topic Re: Uing USB disk on Intel LINUX in Operating System - Linux

Uing USB disk on Intel LINUX

Nahmad_1 — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:34:46 GMT

Hi There

How could I use USB disk on Intel Linux ?

Thanks in advance

Nahmad

Re: Uing USB disk on Intel LINUX

Matti_Kurkela — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:20:23 GMT

If you're using a Linux distribution that includes USB storage autodetection (most modern ones do) and you are running a GUI desktop environment:

- plug it in, wait a few seconds and an icon appears somewhere on your screen. Click on it with your mouse.

If there is no GUI desktop environment (i.e. you're running a Linux server with the X Window System disabled):

- plug it in, wait a few seconds read the tail end of "dmesg" command output to see the device name (usually /dev/sd*) and use the "mount" command to mount it just like any other storage device.

Example "dmesg" command output after plugging in an USB disk:

[...]
usb 4-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
usb 4-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi7 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 8
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access Verbatim STORE N GO 5.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] 31318016 512-byte hardware sectors (16035 MB)
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Write Protect is off
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] 31318016 512-byte hardware sectors (16035 MB)
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Write Protect is off
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Assuming drive cache: write through
sdg: sdg1
sd 7:0:0:0: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete

In this example, the device node of the "whole disk" device is /dev/sdg and its main (and only) partition is /dev/sdg1. The brand name of the USB disk is displayed, so I can confirm this is the correct device.
Now I can mount the disk to some location, to /mnt for example:

mount /dev/sdg1 /mnt

Some Linux distributions have (optional) tools that make the use of USB disks simpler even without using the GUI mode. For example, there might be an auto-mount system that mounts the USB disk to /media/ as soon as it is detected. See the documentation of your Linux distribution.

MK

Re: Uing USB disk on Intel LINUX

Nahmad_1 — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:29:48 GMT

Thanks MK

I tried already the way you suggested but found that the USB is disabled by previous someone administrator for some reason.

Ho wcould I enable it please ?

Thanks

Nahmad

Re: Uing USB disk on Intel LINUX

Matti_Kurkela — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:59:11 GMT

That depends on _how_ the USB functions have been disabled. Is it just the USB disks? Or are the USB mice/keyboards disabled too?

If all USB devices are disabled, it might have been done by disabling the USB controller(s) using the BIOS settings, if the BIOS of that particular machine has that option.

Another method would be by disabling one or more USB-related kernel modules by using "alias off" in /etc/modules.conf (with Linux kernels older than 2.6) or using the "blacklist " keyword in /etc/modprobe.d/* files (with kernel 2.6.*).

To disable only USB disk functionality, the previous admin might have disabled a module named "usb-storage". To disable USB completely, he/she might have disabled the USB controller driver modules, with names like "uhci_hcd", "ohci_hcd" and/or "ehci_hcd". (NOTE: the controller driver modules had slightly different names in kernel versions 2.4.* and before.)

A particularly thorough admin might even have removed these module files completely from the /lib/modules/ directory tree. If he/she has done that, you'll probably have to reinstall the kernel/module package your system is currently using, to get the deleted files back.

Knowing the name and version of your Linux distribution would make it easier to answer a question like this.

MK