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Author Topic: USB stick issue  (Read 21618 times)
Borzalex
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« on: December 22, 2016, 06:28:25 PM »

Hello! I have DSL 4.11 rc2 installed on my HDD. When I try to mount the USB stick with a command
sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash -o iocharset=utf8,codepage=866,rw
I get the following error:
/dev/sda1 is not a valid block device
Is there any other way to mount the USB stick?..


« Last Edit: December 22, 2016, 07:13:20 PM by Borzalex » Logged

My PC:
CPU Pentium II 400 MHz
Motherboard GA-6VX
Video Nvidia RIVA TNT2
Sound CM8738
Memory 128 MB SDRAM
CNK
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« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2016, 08:58:42 PM »

"sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash" should be enough, the error indicates that the USB drive is not being detected, or perhaps is being assigned to another device ID due to the (mis)detection of some other unreadable drive as sda1.

Perhaps you've already tried mounting outher /dev/sd(x)1 in other locations. If the USB drive is being detected at all, it should show up in the list of use devices presented when you execute the command "lsusb -v". If not, you may have a USB driver problem.

Also note that DSL usually tries to automatically add fstab entries linking /dev/sd(xx) entries to /mnt/sd(xx), such that "mount /dev/sda1" would by default mount it at /mnt/sda1. Your more complete command should work regardless of this though.
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Borzalex
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« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2016, 12:35:45 PM »

Well, I didn't mount anything on sda1 before. And when I enter command lsusb or lsusb -v nothing happens. I do remember that USB worked fine earlyer when there was Windows XP installed... Maybe i need to install additional drivers for my motherboard?
« Last Edit: December 24, 2016, 12:38:18 PM by Borzalex » Logged

My PC:
CPU Pentium II 400 MHz
Motherboard GA-6VX
Video Nvidia RIVA TNT2
Sound CM8738
Memory 128 MB SDRAM
CNK
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« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2016, 10:24:41 PM »

If nothing appears in lsusb, that means the USB drivers are not working or haven't loaded.

try "lspci" (or look in the "pci" tab of the "system stats" tool) and see whether any USB controllers are shown. If so, there must be a driver problem and you should check online to see if the USB controller model reported on the lspci listing has any known workarounds or additional drivers for Linux.

If no USB controller is shown, check that the USB controller hasn't been accidentally disabled in the BIOS settings. Failing that, it would appear that either the USB controller has failed somehow since you last tested it, or there is a bug in the Linux kernel affecting your motherboard.
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Borzalex
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« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2016, 06:36:55 PM »

I checked the BIOS and USB was disabled there. So I turned on the USB, but now when I'm trying to mount USB stick i get the following error:
relocation error: mount: undefined symbol: blkid_known_fstype
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My PC:
CPU Pentium II 400 MHz
Motherboard GA-6VX
Video Nvidia RIVA TNT2
Sound CM8738
Memory 128 MB SDRAM
CNK
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Posts: 269


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« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2016, 09:33:57 PM »

Hmm, unless there's a mistake in your mount command this seems to mean that DSL can't read the file system on the USB drive.

Check that the USB drive isn't formatted in exFAT, NTFS, or anything other than FAT32, FAT16, or a Linux file system. In DSL you can use "sudo fdisk -l" to list the partition structure of all the drives. If "HPFS/NTFS" is shown in the "system" section of the listing for the USB drive, it will probably need to be reformatted for use with DSL.

You might want to post the result of "sudo fdisk -l" here.
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Borzalex
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« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2016, 08:59:35 AM »

sudo fdisk -l shows this:

Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20060135424 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2438 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
 
   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1             1        31    248976   82  Linux swap
/dev/hda2   *        32      2438  19334227+  83  Linux
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My PC:
CPU Pentium II 400 MHz
Motherboard GA-6VX
Video Nvidia RIVA TNT2
Sound CM8738
Memory 128 MB SDRAM
CNK
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Posts: 269


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« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2016, 08:58:39 PM »

OK, sorry, it looks like the USB drive still isn't being detected.

Put the USB stick in before turning on the computer. After it boots up, try "lsusb -v" again. If nothing's there, there may still be a driver/hardware problem.

If the USB stick is identified there, try "fdisk -l" again. If it returns the same thing as before then there may be some issue with hotplug (the USB control software), if you did a "Hard Disk" installation (as opposed to a "frugal" installation) try booting from the CD and see whether USB works then. If so, a reinstall may be the simplest solution.

You might also check whether there are any USB related errors listed in dmesg (enter command "dmesg | less" or "dmesg | grep usb" in a terminal).
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Borzalex
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« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2016, 09:01:54 PM »

Reinstall helped, thank you.
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My PC:
CPU Pentium II 400 MHz
Motherboard GA-6VX
Video Nvidia RIVA TNT2
Sound CM8738
Memory 128 MB SDRAM
Rapstultpap
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bob.schmetz3234@gmail.com Rapstultpap Rapstultpap
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« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2017, 03:55:06 AM »

USB is usually 5 volts.  What are you using to regulate the voltage of your battery pack to that level?

Cheers

Brian
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