[iconicmoronic]

I'm having an issue with a USB thumb drive: it won't mount!

I'm using the mount -t /dev/usb command (as this was a command for previous distributions I've used like FC) but the /dev/usb folder is not used in Ubuntu.

The drive itself it partitioned to ext3, and other than that, I don't know what information one might need to assist.

Ubuntu knows it is there, although it doesn't place an icon on the desktop, but will not mount it or allow read access, yada yada.

Thanks.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi Andy,

You have issued the mount command improperly. Always consult the man page for any command you are not sure about or when situations like this occur to recheck your work.

The use of mount -t imples that the next thing the mount command should see is the type of the filesystem on the USB drive. Read the man page for the mount command.

So, the mount command you should have given should have been preceeded by the command:
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb (unless it already existed) This is the mount point for usb
$ sudo mount -v -t ext3 /dev/usb /mnt/usb

The additional -v parameter gives you some feedback that the mount command works and the usb device is readable and writeable.

-- Tom

[iconicmoronic]

thanks again.
yes, i issued -t because the filesystem the drive was formatted to was ext3. thanks for that though, i'm gonna write it down.
will the /mnt/usb point remain permanently then? or will i have to reissue it at any time to access the thumb drive?

[iconicmoronic]

root@eltres-desktop:/home/eltres# mount -v -t ext3 /dev/usb /mnt/usb
mount: /dev/usb is not a block device

does this mean i need to specify nodes for the device? or make a device file? because i thought that's what the directory was.

or, instead does it mean that my usb device is not linked to this directory?

the way that ubuntu is registering the device is, places-->computer-->udisk pdu01_4g 75c2.0

double-clicking on the device gives this message, even after issuing your suggested commands: unable to mount media. there is probably no media in the dive.

obviously this is incorrect; it reads the model name! i don't even think this would be the issue, but could it be that I have a usb1.1 port and I'm using a device that is usb2.0? this didn't create any issue other than transfer speeds with other OS (windows).

still not enough to make me revert though!

[iconicmoronic]

the listings under /dev that I have are: /bus /disk /dri /input/net/pts /snd /usb.
There is no item in the /dev/usb folder. if I recall correctly from Linux Cert class, this means I need to maybe make a device file?

*so I did* issuing /dev/MAKEDEV usb Then I moved the file to /dev/usb

but it still wouldn't mount
so,a listing of in use dev files from /proc/devices:

Block devices:
1 ramdisk
2 fd
3 ide0
8 sd
22 ide1
65 sd
66 sd
67 sd
68 sd
69 sd
70 sd
71 sd
128 sd
129 sd
130 sd
131 sd
132 sd
133 sd
134 sd
135 sd

so.... now i'm trying to re-format the device.

root@eltres-desktop:/home/eltres# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/usb
mke2fs 1.40-WIP (14-Nov-2006)
/dev/usb is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n)

at the risk of ruining the device (which I'm good at) I can't proceed without advice. which leaves me a stick in the wind.

**I got the disk reformatted as ext3 under /dev/sda. Now the error message is that it cannot be mounted and is probably in a format that cannot be mounted.**

**I checked for bad blocks with mkfs -C -t ext3**

~$ mkfs -c /dev/sda
mke2fs 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
/dev/sda is entire device, not just one partition!
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
503936 inodes, 1007615 blocks
50380 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
31 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
16256 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736

Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done 615

**err msg:
cannot mount media
error: device /dev/sda is already mounted to /media/usbdisk

error: could not execute pmount

[iconicmoronic]

well i'm not sure if I did this, but it works now.
an icon for the device is now on the desktop.

does anything i posted above look as though it may have corrected the problem, or at least worked out enough issues that the device could autoconfigure via PnP as it should have from the get?

[saikee]

Post #5

error: device /dev/sda is already mounted to /media/usbdisk

tells us the Linux has mounted your thumb drive under the directory /media/usbdisk. A USB thumb drive is always shipped with a fat16 filing sytem if under 2Gb or fat32 if larger than 2 Gb so it is readily mountable.

Thus there was never a mounting issue, just a problem of finding it.

Device in USB is always called sda, sdb, sdc, sdd, sde, etc. To find how it is called just issue this command in root console

fdisk -l

BY looking at the size and filing system you should know how the thumb drive is called.

[iconicmoronic]

thanks, that's really useful information!

[iconicmoronic]

This Thread Is Closed!!