usb hard drive

sycamorex · 06-05-2006, 06:04 AM

Hello,

I have been trying to mount my external usb SATA drive on Slackware 10.2, with no luck though.

In /dev I got sda, sda1, sda2,...,sda11
On other distros I have, the usb drive (3 partitions) is automatically mounted as sda1, sda2, sda3
when I write
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/multimedia
mount -t vfat /dev/sda2 /media/backup
mount -t ext3 /dev/sda3 /media/linux
I got something like that:
bad device block (or sth, sorry I am at work now, don't remember exactly)

I remember I managed to do it a few days ago, but just once,
then I included relevant lines in /etc/fstab
but I haven't been able to mount them since then.

btw, when I include the instructions for external usb drives in fstab, what argument should I specify (defaults, ..., etc)?

Thank you

Bruce Hill · 06-05-2006, 08:41 AM

Perhaps when you get back to the computer you could include such stuff as:
1 - your "cat /etc/fstab" output
2 - your "fdisk -l" output
3 - the exact command you use to attempt the mount
4 - the exact error message, not "or sth" (sorry, I'm not at your computer terminal)

The display of sda1 means scsi disk a (first one) 1 (1st partition)

sycamorex · 06-06-2006, 02:55 AM

Sorry about being not specific

1. etc/fstab

Code:

/dev/hda5        /                ext3        defaults         1   1
/dev/cdrom       /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro  0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
/dev/hda3        /media/fedora    ext3        defaults         0   0
/dev/hda6        /media/debian    ext3        defaults         0   0
/dev/sda1        /media/multimedia vfat       defaults         0   0
/dev/sda2        /media/backup     vfat       defaults         0   0
/dev/sda3        /media/linux      ext3       defaults         0   0

2. fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        1275    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2            1276        5512    34033702+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda3            5513        7219    13711477+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4            7220        7296      618502+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda5            1276        3194    15414336   83  Linux
/dev/hda6            3195        5512    18619303+  83  Linux

I try to mount with:

# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /media/multimedia
# mount -t vfat /dev/sda2 /media/backup
# mount -t ext3 /dev/sda3 /media/linux

What I get is:

mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device
mount: /dev/sda2 is not a valid block device
mount: /dev/sda3 is not a valid block device

I get those errors both on booting and later on when I try to mount them manually.

Bruce Hill · 06-06-2006, 02:59 AM

Which kernel did you install with?
Have you made any changes to the kernel since you installed?
Did you issue "fdisk -l" with the device plugged in?

sycamorex · 06-06-2006, 03:18 AM

I installed it with the default (bare) kernel, and I haven't made
any changes to it.
yes fdisk -l was issued with the hard drive plugged in.

MS3FGX · 06-06-2006, 03:29 AM

What does the output of "dmesg | tail" look like right after you plug in the drive?

Bruce Hill · 06-06-2006, 10:11 AM

The problem then, is simple, as I thought but needed to ask.

The bare.i kernel does NOT have support for SATA devices.
You will either have to install the sata.i kernel, or
recompile a kernel with sata support.

And "dmesg | tail" won't show it, because there's no support.

sycamorex · 06-06-2006, 03:34 PM

Thanks for your reply

How do I install another kernel then, or recompile it?

Btw, I did manage to mount it on two occasions

don't ask me how. I have no idea.
I could access the disk and read the files from the partitions.
thank you for your help

this is my dmesg, just in case:

Code:

