How to mount USB thumbdrive ?

Rossco

For anybody out there who was having the same problem mounting their usb pendrive carry out the following instructions:

1. Open a konsole and become root
2. cd to /mnt
3. create a directory called "sda"
4. carry out: chmod 777 sda
5. open the file /etc/fstab with kwrite or some other editor
i.e. kwrite /etc/fstab
6. Under this line: /dev/hda6 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
enter the following entry:
/dev/sda /mnt/sda vfat users,exec,noauto,umask=000 0 0
I know it there is a comment on the 1st line of the file saying not
to use the "users" option but ignore this!
7. save the newly altered file
8. exit the konsole and reboot your machine
9. login to SimplyMepis 3.3.1
10. plug in usb device
11. right click on the "Hard Disc - sda" desktop icon and choose the
"mount" option.
12. start konqueror and you should be able to access the files on your
usb pendrive

Rossco,

I followed your instructions meticuluosly. However, when I tried to mount the pen drive a window popped up, which said, "mount: /dev/sda is not a valid block device. Please check that the disk is entered correctly." Needless to say, the pen drive didn't mount.

I checked for the /mnt/sda directory, and it's there. I also looked for the added line in /etc/fstab/ and it's there also.

I have [Simply] Mepis 3.3.1 installed on a vintage 1998 IBM Thinkpad. During boot-up, I select the kernal for "older machines" because the most current one seems to cause the laptop to hang.

Any help appreciated.
Regards,
Howard

Does this old machine have usb support?
I think if you execute dmesg in a terminal, you will see if it does.

Hi Howard,
I agree with previous suggestions. However, there could possibly be another cause, which may worthwhile following up. I have had random, intermittent problems with one of my USB devices (Leadtek; not recognised even when present at bootup, or fresh MEPIS installation). Deleting all files under Win made no difference, until I realised that a hidden file called "thumbs" had to be removed too. I then formatted the drive, and it now works OK. Admittedly, I do not understand the causes, since another USB drive (Memorex) used similarly, has not had the problem.
Cheers
"septus"

Hello

I followed the above instructions to the letter, and now I have a hard disk sda icon on my desktop. However when I plug in my usb drive and try to mount it, I get a window with the following message:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
Please check that the disk is entered correctly.

The last few lings in dmesg is:

usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 3
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Vendor: Kingston Model: DataTraveler 2.0 Rev: 4.10
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI device sda: 251904 512-byte hdwr sectors (129 MB)
sda: assuming Write Enabled
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sda: 251904 512-byte hdwr sectors (129 MB)
sda: assuming Write Enabled
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
sda: sda1
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0
FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
FAT: invalid media value (0xb9)
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.

I just compared my dmesg messages with yours - similar except my device is by PNY. Works fine on Mepis 3.3.1
I don't have any FAT: invalid media.... etc
So I wonder if you used this somplace else (an MS operating system?)
Is there any valuable data on it?
Try using it on that other OS and delete whatever is there.

When I was running 3.3 I had the same problem.
I discovered that when I did an "fdisk -l /dev/sda" from a root console and then did the mount command it worked! ???

When I moved to MEPIS 3.4-1.rc1 (and I am now at 3.4-2.rc1) my thumbdrives mount automatically. SD memory cards are still a problem, but if I plug in USB port extender device and then plug the SD card into it an icon appears on my desktop. Also, my KODAC DX7630 camera was never recognized before 3.4-2.rc1 but when I upgraded that distro to KDE 3.5 I found a new program called "Kamera" had been installed. It is a plugin for Konqueror. When I put "camera:/" in the URL line, with my camera plugged into the USB port and turned on, the pictures display in the /mnt/usb1/whatever directory structure automatically. Sweet!
--
GreyGeek

One thing to consider is which program you're using for hotplugging. I would get the same results using hotplug, but when I uninstalled that and installed udev, my usb flash drive would work fine.

This may not work for you, but it just did for me.

First, my USB memory was working from the Live CD and as root.
Next, that means Mepis was finding it correctly, just not for me.
So I tried Kuser, found my ID and double clicked on it to reveal my user properties.
Finally under Groups there was a check in USB, and I added one in camera (for future benefit) and plugdev.
Finally I rebooted.
Problem solved.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the sollution, works fine for me for both flash memory and IDE hard disk in external case.

Once you get this error message:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so
Please check that the disk is entered correctly

.... you might take a look at this
http://www.mepis.org/node/10610#comment-43954

In particular, If you have a large more recent drive (2G),
Mepis does not like the "e" format which appeared on a recent PNY 2G attache.

If fdisk -l /dev/sda1 (or your device) shows an Id of "e" instead of "6" follow the above link. If you have an Id of "6", type 6, no help at that link.