[SOLVED] How to setup a USB Device(s)

bsurfin · 10-09-2006, 11:41 PM

I have Slackware 10.2, I have an external DVD burner & a USB Hard Drive I'd like to be able to plug in when I want to use these devices. What is the proper way to set these up ?

BittaBrotha · 10-10-2006, 12:42 AM

It probably will depend which kernel you're using. Hopefully 2.6, which may have the usb drivers installed.

Most usb ext. devices show as /dev/sda1 etc.

Try cat /proc/bus/usb/devices. Do you see any device?

JZL240I-U · 10-10-2006, 08:15 AM

USB devices are handled by udev. Have a look at /etc/udev/udev.config. If you want fixed names for your devices have a look at

http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html
http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...tplug/udev-FAQ

bsurfin · 10-10-2006, 11:19 PM

Hey BittaBrotha,
I tried the "cat /proc/bus/usb/devices". Do you see any device?
and I got a whole page worth. I still have kernel 2.4.31. Anyway I have no way at this time to copy that whole page here for you to look at, but yes it does say
S: Product=USB 2.0 Storage Device
I checked with my Windows XP system & under system information, then usb and it has the same serial number for this device.
it also listed my hp deskjet printer that I have working under slackware and also my scanner.

bsurfin · 10-10-2006, 11:26 PM

JZL240I-U, don't I also have to do an entry in fstab ?

Old_Fogie · 10-10-2006, 11:47 PM

do you mean like this? i have this one my 10.2 box to overcome for usb mice and printer's permission issues

you mileage may vary

Quote:

As root, add a new group called 'usb':
Code:

groupadd -g 120 usb

then under your entry for usbfs in /etc/fstab make sure it looks exactly like this:
Code:

none /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults,devgid=120,devmode=0664 0 0

then added the username's to the group and rebooted.

bsurfin · 10-11-2006, 01:11 AM

NO, I think I need to add something to the /dev directory, then add a line that includes vfat in the fstab directory.

bsurfin · 10-11-2006, 01:28 AM

Question, I have Slackware 10.2 and the 2.4.31 kernal, I even have my usb printer & Scanner working, Would
"/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive vfat umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,quiet 0 0"
also work to setup a usb hard drive, and is that all I need to do to setup the device ? or what would you recommend ?

bsurfin · 10-11-2006, 10:04 PM

I did fdisk -l and it was there /dev/sda1 .
I added "/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrive vfat umask=0,users,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,noauto,quiet 0 0" to the fstab and I got an error message, something like /mnt/usbdrive does not exist, so I clicked on the /mnt directory, right clicked, created a new folder, renamed it usbdrive, I went back to system icon and clicked, and vioala it now works great, I tweaked permissions and It is now working perfectly !

Thanks for the help guys...

JZL240I-U · 10-12-2006, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsurfin

JZL240I-U, don't I also have to do an entry in fstab ?

No, that is handled by udev -- which possibly writes into /etc/mtab. No action is necessary analogous to mounting by hand where no entry is necessary either.

P.S.: Umm, I see from your last post that you got it to work that way. Good for you

. If you follow the links I provided earlier, you'll see that udev will ad an icon to your desktop and mount the drive automatically when you plug it in while a fixed entry will produce an error during boot when your drive is not connected -- but do it any way it's okay for you.

bsurfin · 10-12-2006, 06:29 PM

I like the sound of it auto mounting, like you said, rather than the way I have it working now. I'll delete my fstab entry and try the /etc/udev/udev.config, I did try to follow your links earlier, but my problem is that I don't understand enough to really make sense of all that, but I'll keep on trying...

JZL240I-U · 10-13-2006, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsurfin

...but my problem is that I don't understand enough to really make sense of all that, but I'll keep on trying...

Yeah, it is sometimes a little overwhelming, but on a whole it does work. So, don't let little things

like a device driver daunt you and carry on. From my own experience I can tell, that one keeps learning and that is already a huge part of the fun.

bsurfin · 10-19-2006, 11:36 PM

I opened kinfo center, it lists my linksys after installing Slackware 11.0, but under network it still does not show it, but shows my other slow lan card, is there a way to get it to show ?

JZL240I-U · 10-20-2006, 01:43 AM

I honestly don't know. Just open a new thread in the networking forum, the title of this one won't get you the exposure you need to attract the experts on this. Good luck.

bsurfin · 10-21-2006, 08:07 PM

I'm still not finding any info "that works" for the 2.4 kernel, This weekend I'm going to try to install the 2.6 kernel, since http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html is geared towards the 2.6 kernel...