USB Flash Key, Slow and wont unmount?

[FunkyMonkey]

Hi just after installing Mandrake after trying out abut five different linux distros, and i'm very impressed with it. Only one problem though when my usb key auto mounts and i try to copy some files over to the local drive it takes forever to do it, i''m talking about an hour to copy 50 megs!! and then it won't unmount?? even when i reboot.

Does anyone have any sugestions, as i would really like to use mandrake, but obviously this is a limiting factor

[FunkyMonkey]

Using Mandrake 10.0 just downloaded it on the 20 October

[microft.pt]

Need a little more info, could you paste your fstab??
Is your flash key usb 2.0?

[FunkyMonkey]

Yes key is USB 2.0 and my fstab is below thanks

/***************************fstab****************** *****************************/

/dev/hda1 / ext3 noatime 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda6 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
none /mnt/removable supermount dev=/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,kudzu,codepage=850 0 0

[microft.pt]

I hate supermount, it gave a lot of problems when I started using linux, so I don't use it.
if you don't mind having to mount the flash key every time you wanna use it, i'd recommend removing supermount.
Otherwise, try putting in something like: noauto.

anyway, i'll paste the command I use to mount my usb flash key:

mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/sda /mnt/hd

you should change sda for the name that is given to you usb key, by the kernel when you plug it in

[FunkyMonkey]

K Will do that. i dont mind mounting things, im not that lazy!! Thanks for the help
Will the automount program not overwrite whatever info i put into fstab??

[Dapper Dan]

As a side note, if you prefer as I do to stay way from fat32 and fat16 file systems, you can format your key with ext2. If you do, your fstab entry for the usb key would look something like this...

/dev/sda1               /mnt/usbstick           ext2    user,noauto 0 0

I lost half a year's programming data at my radio station that was stored on a fat32 file system that can never be recovered. I've stayed away from "vfat" ever since.

[FunkyMonkey]

Ok added the line

/dev/sda1 /mnt/flash auto defaults,noauto,user 0 0

to my fstab, and the USB is working faster and unmounting now (only from the command line though). The key is no where near as fast as i was on Libranet (installed just prior to installing Mandrake)

I'm presuming that this is a driver issue at this stage, anyone any ideas?? it's just getting anoying at this stage it's a very fundamental function for a modern OS

[Dapper Dan]

Hi FunkyMonkey,

I'm sorry you're having this problem. I've used USB keys/sticks on several distros and have never had the problem you are describing. One thing occurs to me, as you have your present /etc/fstab entry, it may need you to also include the file system type of your key. Maybe try:

/dev/sda1     /mnt/flash             vfat      defaults,noauto,user 0 0

When I insert the usb stick into my Suse 9.1 box the fstab entry looks like this...

 /dev/hda5            /                    reiserfs   acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/hda1            /boot                reiserfs   acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/hda7            /home                reiserfs   defaults              1 2
/dev/hda2            /mnt/hda2            ext3       user,acl              1 2
/dev/hda3            /mnt/hda3            ext3       user,acl              1 2
/dev/hda6            swap                 swap       pri=42                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
/dev/cdrecorder      /media/cdrecorder    subfs      fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/dvd             /media/dvd           subfs      fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0             /media/floppy        subfs      fs=floppyfss,procuid,nodev,nosuid,sync 0 0

I know Mandrake and Suse probably do things differently, but thought I'd post this in hopes it may spur your thought processes toward a solution.

Sorry I couldn't help more...

[imdeemvp]

this is my how to:

I hope this will help any one mount their usb flash key device, everything I did as “root”. Some devices will be supported and some are not. You can check on www.linuxhardware.net to see if device supported.

First plug your usb card reader and to make sure your device was detected go to System Tools > Hardware Browser > enter root password and it will display your hardware information then go to > Hard Drives and it should be listed under /dev/sda.

Open your favorite terminal....btw this works in gnome and kde.

[imdeemvp@localhost imdeemvp]$ cd /mnt/ <-as user cd yourself to the mnt folder and become root to create directory
[imdeemvp@localhost mnt]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost mnt]# mkdir usbflash <- this created a directory in the mnt folder

[root@localhost mnt]# ls /mnt/ <-this command listed all my directories the mnt folder
cdrom cdrom1 floppy usbflash

[root@localhost mnt]# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash <-this is the command to mount flash card reader

[root@localhost mnt]# ls usbflash <-this listed all the info in my usb flash card and this was the output:
bootex.log dns.bmp games and keys LinuxDocs01.21.04 pc's
dns2.bmp Documents LinuxDistributions_eBay my pics programs

then i just copied this to my home folder and i was done!

[root@localhost mnt]# umount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash <-this unmounted my usb flash card
umount: /dev/sda1: not mounted
[root@localhost mnt]# exit
[imdeemvp@localhost mnt]$


THIS ALSO WORKED UNDER Mandrake 9.1, 9.2, and 10 official.

in terminal type as root: gedit /etc/fstab and NOW YOU CAN ADD THIS LINE TO FSTAB to auto mount it:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash vfat noauto,user,umask=0 0 0


HAVE FUN!!