usb drive won't mount

[norsemonkey]

i have a cruzer mini flash drive. I plug it into the USB drive and it lights up. i do a "dir /dev", and sda1 shows up. then i try to mount it by typing "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbflash" and after a long wait, the error comes up: mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

I do another "dir /dev" and sda1 has disappeared, even though the usb drive is still plugged in and lit up.

Does anyone know what I should do?
------------------------------------
running mandrake 10.1, kde 3.2

[sarumont]

Does MDK not automagically detect and mount USB flash drives..?

Assuming it does not, do this (as root or with sudo) after you plug it is:

tail /var/log/messages

Repeat that when the sda1 node disappears (does sda disappear with it?) and post both outputs (use the code brackets, please).

[yosepht]

I am running the same distro as you are.
When I plug in my DELL usb flash drive it
mounts automagically. The icon appears on
the desktop. I just double click on the icon to
get to the files. Look for the icon on your desk
top, you shouldn't have to mount it.
I hope that helps.

[norsemonkey]

heres the output when the drive is plugged in:

 Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: ldm_validate_partition_table(): Disk read failed.
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel:  unable to read partition table
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 256000 512-byte hdwr sectors (131 MB)
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: sda: Write Protect is off
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 256000 512-byte hdwr sectors (131 MB)
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: sda: Write Protect is off
Dec 14 05:10:46 localhost kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Dec 14 05:11:52 localhost su(pam_unix)[5216]: session opened for user root by (uid=501)

and heres when it disappears, (after i try to mount it)

Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 31999
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: scsi1 (0:0): rejecting I/O to offline device
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 31999
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: scsi1 (0:0): rejecting I/O to offline device
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: ldm_validate_partition_table(): Disk read failed.
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: scsi1 (0:0): rejecting I/O to offline device
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost kernel:  unable to read partition table
Dec 14 05:16:28 localhost perl: drakupdate_fstab called with --auto --del /dev/sda1

sda does not disappear with sda1.

[sarumont]

Hrm...see if you can 'fdisk /dev/sda'. And did you check to make sure MDK wasn't automatically mounting it?

[bigtomrodney]

I used to have this trouble with MDk 9.0 up to 10.0 with a TwinMOS USB drive. I never got it working after trawling the net. It was fixed for me in 10.1. I know that's not much help but it's solidarity :P

Someone mentioned before you can modprobe for the manufacturer and there might be a module for it, but I reckon USB mass storage should identify itself as the same thing regardlessly.

[UgoDeschamps]

Hopefully that will help...
Did you try mounting with a specified filesystem

Did you look into your FSTAB to make sure nothing was already trying to mount it...

Before trying to mount, did you look in MSTAB to, yet again, be sure it wasn't mounted (even improperly)

did you try mounting it from fstab without mounting "manually"

[ptroke]

Following this theme, I have Mandrake 10.1 Official running on an IBM R31, but my Intergral USB Flah Memory stick performs while I log on as root, but Konqueror stops working when I plug it in as a user. I have copied in my FSTAB and MTAB files as they appear when the flash memory is plugged in.

FSTAB
/dev/hda1 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/hda6 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/removable auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,exec,users 0 0

MTAB
/dev/hda1 / ext3 rw,noatime,commit=600 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
none /sys sysfs rw 0 0
/dev/hda6 /home ext3 rw,noatime,commit=600 0 0
none /tmp tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/removable vfat rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,sync,users,umask=0,iocharse t=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0

Any help appreciated.

Regards

Paul Troke

[UgoDeschamps]

Hi ptroke just to make sure I understand corectly, You can get this thing working fine under root, then you unplug it, and try with user right?
if you unplug it, I know that MDK re-allocate a drive to usb drive, I have this issue anyway :P
so if you plug and unplug after, it goes from SDA1 to SDB1... you get my point?

when pluged, try this command

fdisk -l (FDISK -L)

this will list all partition HD's plug in...
hopefully that'll help

[ptroke]

The output from fdisk -l was:

[Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38760 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 12190 6143728+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 12191 38760 13391280 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 12191 14424 1125904+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 14425 38760 12265312+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sda: 33 MB, 33030144 bytes
2 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1008 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1007 32208 4 FAT16 <32M]

Funny, when I plug in as user, then remove and log out and in again I see the drive icon on the desktop that I would expect if the USB was loading automagically

Regards

Paul[/quote]