Confused about WHICH /sd? is my USB key

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Confused about WHICH /sd? is my USB key
started by: dremond

Posted by dremond on Oct. 09 2005,01:34

Hi everyone,

I have been exposed to DSLinux for 2 weeks now, and I love it.

I am using it right now, but I booted from a CD rom. I wanna install it
on a tiny USB Flash Drive (pen drive)

I have only used
Red Hat Linux in the past, and was a heavy user of the right-mouse click to mount
the floppy and CD rom .

So, here is my issue. I need help figuring out which /dev/sd? device is my USB key. I have read many docs stating do this and do that to list usb devices, to view scsi devices, etc, but there doesn't seem to be a SMART utility that says, your usb device X is your /dev/sdSOMENUMBER device.

Here is some info about my system using some suggested commands:

etc/fstab:
==========

/proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
/dev/pts /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/auto/floppy auto user,noauto,exec,umask=000 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/auto/cdrom auto user,noauto,exec,ro 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2 auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3 auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda4 /mnt/sda4 auto noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=1001,gid=50 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda3 /mnt/hda3 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda4 none swap defaults 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=1001,gid=50 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=1001,gid=50 0 0

When I type: mount , i get :
===============================
/dev/root on / type ext2 (rw)
/dev/scd0 on /cdrom type iso9660 (ro)
/dev/cloop on /KNOPPIX type iso9660 (ro)
/ramdisk on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw,size=199296k)
/proc/bus/usb on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw,devmode=0666)

When I type: lsusb -v , I get the following info about my flash usb:
=====================================================================

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1043:8006 iCreate Technologies Corp.
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 0 Interface
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 8
idVendor 0x1043 iCreate Technologies Corp.
idProduct 0x8006
bcdDevice 1.00
iManufacturer 1 Generic
iProduct 2 Flash Disk
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 32
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0x80
MaxPower 100mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
bInterfaceSubClass 6 SCSI
bInterfaceProtocol 80 Bulk (Zip)
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type none
wMaxPacketSize 64
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type none
wMaxPacketSize 64
bInterval 0
Language IDs: (length=4)
0409 English(US)

When I type: cat /proc/scsci/scsi , I get:
===========================================

Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: SONY Model: CD-RW CRX210E1 Rev: 2YS2
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: Generic Model: USB Flash Drive Rev: %z!Y
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02

My /mnt directory looks like:
==============================

drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 ..
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 auto
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Oct 8 20:11 cdrom -> /mnt/auto/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Oct 8 20:11 floppy -> /mnt/auto/floppy
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 16:10 hd
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 hda1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 hda3
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 hda5
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 hdb1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 pts
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 sda1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 sda2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 sda3
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 sda4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 20:11 sys
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Oct 8 16:10 test

I also tried:
==========
tail -f /var/log/messages , and then put in my USB key, but this didn't show
anything.

Now, based on the info above, which sda device is my usb key?

I think it is really important to know since I will be formatting the USB
key to put DSLinux on it, and I don't wanna delete/overwrite/corrupt something that isn't my usb key.

Is there some command that gives more info on an sda device to tell me what this device actually is?

Am I really stupid? Or is this a really difficult thing to figure out in linux?

Any help would be appreciated !!!

Posted by Your Fuzzy God on Oct. 10 2005,16:28

There are 4 partitions on your pendrive. Just mount them all and see what they have on them.