.
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: sda : status = 1, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 08
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: Info fld=0xa00 (nonstd), Current sd00:00: sns = 70 2
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: sda: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jul 30 02:57:17 gandalf kernel: unable to read partition table

And the following is the message from lsmod:
gandalf:~# lsmod | grep 'scsi'
ide-scsi 7488 0
gandalf:~# lsmod | grep 'usb'
usb-storage 97152 0
usbmouse 1760 0 (unused)
usbkbd 2848 0 (unused)
input 3072 0 [usbmouse keybdev usbkbd]
usb-uhci 20708 0 (unused)
usbcore 48032 1 [usb-storage usbmouse usbkbd usb-uhci]

While the following are the related entries in the /etc/fstab:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbhd vfat noauto,user,rw 0 0
non /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs defaults 0 0

From my search on the web, some suggest that a recompilation of the kernal is needed for solving this problem. Some said that this is a known bug. My question is that, is there any other solution that don't need to recompile the kernel?

If a recompilation of the kernel is unavoidable, could you give me some detailed guidance on how to do it, please? I am really a newbie who need helps on this matter.

Thank you very much indeed!

Because of the antiquity of Woody (some 3 years old now) I would suggest an upgrade to Sarge and an upgrade of the kernel to 2.6 using apt-get. This should resolve a number of the problems you are having which are probably caused by a lack of kernel support.

Dear TigerOC,

Many thanks for your reply. The problem with the upgrade is that some of the old programs may not work after the upgrade. It would be a pity to find my programs unable to work for the sake of having the USB hard disk to work.

I hope that you understand my dilemma. Is there any other option left? It would be great if any of you here have solved this kind of problem before, and is willing to share your solution with me.

Thanks again.

There are very few obsolete programs that are only available for Woody. Bear in mind that within a short period of time you are going to start having problems with packages because of gcc compatibility. You also put your system at risk because security updates for woody are going to disappear very shortly.

Thank again TigerOC for the advice.

Two more questions: Have you tried to use USB hard disk before in the Sarge? Is it easy to use?

Thanks.

I haven't tried a hard drive but I have a usb camera and the memory card is treated as a storage device and works perfectly. There is quite a lot of of usb support for various devices in the kernel modules in the 2.6 kernels. I suggest using hotplug and discover packages.

Hi TigerOC,
Thanks again for the reply. I just realised that you are from Southampton Are you one of the university's ECS system admins?
Cheers.

No - Linux is just a hobby. Do some small time pc repair and support. Am getting into sale and support of Debian based adsl internet servers for home and small business use, having run my own for the last year.