Hi,

I'm a Linux newbie and just bought a portable hard disk drive that I'm trying to see in my Linux boot (I have a dual boot Red Hat/Windows Dell Latitude laptop). The portable disk I'm trying to connect is a Smartdisk USB 2.0 Firelite 60 GB, and it works fine on the Windows boot.

I did: mkdir -p /mnt/firelite

I also looked in the /var/log/messages file (as I was advised) to try to find the right filename for the disk, but found nothing. At the bottom of this message I'm pasting the part in the messages file that I thought was relatively relevant.

Not having found anything I could use in /var/log/messages, I tried to simply add the following line to /etc/fstab:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/firelite vfat defaults 0 0
I then rebooted with the firelite plugged in the USB port. But I still can't see it.

When I do "mount /dev/sda1" or "mount /mnt/firelite" I get:
mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

I would really appreciate help with getting this disk to work, otherwise I have to return it and that'll be a big mess... :-)

Thanks!!!

Here is the section in /var/log/messages:
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 132k freed
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 13:50:27 Apr 2 2003
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1d.0
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 01:00.0
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xbf80, IRQ 11
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: hub.c: 2 ports detected
Feb 7 17:29:17 localhost sysctl: kernel.core_uses_pid = 1
Feb 7 17:29:20 localhost kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1d.2
Feb 7 17:29:17 localhost network: Setting network parameters: succeeded
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:1f.1
Feb 7 17:29:17 localhost network: Bringing up loopback interface: succeeded
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 02:00.0
Feb 7 17:29:17 localhost ifup:
Feb 7 17:29:17 localhost ifup: Determining IP information for eth0...
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xbf20, IRQ 11
Feb 7 17:29:18 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
Feb 7 17:29:18 localhost dhclient: bound to 192.168.1.100 -- renewal in 42893 seconds.
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: hub.c: 2 ports detected
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hid
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.2-1, assigned address 2
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,3), internal journal
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: input0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB Optical Mouse] on usb2:2.0
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: Adding Swap: 1028120k swap-space (priority -1)
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,6), internal journal
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Feb 7 17:29:21 localhost kernel: SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00

Don't post the same thread end multiple fourms and please read the rules, I am reporting this thread to the mod and it will be closed. Please reply to: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=143440
Thank You

-Joey

Check your kernel to support "Storage mass device".

Greetings