USB Memory Stick Unrecognised

[scharan]

I bought a Transend JetFlash memory stick (USB). But, it is not recognised when plugged into the socket.
What is the problem????
smbdy plz hlp!!!
---Sri Charan

[Chris H]

Firstly, what's your distro?

Secondly is the usb device ( /dev/sda ? ) assigned to an existing mountpoint in /etc/fstab and if so does the mount point exist?

[scharan]

Thanks for so soon a reply!
My distro is Red Hat Linux 9.0 provided by Digit Magazine.
And NO, the mount point does not exist.

[Chris H]

OK, as root create a mount point

mkdir /mnt/jetflash

Then bung the stick in and mount it.

mount -t filesys /dev/sda1 /mnt/jetflash, where filesys is the filesystem - vfat, ext2 etc. Maybe you could use auto here??

Post back with the result.

[sarumont]

mount -t filesys /dev/sda1 /mnt/jetflash, where filesys is the filesystem - vfat, ext2 etc. Maybe you could use auto here??

Auto should work as long as the fs is supported by the kernel or a loaded module.

If this doesn't work, try to (as root) modprobe usb-storage. If that doesn't succeed, then it is possible that you have to build the kernel module (or rebuild your kernel).

[scharan]

hey,
i think i over looked something in Chris' message.
He said smthg abt assingning the usb device to a mount point! What is that & how is it done?

[Chris H]

You have a directory filesystem on your usb device. Linux doesn't directly access that. Mounting tells linux to hook the filesystem over a directory in your root filesystem.

So we take /dev/sda1 and mount it to a directory in the root filesystem, /mnt/jetflash.

so as root create a mount point by typing as below.

mkdir /mnt/jetflash

Then bung the stick in and mount it, as below

mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt/jetflash

Then you can browse /dev/sda1 using your file manager or command line by going to /mnt/jetflash.

Give it a go and post back.

See how it goes and post back

[tr_wright1]

just to note that for me the -t auto swich is obselete and mounting anything that is linux or dos in my box i just need the device name and a mount point. just thought id point it out

[scharan]

hi Chris,
i tried all u said; but once i give the mount command(in the xterm terminal), the shell prompt does not return(for over half an hour!!!) and the system stops responding.
moreover, if i try to shut down the system, the shut down starts but when it comes to the dialpogue saying 'unmounting file system /dev/pts',
it comes to a halt & the message flashes 'system busy"(!)
but, i think the mount process is initiated 'cos the lLED on my stick starts glowing only after i give the mount command.
got any more recipies?
i'm waiting to cook.

[Chris H]

So it mounts and the stick led glows.

Well, it's working.

Do you know what filesystem it's formatted with?

If it's NTFS then you need to make sure your distro can access ntfs. There's a sourceforge project for incorporating it into red hat by rpm. Have a google for it.

If it's vfat then just use vfat instead of auto in the mount command.

It will work though as I have had RH accessing my usb stick in the past.

Post back.