There wasn't anything for /dev/sda when you ran fdisk -l? When was the last time you used that device? Is its MBR corrupt?No, the jump drive is fine. I'm using it in my big desktop right now. I don't boot from it, the laptop has a total HD install of DSL. The jump drive is only for carrying files around between home and work and various computers at work (school). It shouldn't have an MBR in it--??It has a partition table and it should produce a list of the partitions when it's inserted and you run fdisk -l. I don't know what your "big desktop" is. I do know how hotplug assigns mount points and knoppix-hotplug rewrites fstab when hotplug assigns points. That's being done. I ask about the integrity of the device because you wrote that you didn't get any output with fdisk -l when the device was inserted.
Have you tried to open it in cfdisk to see what shows up and to verify your partitions are exactly as you created them? Did you create those four partitions yourself and what filesystem(s) are they? Do you have any overlap between partitions (which can happen if you don't properly/safely remove or unmount such devices)? Have you tried mounting in console to get any error messages ("mount /mnt/sda1")? Did you try mounting using emelfm (which also outputs error messages)?
EDIT: What's up with sdb? You wrote you added sdb yourself. Why and which dev node did you set it up on? Have you rebooted since then or did you leave that mount point there? Don't make this harder than it is. DSL has hotplug and scripts to manage setting mount points. There are only rare circumstances where you should ever have to set mount points manually. The problem with doing that is making sure you understand how hotplug works so you don't get in its way. I have a hunch that's what you may have done.
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(Hmmm--isn't there an easier way to copy text from a terminal instead of retyping it??)
Yes. Read the "getting started" document that opens in dillo by default. It explains how to cut and paste from console.Sorry about any lack of clarity.
I have two home computers and in charge of several (dozens?) at the school i work at. My main unit at home is a desktop (newer unit, 1 GHz processor, etc.) for most of my work. The little Toshiba laptop in question was given to me.
The Lexar jump drive works just fine in my desktop and any computers at school, both Linux and Windows. It has no partitions (and G-Parted confirms this) and it only fails to work when inserted into this laptop when running DSL -- Windoze recognizes it. I don't know why /mnt shows sda1, sda2, etc. It's formatted as it came -- FAT16. I did run emelfm after finding out about that program yesterday but still couldn't get it to mount.
Soo- i am perplexed. I will run DSL live on my big desktop later to see if possibly there is some weird corruption in the CD (version 4.2). I don't know what else might be the problem. Weird...
(Just saw your edit). I might have messed something up -- BUT i had this problem from the get-go. I rewrote after the problem ocurred, not before, so i wouldn't think that is the problem. I have rebooted several times....
I DID plug in another dying/dead jump drive, trying to see if any computer would open it; however i doubt that hurt anything. It didn't in the other computers.
Sooo--i can try running the laptop off the live CD and test the jump drive. If it works, it sounds like time for a reinstall (UGH!). That would mean i start over from scratch, if i understand DSL -- no preserving data in the home folder, right?.
Thanks for spending this much of your time on my problem. I'll keep trying your suggestions.Next Page...
original here.