Ubuntu

can't mount USB device, not listed in "fdisk -l"

Asked by alexdd

Hello Everybody!

Of course I read a lot of other posts, but really I couldn't find a solution to my problem. Please help an otherwise very satisfied (X)ubuntu user!

My USB flash drive worked well before, but I needed to format it.
I did this using gparted, with fat32 (the problem may already be here,
I didn't check if it was fat32 before - could that cause any trouble?)

Anyway, after that my flash drive wasn't mounted automatically and so here is what I tried with device plugged in:

sudo fdisk -l
my flash drive isn't listed here, only my hard drive

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

dmesg | tail -n 15
[ 9120.570331] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access General USB Flash Disk 0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 9120.598297] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 3948544 512-byte hardware sectors (2022 MB)
[ 9120.603293] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 9120.603307] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[ 9120.603313] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 9120.696464] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 3948544 512-byte hardware sectors (2022 MB)
[ 9120.701301] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 9120.701317] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[ 9120.701325] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 9120.705200] sdb: sdb1
[ 9120.841486] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 9120.844428] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 9132.520109] hub 2-0:1.0: port 2 disabled by hub (EMI?), re-enabling...
[ 9132.520129] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, address 2
[ 9132.736212] hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2

running this command was proposed at http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1061225.html
and I followed the further instructions, assuming that my flash drive is "sdb"

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
Unable to open /dev/sdb

then I tried to restore the mbr by using the syslinux version under Ubuntu.
:~$ sudo bash
:~$ cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sdb
They told on the forum that this will overwrite the mbr with the syslinux version which is known to be valid. Then I pulled the drive, inserted it and ran fdisk again, still with the same error
Unable to open /dev/sdb

autodetect under kubuntu and windows didn't work either..

I use Xubuntu 8.10
running on a very old toshiba satellite laptop =)

Please help!
AlexDD ;D

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Ufuk (ufukkilicaslan) said : 		#1

If you connect another USB device to your USB port, does it work? I mean is there a problem with your USB stick or with the USB port?

If the port works with another device, try formatting your stick again with gparted, for exapmle try formatting with fat16.

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alexdd (alexdd) said : 		#2

Hello Ufuk,
and thanks for the quick reply!

For some mysterious reason IT WORKS NOW with no further ado.

How can I delete this question (in order not to confuse others) ?

--------------------For more information read on------------------------------------------

I cant explain this because just a few hours ago it wouldn't mount on my Xubuntu system, neither on another Kubuntu system nor on a third XP desktop. The ONLY thing that changed apart from the time is that I rebooted my system - which is kind of weird because from what I know in Linux you almost never have to reboot to do stuff!?

Well I won't complain ;D

These are the answers to your questions at the time when it didn't work:
1. My USB port worked fine and auto-detects other devices.
2. The device didn't show up in gparted.