 Linux version 2.4.31 (root@tree) (gcc version 3.3.5) #6 Sun Jun 5 19:04:47 PDT 2005
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f400 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f400 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001bef0000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000001bef0000 - 000000001befa000 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 000000001befa000 - 000000001bf00000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 000000001bf00000 - 0000000020000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fff00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
446MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 114416
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 110320 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda5 
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1600.079 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3191.60 BogoMIPS
Memory: 449496k/457664k available (1832k kernel code, 7780k reserved, 607k data, 120k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 512K (64 bytes/line)
CPU:     After generic, caps: 078bfbff e3d3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU:             Common caps: 078bfbff e3d3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-28 stepping 02
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd776, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Using IRQ router SIS96x [1039/0008] at 00:02.0
PCI: Found IRQ 7 for device 00:02.5
PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:06.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 00:04.0
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
pty: 512 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:02.6
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:02.7
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10f
floppy0: no floppy controllers found
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 7777K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
SIS5513: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:02.5
PCI: Found IRQ 7 for device 00:02.5
SIS5513: chipset revision 0
SIS5513: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
SIS5513: SiS 962/963 MuTIOL IDE UDMA133 controller
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x2000-0x2007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x2008-0x200f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hda: IC25N060ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c03af460, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K15RA, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 117210240 sectors (60012 MB) w/7884KiB Cache, CHS=7296/255/63, UDMA(100)
hdc: attached ide-cdrom driver.
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2000kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Partition check:
 hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 > hda3 hda4
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
md: linear personality registered as nr 1
md: raid0 personality registered as nr 2
md: raid1 personality registered as nr 3
md: raid5 personality registered as nr 4
raid5: measuring checksumming speed
   8regs     :  2315.600 MB/sec
   32regs    :  1652.000 MB/sec
   pIII_sse  :  5095.600 MB/sec
   pII_mmx   :  3613.200 MB/sec
   p5_mmx    :  4535.200 MB/sec
raid5: using function: pIII_sse (5095.600 MB/sec)
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
LVM version 1.0.8(17/11/2003)
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 120k freed
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,5), internal journal
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 379M
agpgart: Unsupported SiS chipset (device id: 0760), you might want to try agp_try_unsupported=1.
agpgart: no supported devices found.
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,3), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,6), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
  options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Intel ISA PCIC probe: not found.
Databook TCIC-2 PCMCIA probe: not found.
PCI: Enabling device 00:06.0 (0000 -> 0002)
PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:06.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 00:04.0
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x0050, PCI irq 3
Socket status: 30000006
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0820-0x08ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0800-0x080f: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x03e0-0x04ff: excluding 0x480-0x48f 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x03af: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
sis900.c: v1.08.07 11/02/2003
PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:04.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 00:06.0
eth0: Realtek RTL8201 PHY transceiver found at address 13.
eth0: Using transceiver found at address 13 as default
eth0: SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0x1800, IRQ 3, 00:c0:9f:81:db:92.
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:03.2
ehci_hcd 00:03.2: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
ehci_hcd 00:03.2: irq 10, pci mem dc844000
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
PCI: cache line size of 64 is not supported by device 00:03.2
ehci_hcd 00:03.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Dec-29/2.4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 6 ports detected
eth0: Media Link Off
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:03.0
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xdc84c000, IRQ 9
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.0, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:03.1
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xdc84e000, IRQ 11
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.1, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (#2)
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:02.7
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:02.6
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.1-2, assigned address 2
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49483 usecs
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x46d/0xc309) is not claimed by any active driver.
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.1-3, assigned address 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x45e/0x7d) is not claimed by any active driver.
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
usb.c: registered new driver usbkbd
usb.c: registered new driver usbmouse
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
input0: Logitech Logitech USB Keyboard on usb3:2.0
input1: Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with IntelliEye? on usb3:3.0
usbkbd.c: :USB HID Boot Protocol keyboard driver
usbmouse.c: v1.6:USB HID Boot Protocol mouse driver
usb.c: registered new driver hid
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech Logitech USB Keyboard] on usb3:2.1
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 18:53:41 Jun  5 2005
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
lp: driver loaded but no devices found

Bruce Hill · 06-06-2006, 05:59 PM

If you can plug the drive in and then issue "dmesg | tail" you will see whether or not your kernel picks it up. And if so, you can also issue as root "fdisk -l" and see it. But if you don't get it there, you cannot mount it.

If you would like to learn about kernel compiling, I suggest you use Kwan Lowe's Kernel Rebuild Guide. My first suggestion is to get the latest 2.6 stable kernel and start learning how to rebuild. If you follow his instructions, you can still boot your old kernel if your new kernel has a problem and doesn't work. I also have two sets of simple instructions in different threads in LQ, both of which will work:
Compile a kernel under /home
Compile a kernel under /usr/src/
NB: You will need to change 2.6.16.x to match the kernel you compile, and you should NOT use a 2.4 kernel's .config file for a 2.6 kernel and run "make oldconfig". And those instructions will NOT work for compiling a 2.4 x kernel; they are for compiling 2.6.x.y kernels.

If you don't want to build a 2.6 kernel, and you just want SATA support in your kernel, you could do several things. One would be to just get Pat Volkerding's sata.i config file from Slackware CD1 in the ./kernels/sata.i/ directory and copy it to your Slackware system as /usr/src/linux-2.4.31/.config and then follow these instructions below. This will overwrite your existing kernel and it's .config, but that shouldn't be a problem since it's the same kernel only with SATA support.

1 - mount your Slackware-10.2 CD1
2 - cp /mnt/cdrom/kernels/sata.i/config /usr/src/linux-2.4.31/.config
3 - umount /mnt/cdrom && eject /dev/cdrom
4 - cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.31/
5 - make oldconfig
6 - make dep
7 - make bzImage
8 - make modules
9 - make modules_install
10 - cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage vmlinuz-ide-2.4.31
11 - lilo
and if there are no erros when you run "lilo" you can reboot with a new kernel with SATA support.

