Damn Small Linux - Not!

holderied · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 4

I cannot get any USB stick to work with DSL-N (tried several)

Dmesg recognizes insertion of the sticks.

There are no entries added to fstab when booting with a USB stick.

Whem I try to mount any sd*1 it says "sd* is not a valid block device"

The sticks have one vfat partition and mount fine on KNOPPIX, Windows, MAC OS.

Please help.

Juanito · Joined: 11 Sep 2006 Posts: 88 Location: Dubai, U.A.E.

Do you mean you cannot boot DSL-N from a USB stick or that you cannot read/write to a USB stick once you have booted DSL-N from CD/HD?

There seems to be some kind of problem with booting DSL-N from a USB stick of larger than +/-512 MByte - note that this problem only occurs when trying to create the boot USB stick under DSL-N, if you create the boot USB stick using Windows it seems to work up to at least 1 GByte (the largest USB stick I have).

If you are having problems to read/write to a USB stick, you could try with a stick formatted FAT32 rather than FAT16 (or vice versa). You could also check if your USB stick is called uba1 as opposed to sda1

holderied · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 4

[quote="Juanito"]Do you mean you cannot boot DSL-N from a USB stick or that you cannot read/write to a USB stick once you have booted DSL-N from CD/HD?
[/quote]

I cannot mount the usb stick.
I would like to read/write data from it.

[quote="Juanito"]
If you are having problems to read/write to a USB stick, you could try with a stick formatted FAT32 rather than FAT16 (or vice versa). You could also check if your USB stick is called uba1 as opposed to sda1[/quote]

Changing the file system is not an option since I use those sticks to exchange data with other computers.

when I try to mount it as uba1 the same thing happens:

dsl@dslbox:~$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/uba1 /mnt/sda1
mount: /dev/uba1 is not a valid block device

George

J. A. Streich · Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 8

What does show up dmesg?

It should tell you what device it's mapped to. If not, you can check a couple places in proc or use lsmod to see what device shows as using usb_storage module.

The star won't work, because the expantion will try to mount a number of different devices.

I see your using vfat, is the drive formatted with fat12/fat16/fat32 or is it a sony that uses there (inconveintly named properitary) format vfat?

You should be able to mount using:
mount /dev/sda /mnt/sda
If /mnt/sda exsists and isn't a SATA HD or other scsi device.

Try to following /var/dmesg as you plug it in :
tail -f dmesg

Post the results from the following commnads after it is installed:
lsusb
lsmod

holderied · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 4

[quote="J. A. Streich"]What does show up dmesg?

It should tell you what device it's mapped to. [/quote]

When I plug in my USB drive dmesg says:
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
This does not tell my to which device my drive has been mapped..

[quote="J. A. Streich"]
If not, you can check a couple places in proc or use lsmod to see what device shows as using usb_storage module. [/quote]

Where exactly would I se this ?

[quote="J. A. Streich"]
I see your using vfat, is the drive formatted with fat12/fat16/fat32 or is it a sony that uses there (inconveintly named properitary) format vfat? [/quote]

The USB drives I have are still formatted as I bought them.
They work fine on Windows, Macs, my Gentoo at home, my Debian at work and Knoppix booted from CD on the machine where I run DSL-N.
I guess their FS is not an issue.

[quote="J. A. Streich"]
You should be able to mount using:
mount /dev/sda /mnt/sda
If /mnt/sda exsists and isn't a SATA HD or other scsi device. [/quote]

That's what I am trying to do Smile

[quote="J. A. Streich"]
Try to following /var/dmesg as you plug it in :
tail -f dmesg[/quote]

root@dslbox:/home/dsl# tail -f dmesg
tail: dmesg: No such file or directory
tail: no files

But I can call dmesg again and see what has been added (see above)

Post the results from the following commnads after it is installed:
lsusb
lsmod[/quote]

root@dslbox:/home/dsl# lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 08ec:0008 M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

root@dslbox:/home/dsl# lsmod
Module Size Used by
snd_mixer_oss 18304 0
snd 46820 1 snd_mixer_oss
cloop 29984 0
af_packet 24328 0
ext3 123912 0
jbd 65572 1 ext3
via82cxxx_audio 27656 0
uart401 13124 1 via82cxxx_audio
sound 71684 2 via82cxxx_audio,uart401
soundcore 11104 3 snd,via82cxxx_audio,sound
ac97_codec 20236 1 via82cxxx_audio
via_rhine 23172 0
mii 8320 1 via_rhine
via_agp 11392 1
agpgart 31440 1 via_agp
via_ircc 21908 0
irda 118200 1 via_ircc
crc_ccitt 5888 1 irda
parport_pc 38724 0
parport 33480 1 parport_pc
8250 42844 0
serial_core 21120 1 8250
ohci1394 33460 0
ieee1394 297432 1 ohci1394
usbhid 42464 0
ohci_hcd 21764 0
uhci_hcd 31632 0
usbcore 102492 4 usbhid,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd
pcmcia 23696 0
yenta_socket 22152 0
rsrc_nonstatic 14080 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 43268 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
video 18308 0
thermal 14984 0
processor 24520 1 thermal
fan 7300 0
container 7296 0
button 9104 0
battery 12420 0
ac 7556 0
genrtc 12060 0
tsdev 9664 0
evdev 11008 0

uddevil · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 4 Location: Bandung, Indonesia

i've got a little problem here,

i can't mount my USB flash drives unless it's plugged in [b]before[/b] i boot my dsl-n live cd. The problem is, there is no sda1 in the "mount tool" if my USB is not plugged in before booting.

But, if its plugged first, then boot, there's no problem. Anybody know the solutions...? so that there's no need to reboot after plugging in the USB.

Thanks...

Juanito · Joined: 11 Sep 2006 Posts: 88 Location: Dubai, U.A.E.

I think you will be able to manually mount your USB stick after boot if you try this:

# mkdir /mnt/sda1
# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1

uddevil · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 4 Location: Bandung, Indonesia

Thanks Juanito........... now i can use my USB as a hard disk... (coz computer in my office's filesystem is NTFS.... do you have any idea how to write to ntfs..?

ooopss... nevermind.. don't answer it... i'll post it on another thread.....

once again.......... thankssssssssssssssssssssssssss Very Happy

MisterSlippy · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 4

/dev/sda1 is not a valid block device.

I've tried everything mentioned in this thread....nothing.

It's a U3 Smart drive, but it worked fine under "proper" DSL, it's just under DSL-N that it won't mount.