Missing mount options
Forum: DSL-N
Topic: Missing mount options
started by: durbnpoisn
Posted by durbnpoisn on Mar. 17 2007,15:19
I was running DSL-N for quite a while off the CD boot. Worked so much better than the SuSE 9 I had on theHD, that I went ahead and wiped it out and used the "Install to HD" option from the CD.The install went just fine, mostly. I'm typing this post from it now.
The only thing that went wrong is that m CDROM and SDA1 no longer appear in the mount app.
What I used to do to mount my USB was to use the mount command and mount /dev/sda1 to /mnt/usbhd. This worked fine when running from CD. Now, when running from the HD install, it's telling me that sda1 is no longer a valid block device.
Any help here would be hot.
Thanks!
Posted by Wittfella on Mar. 18 2007,00:05
Have a look in '/etc/fstab' file somewhere under the '#Added by KNOPPIX' part. It might have detected it somewhere else.Mine does this sometimes, it will add my usb stick under /dev/sda4, sometimes /dev/sda1. Not sure why, there is only one usb port on the machine.
Posted by durbnpoisn on Mar. 18 2007,13:31
I thought that the fstab file was only for use by the mount app.So, I thought I could simply run the mount command the hard way, and get it to mount the USB.
I look in the fstab... The CDROM is there. And I can mount that anywhere I want to regarldess of the fstab entry.
Prior to HD installation, my USB was awlays at sda1. I can't seem to find it anywhere now.
I guess I will have to just try some stuff until I get it to work.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Mar. 19 2007,13:56
Check `dmesg`?
Posted by durbnpoisn on Mar. 19 2007,15:44
I had not tried dmesg. Until today, I'd not heard of it. I guess that will tell me something about where that device is on the list now.Since I was able to mount this from sda1 when booted up from CD, I'm assuming it's just a matter of finding out where the USB is living now. Clearly it's not sda1 anymore.
I paged through the other thread on this similar subject... There were some helpful tricks in there. But it still looks like my problem will be easier to fix than that.
Question, tough: Do I HAVE to have an entry in fstab in order to mount the USB key?
Posted by durbnpoisn on Mar. 20 2007,16:33
Status on this issue...Where /dev/sda1 used to be the location of my USB, now that I'm running from the hard drive, evidently /dev/uba1 is where the device resides now.
I edited the /ect/fstab file, added in an entry like so:
/dev/uba1 /mnt/usbhd usbfs noauto,users,exec,0 0
Mounting using either the mount app, or from Bash has the same effect. Basically, ls /mnt/usbhd returns two things:
001
devices
Clearly the mount command is doing something. But, it's not mounting the USB key.
I've tried a few variations on the filesystem, like vfat or auto. Anything like that causes mount to return that /dev/uba1 is not a valid block device.
So... I'm at a loss... And what really baffles me is that mounting /dev/sda1 worked just fine when running from the CD. I guess that has something to do with running from a RAM drive as opposed to an actual HD installation.
Any help here would be hot.
Posted by durbnpoisn on Mar. 28 2007,19:56
Is there no one around that can possibly help me with this?Believe me, Google has been no help with this one... And I've exhausted every idea I've had.
Posted by lucky13 on Mar. 28 2007,20:18
Which version of DSL-N are you running? There's a glitch in RC3. It's been discussed here recently.
Posted by durbnpoisn on Mar. 31 2007,01:37
Sorry to sound like a moron here, but I'm not really sure what version I'm running. I downloaded the ISO like 6 months ago. The Kernel version is 2.6.12 (if that helps).As of right now the system is 100% functional except for 2 things. The USB mount is one, and the lack of PHP in Monkey is the other.
I'll have to try to figure that one out later...
Nevermind on that last point. I got PHP working.
Posted by WDef on Mar. 31 2007,06:16
I'd comment out the line in /etc/fstab for now and try mounting from the commandline.mount -t vfat /dev/usa1 /mnt/test
Are you sure /dev/usa1 is the usb device?
Posted by curaga on Mar. 31 2007,12:40
I've never used DSL-N, and that seems like a really old kernel..You shouldn't use usbfs in fstab, it makes it list usb devices.
Did you try dmesg? It lists the info kernel gives to you.
Plug in the stick, and then type
dmesg | tail -n20
It should read something like
New usb device
Using MAX LUN 1 out of 1
....
uba1/sda1
And it will list your device. You also had a typo between exec and 0, it should be a space:
/dev/uba1 /mnt/usbhd usbfs noauto,users,exec,0 0 could be
/dev/uba1 /mnt/usbhd auto noauto,users 0 0
Posted by durbnpoisn on April 03 2007,13:02
Okay... I will take a look at both of the ideas posted here. They look like slight variations on things I've already tried. But, sometimes, things really can come down the the exact syntax...Thanks.
Posted by lucky13 on April 03 2007,13:25
| Quote |
| But, sometimes, things really can come down the the exact syntax... |
Syntax always matters, and so does filesystem type. The version of DSL-N you're running also matters, considering every available version of DSL-N you might running is a pre-1.0 release candidate and one of the RCs (3) has a known USB-2 issue that was fixed in RC4.
< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/f/viewtopic/342.html >
Posted by Juanito on April 03 2007,14:57
| Quote (durbnpoisn @ Mar. 31 2007,00:37) |
| Sorry to sound like a moron here, but I'm not really sure what version I'm running. I downloaded the ISO like 6 months ago. The Kernel version is 2.6.12 (if that helps). |
If you go to the DSL control panel and click on the "stats" button, you'll see the DSL-N version at the top of the first tab.