NB: This little guide is NOT following all the instructions for building a 2.4 kernel that Linus includes in the kernel README file. On your system you can find that at /usr/src/linux-2.4.31/README. However, these instructions should work for you to replace your present bare.i kernel with Pat Volkerding's sata.i kernel.

Old_Fogie · 06-06-2006, 11:22 PM

edited: my input was wrong.

dennisk · 06-07-2006, 02:29 PM

Just as an aside to this discussion, I've found that if you plug in external USB drives (SATA, IDE, Flash, etc.) when installing Slackware, the installer will give you an opportunity to create a mount point for it and will add an entry to the /etc/fstab file for you. Just be careful not to format the drive when asked, if you have valuable data on it!

And you'll want to start the install with the proper kernel so the drive is recognised.

Dennisk

sycamorex · 06-08-2006, 03:29 AM

I tried to install sata.i kernel alongside bare.i, I followed Chinaman's instructions, however I had
to stop at step 11 - lilo. I use grub, which is installed by Debian. So I booted into debian but did not know which grub's option to choose. Anyway, As I installed Slackware just 2 weeks ago, and there's no data on it yet, I decided to reinstall it with sata.i kernel. I did not plug it in at the moment of installation (as dennisk recommended, I'll do it today again). Now with sata.i kernel I get the same errors as before.
I'm not experienced in hardware issues, let alone linux, but when I think of it, it seems to me that
perhaps it has nothing to do with SATA. After all, it's connected through USB 2.0, and maybe it's only usb that matters? I don't know, it's just my reasoning. But as I said, you guys have more knowlegde and experience

so thank you for your help

Bruce Hill · 06-08-2006, 04:15 AM

Okay, you now have a new Slackware-10.2 installation?

Plug the drive in, open a terminal, issue "dmesg | tail" and that will tell you what the kernel has found. Here's an example:

Code:

mingdao@silas:~$ dmesg | tail
sdc: Mode Sense: 00 14 00 00
sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sdc: 117210240 512-byte hdwr sectors (60012 MB)
sdc: Write Protect is off
sdc: Mode Sense: 00 14 00 00
sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
 sdc: sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 sdc4 < sdc5 sdc6 >
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdc
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
mingdao@silas:~$ su
Password:
root@silas:/home/mingdao# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 74.3 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1913    15366141    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1914        4345    19535040    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3            4346        7823    27937035    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            4346        4406      489951   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda6            4407        4418       96358+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7            4419        5147     5855661   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            5148        7823    21494938+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1         729     5855661    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2             730        1945     9767520    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdb3            1946       10032    64958827+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb5            1946        2008      506016   82  Linux swap
/dev/sdb6            2009        2737     5855661   83  Linux
/dev/sdb7            2738        3953     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb8            3954        7600    29294496   83  Linux
/dev/sdb9            7601       10032    19535008+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1        1275    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2            1276        1913     5124703+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdc3            1914        1974      489982+  82  Linux swap
/dev/sdc4            1975        7296    42748965    5  Extended
/dev/sdc5            1975        3190     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc6            3191        7296    32981413+  83  Linux
root@silas:/home/mingdao# mount -t vfat /dev/sdc2 /mnt/hd
root@silas:/home/mingdao# ls -lh /mnt/hd/
total 153M
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K 2006-01-29 15:18 02February06
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K 2005-08-08 21:41 08August2005
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K 2005-08-25 11:14 09Sept05
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 2.9M 2005-09-12 19:04 2005-09-01DrMichaelLBrown_WhattoDo.mp3.part
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 1.2M 2005-09-14 15:24 2005-Sep-Oct.pdf
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K 2005-12-12 08:52 Dec05
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  58K 2005-09-28 19:41 Eutzler_meet_8_Oct.doc
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  16K 2005-12-13 21:27 Fonts
<snip>

If it doesn't show up when you issue "dmesg | tail", you don't have support for it in your kernel.
If it doesn't show up when you issue "fdisk -l", you don't have support for it in your kernel.
If it does show up in "dmesg | tail" then you will know what you're working with.
Then "fdisk -l" can show you the partitions and filesystems.

Don't mess with those "/etc/fstab" lines, just mount as I did. That "/mnt/hd" directory was created for just such as this. After we actually get you mounting this device, then we can work on "/etc/fstab".

sycamorex · 06-09-2006, 03:35 AM

Thanks for your help Chinaman
Everything seems to work fine. Fdisk -l recognises sda. Mount command works properly. I don't know
if it matters but before I booted with sda plugged in. Now I plugged it in when the system was up and
running, then issued the command dmesg |tail and I saw the information about sda usb drive being recognised. I didn't have problems with mounting then.
thanks

Bruce Hill · 06-09-2006, 03:39 AM

Thanks for posting back.

If you need any help with your /etc/fstab entries, just post back. You can have those partitions mount as user, not root, if you'd like.