USB 2.0 memory stick compatibility

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: USB 2.0 memory stick compatibility
started by: Doofer

Posted by Doofer on April 11 2005,19:21

While my miniscule 1GB USB 2.0 PQI 'Intelligent Stick' < PQI Intelligent Stick > looks way cool, it isn't recognized by DSL 1.0rc2 (alas), on several different platforms (Epia VIA, SHUTTLE, IBM).

The manufacturer claims it is supported by kernel 2.4.0 onwards, some reviews say 2.6.0 onwards. It certainly is detected & works fine with MS WinXP original on all the machines I've tried, so it does look like a DSL problem.

Any ideas? Anything I could try insmod-ing?

If I wanted to try it with DSL with a 2.6 kernel, any plans to make that available anytime soon?

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on April 11 2005,19:32

There are currently no plans (from what I have been told) to ever move to a 2.6.x kernel, for the following reasons.

1. the 2.6.x kernel is several megabytes bigger than the 2.4.x kernel, so it would cramp DSL's functionality.

2. the 2.6.x kernel drops a lot of support for legacy technologies, hardware, etc, and we want to keep DSL functional on as much hardware as possible

3. all major improvements that have occured to the 2.6.x tree have been, and are being backported to the 2.4.x tree, by a very active bacporting team. And even though Linus said he would not participate in the backporting process this time, the demand for 2.4.x kernel maintenence is about the same as the demand for updates and improvements to the 2.6.x kernel, so even he has helped in the process, though not as much as what he does toward 2.6 development. For evidence of this activity, take a look at kernel.org, where you can see, the 2.4.30 kernel was released, just a few days ago.

-J.P.

*BOOKMARK*

Posted by blhandi on April 11 2005,20:13

On my Lexar 1gig jump drive, I make a temp directory,
"mkdir /flash", and mount the flash drive with:
"mount /dev/sda1 /flash"
I use it from MC as root.

Good luck

Posted by Doofer on April 11 2005,20:47

Nah, /dev/sda1 is not recognised as a block device... (nor is dev sda1-4, sdb1-4, sdc1-4, sdd1-4, or indeed sda).

The kernel isn't getting it, I fear.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on April 11 2005,21:39

What version of DSL are you running?

If it's an older version (not 1.0rc2), you may have to manually load the uhci-hcd module.

Posted by tronik on April 12 2005,00:36

you can try the dslmirror.vectori.net under 'Downloads' and try the 'unofficial' 2.4.27 kernel remaster. maybe the 2.4.27 kernel will pick it up.

Posted by Doofer on April 12 2005,09:05

Good news!

SaidinUnleashed - I am already using 1.0rc2, so no uhci-hcd module to load.
Tronik - nice to try the new kernel, but alas two of my machines need the syslinux boot to boot at all (hang after detecting the cpu for some reason).

HOWEVER - it's not DSL's fault after all. Following a web link, I fdisk-ed the USB key, to find 4 peculiar partitions. After re-formatting as a single FAT32 partition, all is well:

1. DSL boots & uses it fine.
2. WIN can talk to it.
3. And my manky clone notebook has gone back to not being able to detect it with WinXP... just as it always used to not accept USB keys under WinXP... which I find oddly satisfying ;)

(In case anyone else has an apparently duff USB key and wants to try this, see below. REMEMBER you'll lose ALL the data currently on the USB key.

Boot DSL with USB key unplugged.
Open a terminal and type 'sudo su'.
Cross your fingers and plug in the USB key.

'fdisk /dev/sdb' (or sda, sdc, it varies with machine)

p - to display the partitions - if there is more than one, try:
d - delete the old partitions
n - make a new partition
t- set as type 'b' (FAT32)

I then had to format it in WinXP, as it seems there's no mkdosfs in DSL)

Many thanks for the helpful suggestions. I guess this solution could be added to the Hardware Docs?

Posted by Meggeler on May 07 2005,22:42

Doofer:

Thank you, I followed your procedure and was FINALLY able to boot from an old 256k USB drive. It was so old (paid a fortune for it when they came out) I blamed my failures on the stick & was going to buy another.

Meggeler