Using USB 2.0 memory stick

PS...

I was looking in synaptic packages and i found USB manager and USB mount. I installed USB mount but nothing happened.
I didn't try USB manager cos i saw that it would be removing quite alot of packages.

What type of USB memory stick are u using (ie. brand and model).

hello,
please type in terminal:(Applications--->Accessories--->Terminal)
sudo fdisk -l

post the result here.
and type:
dir /mnt/

post the result here.

hi...
thanks for answering.

I'm trying to use my memory card adaptor from my mobile phone. ( You plug in your phones memory card into the back of the USB.
I think it worked before with a normal memory.

It works on my desktop with Windows XP.

might there be an error? could you provide an output of

sudo dmesg | tail

, please? might help :-)

carlos@Vaio:~$ sudo dmesg | tail
[ 20.864000] Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.8
[ 20.864000] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[ 20.972000] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[ 20.972000] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[ 20.972000] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
[ 432.948000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 442.244000] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 442.244000] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
[ 442.244000] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 452.284000] eth1: no IPv6 routers present

That any help???

hi mrlopes
thank you for your quick reply. what I meant was plug in the device, then execute sudo dmesg | tail
then please post the content here :-) sorry for not making it clear...

Hi Andrea.
Thank you for your reply.

carlos@Vaio:~$ sudo dmesg | tail
[sudo] password for carlos:
[ 1352.452000] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 1352.452000] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 4b 00 00 08
[ 1352.452000] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1352.452000] sdb:end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
[ 1352.580000] Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 0
[ 1382.692000] usb 5-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[ 1397.804000] usb 5-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 1413.020000] usb 5-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[ 1413.236000] usb 5-3: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[ 1428.348000] usb 5-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110

Hope this helps you to help me...

Thanks for your time Andrea!!! : )

hi carlos
well there seems to be a problem between your vaio laptop and your usb stick (that's big news, isn't it). i've read up on the errors you're encountering and a lot of people have mentioned that they had previously formatted the usb sticks with partition magic or windows vista. the latter is not the case as far as i know (you mentioned it worked under xp). would it be possible to transfer the files to the disk using windows and then format the stick with gparted and see if it works then?

or have you tried manual mounting? in the above case your stick's address is /dev/sdb1 ... then you might want to try:
sudo mkdir /mnt/usbstick &&sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbstick -t vfat && cd /mnt/usbstick && ls

ok that's a lot in one :-) what it does is:
sudo mkdir /mnt/substick creates a directory: /mnt/usbstick
sudo mount /dev..... mounts your usb stick /dev/sdb1 in the previously created folder
cd /mnt/usbstick jumps to the folder where you mounted the stick
ls makes the console display all content

if you've tried this and it returned errors please let me know. if you're willing to do a transfer to a win machine and then reformat the disk i'll gladly give you instruction should you need them.

looking forward to your answer

hi carlos
well there seems to be a problem between your vaio laptop and your usb stick (that's big news, isn't it). i've read up on the errors you're encountering and a lot of people have mentioned that they had previously formatted the usb sticks with partition magic or windows vista. the latter is not the case as far as i know (you mentioned it worked under xp). would it be possible to transfer the files to the disk using windows and then format the stick with gparted and see if it works then?

or have you tried manual mounting? in the above case your stick's address is /dev/sdb1 ... then you might want to try:
sudo mkdir /mnt/usbstick &&sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbstick -t vfat && cd /mnt/usbstick && ls

ok that's a lot in one :-) what it does is:
sudo mkdir /mnt/substick creates a directory: /mnt/usbstick
sudo mount /dev..... mounts your usb stick /dev/sdb1 in the previously created folder
cd /mnt/usbstick jumps to the folder where you mounted the stick
ls makes the console display all content

if you've tried this and it returned errors please let me know. if you're willing to do a transfer to a win machine and then reformat the disk i'll gladly give you instruction should you need them.

looking forward to your answer

ANDREA

Hello again...

I just tried to mount it by typing the following in the terminal ( With USB plugged in )...
sudo mkdir /mnt/usbstick &&sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbstick -t vfat && cd /mnt/usbstick && ls

This messasge came back...
mount: special device /dev/sdb1 does not exist

I'm starting to think it might be the USB stick I'm using.

I'll try a different USB stick.

hi mrlopes
sorry if i wasn't being precise. the /dev/sdb1 is only valid if your dmesg | tail also states that there is a sdb device. of course what might have happened is that the usb stick is recognized but the content not that much ...
do the following:
dmesg | grep "Write Protect"
there willl be a last line lsuch as
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off

the device we're thus looking for is something like sdb ... :
cd /dev/
ls sdb*

in the very best case it'll return a small list (say, sdb and sdb1)

if you got both we're realy lucky! if you only have sdb or so well ... yeah better reformat, i can't think of anything else (sorry!) but if you have both well please check back and we'll try to figure it out :-)

ANDREA

I'm going to try another USB.
All this computer language is too much for my weed soaked brain. LOL

Thanks for your time Andrea, i really appriciate it ; )

If the new USB doesn't work then i'll be back.

Have a good week ; )

I found a solution to that problem (apparently this is about the time needed to the device wake-up):
At /etc/modprobe.d/options I added the line:
options scsi_mod inq_timeout=20
Then I tried to unload and load the module(scsi_mod), but didn't work, because this option was in initrd file. So I reinstalled the package linux-image-* what forced the system to make a new initrd file and use the new configuration (of course there is a better way to do that but I didn't want to search how to), then, after a reboot, voilá, the pen drive was back to life.
I hope this help someone.