I have to manually mount USB sticks in DSL-N but at least that works in rc4
Posted by durbnpoisn on April 04 2007,00:22
According to the report in the Stats tab, the version I'm running is:DSL-N v0.1
Oh, lordy, that must be an oldie...
As far as mounting manually, I have no problem with that.
See, the story is like this... When running off a CD, I was able to use the mountTool. But it only mounted in USB 1. This made reading and writing unearably slow. So, wrote a little script to mount it from Bash. Doing it that way meant that I always had to write as sudo, but it ran USB 2.0. So, that seemed like a fair trade to me...
Anyway... If there is a patch for my version, or a reliable upgrade, I'm all for it. I mean... This is the ONLY thing that I cannot get working. The entire rest of the system is 100%!!
EDIT: btw: the dmesg | tail command returned the following:
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
I dunno... That doesn't tell me nuthin
Posted by Juanito on April 04 2007,03:22
| Quote (durbnpoisn @ April 04 2007,00:22) |
| According to the report in the Stats tab, the version I'm running is: DSL-N v0.1 Oh, lordy, that must be an oldie... |
Err, yes...
Can you update to rc4 - the latest version - that would probably help.
Posted by durbnpoisn on April 04 2007,15:41
Not that I have much of a problem with that... But is it going to mess up my current install?That... And do you have a link for the update?
Thanks, btw...
Posted by Juanito on April 04 2007,17:50
All you would have to do is replace the file /knoppix/knoppix in your current version with that from rc4. You can even do this whilst booted in your current version.The link is < here >
Note that you would have to mount the iso in order to be able to copy the knoppix file from it, eg:
| Code Sample |
| # mkdir /ramdisk/image # mount /path-to-file/dsl-n-01RC4.iso /ramdisk/image -t iso9660 -o loop,ro |
You will then find the new file at /ramdisk/image/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX and all you need to do is copy it over your existing file.
You may have to copy a couple of files (eg /etc/skel/.fluxbox/menu) over the top of the files in /home/dsl after you boot in rc4 - the release notes in the old forum may mention this.
Posted by durbnpoisn on April 04 2007,18:08
He he... That's pretty cool. I didn't know I could mount an ISO image that way. At first I thought I'd have to mount the ISO on my Windows box and SCP it over to the laptop. I like your idea much better. 
(EDIT: I got the file over there... I mounted it your way. Excellent. Now the big question is, where IS the KNOPPIX file on my HD install? Remember - I'm not using ramdisk)
Question... Why would I need to worry about the fluxbox menu?
That is an issue, because I've been carrying around the same menu for quite a while. I'd hate to have to rebuild it. (I know... I could always just back it up.)
Anyway... I'm at work right now. But I can SSH into my machine from here. I think I will try to at least get the ISO downloaded to the machine so I can play with it when I get home.
Thanks again.
Posted by Juanito on April 05 2007,04:08
| Quote (durbnpoisn @ April 04 2007,18:08) |
| Now the big question is, where IS the KNOPPIX file on my HD install? Remember - I'm not using ramdisk) |
| Code Sample |
| # mkdir /ramdisk/image # mount /path-to-file/dsl-n-01RC4.iso /ramdisk/image -t iso9660 -o loop,ro # mkdir /ramdisk/unpack # mount /ramdisk/image/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX /ramdisk/unpack -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/cloop50 |
| Quote |
| Question... Why would I need to worry about the fluxbox menu? |
Posted by durbnpoisn on April 05 2007,12:54
Hmmm... Yes... This be a traditional install. I basically just went to the menu option for "install to HD" from the live CD. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And, actually, from what I'm seeing here, it's STILL a good idea.We're talking about a machine with 64mb RAM. If I were running DSL with the primary system being a 93mb file unpacked into RAM, it wouldn't run much better than it did off the CD. As it is, it runs FAST. I mean FAST to the extent that it comes damn close to my work laptop (P4, 2.5g, 512MB, XP). That in itself is impressive.
Like I said... The system is running awesome, except for this pesky USB key issue.
It's not like I'm a N00b with Linux in general. I'm totally comfortable with much of it. I spent the last year working tech support for digital broadcast servers running Red Hat 4. That got me pretty well up to speed with the power of Bash, and all the fun stuff that can be done without a GUI. It's one of the reasons that I'm so comfortable with the lack of GUI on much of DSL.
If there is some sort of patch that I could apply, without having to go through every friggin file from the RC4 release, that would be great.
Any ideas?
Posted by lucky13 on April 05 2007,15:19
Thought I replied to this earlier this morning. Meant to anyway. If I were in your shoes, I would make a tarball of /home and either save to USB (if you can mount it, heh) or burn it to CD (or copy to another partition if you have one) and then reinstall DSL-N and restore what you want from your old /home. It doesn't make much sense using the change log and hoping you manage to get it all right.
Posted by durbnpoisn on April 05 2007,17:34
It ain't just the home directory though... I've installed a few apps, and got them working... I installed PHP support for Monkey (well, that was easy)... A few other things.I can back up the entire drive pretty easily. I could just copy it across the network to one of my other machines...
But I still can't see taking a chance on blowing up the whole system simply because I'm having trouble with USB support.
If I really need to get files on an off the machine, I can always use another machine to mount the USB and simply SCP it to the laptop. It's an extra step, but it's better than starting over.
More than anything, I'm kind of surprised that more people don't have a traditional install like mine. It runs awesome like that...