i cant mount my thumbdrive, i used to be able to though but i don't know what happened, i keep getting "mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device".

i'm running slack 10.1 kernel 2.4.29, KDE 3.3.2
here is my fstab:

dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat defaults 1 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/memstick vfat defaults,users,umask=0002 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdr iso9660 users,ro,umask=0 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 users,ro,umask=0 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,users 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0


any help is much appreciated...
thanx.

1st, I'd double check and make sure its sda1. Type:
cat /proc/diskstats
and find it in the list.

And just to be sure, since you didn't give the manual command your are giving:
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/memstick
Of course change 'sda1' to whatever-the-case if need be.

-tw

If I recall correctly...

Your thumb drive, which is usb no?, is going to need a few things.

Firstly, you will need of course the usb-storage driver and the other modules required for usb life to occur.

Now with storage devices, if I recall correctly you will need a few things.

Everything is mostly kernel modules... so if you haven't compiled these in or using a stock kernel that doesn't include them... happy compiling.

The usb storage driver and relevant usb modules (uhci or ohci) Just make sure your other usb devices are working first.

The one that normally fouls people up which is scsi disk support and I believe 2.4 requires scsi emulation support. (not sure, it's been a while)

So, if it's a stock kernel provided by your distro, go ahead and try.
modpobe scsi_mod
modprobe ide-scsi
modprobe usb-storage

the suggestion by tw001 didnt work because i dont have any diskstats in /proc

and about the one by cylix, i only have the ide-scsi loaded, the other two it says that modprobe cant find them. and im sure my thumbdrive works because i use it under winxp, and like i said, it used to work fine here too

have you made changes to your kernel?
sg3utils has some stuff to help. the usbdrive will change depending on which usb port you put it in. one will be sda then sdb then sdc.
try sdb1 then sdc1 in your mount command.

usb-storage is quite necessary.

Though the name appears as usb-storage, it might be usb_storage.

You can check by looking your modules directory.
/lib/modules/kernel_release/kernel/drivers/usb

You can get your kernel release (that you are running) with uname -r

i didnt modify my kernel, i tried all the possible combinations with sda,sdb, etc and nothing, where can i get sg3utils?, i have usb-storage up and running but nothing...

by the way, thanxs for helping me guys, i really appreciate it

Firstly, lets do an lsmod and see what's running and where.

Make sure these are loaded...
usb_core
usb_ohci or usb_uhci
scsi_mod
ide-scsi
sr_mod
usb-storage

If not, just load them in that order. Though modprobe them, I remember having problems if I loaded them in the wrong order. So, in the end you can rmmod usb-storage and then modprobe usb-storage again.

Then do an lsmod and we'll see if usb-storage is actually taking.

damn it, i dont have the usb-uhci, and i know i had it

i'll check into it

thanks cylix

It's uhci or ohci

It's architecture specific... depending on your hardware implementation.

Make sure you look in your /lib/modules/kernel-release##/kernel/drivers/usb directory to see what's there.

i got it man, i loaded all of those modules and it worked, i edited rc.modules and uncommented them so now they run at boot.

big thanks cylix, im in debt

I accept cash, paypal and money orders. (no out of state checks)

I'm rusty at the 2.4 stuff... 2.6 would have taken one reply. (My usb drive is a 20gb notebook drive in an aluminum shell)

I guess you have it working now, but for future reference, I use my USB key using /dev/sda. No numbers.

this is one place to get sg3utils. this is the source. other packages are in the same directory.

http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/ma...08.orig.tar.gz

this is a howto for getting usb devices working under linux.

http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/c122.html

I can't remember where i read the explanation of how to use the sg3utils, bu they do things such as this:
/# sg_map
/dev/sg0 /dev/scd0
/dev/sg1 /dev/scd1
/# sg_scan
/dev/sg0: scsi0 channel=0 id=0 lun=0 [em]
/dev/sg1: scsi0 channel=0 id=1 lun=0 [em]