HOWTO USB Mass Storage Device and Gentoo :D

saimonm · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 3:00 pm Post subject: usb flash device not detected

Hi,

I've tried following the howto in order to try and get a usb flash disk to mount but to no avail.

I have all the modules loaded, scsi compiled into the kernel but when I connect the stick (to any of the usb ports), it doesn't get recognized at all. No usb detection whatsoever.

This is what dmesg lists after connecting the device (I have rebooted various times)...

kpitty · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 9

Just tried following these instructions for my new Sony Cybershot DSC-P8. No luck yet.

I am using kernel 2.4.20-gentoo-r6 and when I checked the kernel config all the options were set as per the instructions.

Then the modprobes for usbcore, usb-storage and vfat worked fine but no such luck for usb-uhci, usb-ohci, scsi_mod and sd_mod.

Here's what dmesg reports:

umk · n00b Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

there's a few of us having problems with panasonic cameras and usb-storage under 2.6 kernels. forum thread here.
basically, we've tried with both devfs and udev, under a few different kernels, with always similar results. the device is identified and the modules are loaded, /dev/sda1 and all that is created (under udev i even have it create /dev/camera for me). However, when we try to mount it, it tells says:

meowsqueak · Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 9:04 pm Post subject:

Try using the -t parameter to mount to specify expected filesystem type. E.g. mount -t vfat ... for fat32 filesystems.

umk · n00b Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 6

oh, i have tried both mount -t auto and -t vfat, among other things, it all returns the same error

AlterEgo · Veteran Joined: 25 Apr 2002 Posts: 1619

Sengoku · n00b Joined: 12 Jan 2004 Posts: 24

I'm using a USB card reader and I tend to leave it plugged in, most of the time it doesn't have a card in it. This poses a problem which I have a nasty hack for.

Being plugged in without a card gives me a device, /dev/sda but when I put a card in this is not refreshed, I have to issue

Insanity5902 · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject:

I do something similiar as i am in the same situations. I installed the usb_storage as a module and just remove and add it when I put a card in. Does the trick for me.

thought I will have to try the hdparm thing, it is easier to use one comman then two.

Unless you remove and use the media a lot, do you really need crontab checking that every minute. Why not just just run the command when you need to?
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Sengoku · n00b Joined: 12 Jan 2004 Posts: 24

The main reason I use the cron job is because I don't want to have to log into the root account every time I want to access a zip disk or the memory card on my system. I don't know if this can be changed but a normal user doesn't have the permissions to refresh the /dev/sda device. I've given normal users access to hdparm but to refresh in /dev? I know not how....

Insanity5902 · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:05 pm Post subject:

look into sudo:P

you can set it up so that for certain users it doesn't require a password to run commands.

Sengoku · n00b Joined: 12 Jan 2004 Posts: 24

Cool, that makes it a good bit easier and now I should be able to mount the devices using one command line.

meowsqueak · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:11 am Post subject:

Surely this is what hotplug and even udev is designed to help with?

Sengoku · n00b Joined: 12 Jan 2004 Posts: 24

I'm pretty sure hotplug is working in this situation, if I unplug the card reader and plug it back in with a card inserted then the device and relevant partition number will show up. But this isn't what I want to have to do, I want the device left connected permanently and be able to insert a memory card and have the new partition magically appear.

Is this one of the benefits of udev over devfs?

Insanity5902 · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:36 pm Post subject:

Correct,if the card reader isn't plugged in, then you put the flash card in the reader and then plug the reader, hotplugged loads teh modules and creates the proper mount points for you to mount.

but if you remove the card and leave the card reader hooked up to the machine, next time you put the card in, it doesn't re-create the mount point (/dev/sda1), So you either of the re-load the modules by hand, use the hdparm -z, or unplug the card reader and plug it back it.

The hotplug doesn't monitor to see if there is a card in the reader or not like windows does, maybe one day it will.
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doodle · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 4:38 pm Post subject:

Insanity5902 · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 8:00 pm Post subject:

sweet script. I will have to read more about it (I like to understand what I am doing and not just doing stuff

) and check that out when i get home.
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lightcycle · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 24 Location: Sweden

Thank you very much doodle! I recently bought an internal card-reader and found it very annoying to have to su to root to be able to mount a card, but your script solved the problem. Great Idea!
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kung.foo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 16 Dec 2003 Posts: 99

Has anyone got a concrete tutorial how to get this one running under 2.6.6?? I ran through the tut here, but i didn't help me. When i plug in my player dmesg changes to:

Edit: The device i want to run is an iRiver IHP-120!

stty0 · n00b Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 15

I followed the instructions in this thread, my usb i-stick 256MB worked perfectly, using mount -t auto /dev/sda /mnt/usbflash

Today, I changed my ps/2 mouse for a microsoft usb mouse, again, no problems at all.

Now, when i try to mount the usb drive, i get:

mount: you must specify the filesystem type

checking dmesg, i see:

FAT: bogus logical sector size 20487
VFS: can't find valid FAT filesystem on dev 08:00

The drive works fine in windows, i can see the files on it. As I say, yesterday, i could mount and see those files in gentoo as well. help anyone?

Jazz · Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:08 pm Post subject:

Umm , i get my usb mounting properly.. but when i unmount it, the power led still glows ! whereas in windows it used to turn off after i undocked it..

Can this be done in linux ? is it even safe to pull out the stick still while the power led is glowing ?

BYe,
Jazz
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kung.foo · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 16 Dec 2003 Posts: 99

sceptreofjudah

I finally got my USB stuff working. The info here really helped, but it was a little unusual, I guess because the motherboard has 3 USB hubs. The following fstab entries worked:

#Iomega Zip Drive:
/dev/sda4 /mnt/zip auto noauto,user 0 0

#Lexar Jump Drive:
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/jumpdrive vfat noauto,user,umask=077 0 0

#Dazzle SmartMedia reader
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/smartmedia auto noauto,user 0 0

the real trick was learning that the /dev/sd* devices would be generated by the kernel whenever the physical devices were there. It was a game of musical chairs trying to "guess" what device to mount without being able to look. The key hangup was most of the discussion posts mention /dev/sda1 and my devices were not that at all. (I am a noob so no laughing)

meowsqueak · Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 11:41 am Post subject:

This is where udev can come in handy, since you can have the system create named devices, or symlinks, so that /dev/myusbdevice always points to the correct /dev/sd?? node for the specified device. Very useful when you have multiple devices on the same bus (e.g. USB).

ssaguiar

sceptreofjudah · Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2004 11:03 pm Post subject: udev rules

Thanks for the tip about udev. After futher googling I found this site which succintly describes how to use it. The seventeen year-old fellow who wrote this did an excellent job.