Re: silug: problem with a usb drive

[dsavage@peaknet.net]

> i'm using FC2 (i switched from fc3 where it was recognized), in FC2 it
> is not auto loading.  it is a 256mg drive, and when i tried to mount it
> like so
>
>     * mkdir /mnt/usb000
>     * mount  /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb000<>
>
> <>nothing happens, says there is a disk error or something  ...
>
>     * [root@localhost root]# mount -tvfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb000
>       mount: /dev/sda1: can't read superblock
>       You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
>
> sooo ... i tried parted, i was going to reformat it to dos, or fat32.
> that says it can't read the superblock.  any help?  it won't even access
> it under parted.

Bentley,

Since a "thumb" drive is a commonly used item, it makes good sense to add
a permanent user mount entry in your /etc/fstab. As root, edit /etc/fstab
to add the following line:

/dev/sda  /mnt/thumb  vfat  noauto,users,rw  0  0

Note carefully that this says "users" (more than one) rather than "user"
or "owner". It also says /dev/sda and not /dev/sda1. On all of my systems,
and in at least 90% of those I've heard about, a thumb drive is treated as
_unpartitioned_ removable storage -- just like a floppy disk. (Duh!)

Then (also as root), make sure you have a proper mount point:

# mkdir /mnt/thumb

Next time you insert your thumb drive, give it a few seconds to be
recognized. Then as you (not as root) type:

$ /mnt/thumb

$ ls -al /mnt/thumb
...

Before removing this little jewel, you must first make sure all writes to
it are complete. As a newcomer to Linux, I'm sure you'll find this a bit
curious. You may recall, though, that Windows bitches if you yank out a
USB device without first "stopping" it.

$ sync    <-- once
$ sync    <-- twice
$ sync    <-- three should be enough

Now unmount it:

$ cd
$ umount /mnt/thumb   <-- remember, unmount is spelled "umount"

Note that your system will refuse an umount command if any user is logged
onto or using a file in /mnt/thumb or any subdirectory thereof.

Hope this helps.

--Doc

-
To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
"unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.