Ubuntu
util-linux package

only one of two each hard drives and CD players available in Xubuntu 10.9

Asked by Larry Marquardt

I am running Xubuntu 10.9 on a Pentium II 400 MHz with 768 MB RAM and two hard drives (40 GB with the operating system) and 30 GB with nothing important on it), and two CD drives (one a Samsung R/W DVD/R, one a Disc CD read only). Both CD's are working because I installed from the CD read only, and am listening to music on the other, but I can't get the read only machine or the second hard drive to show up in any of the file management tools I currently have. Because the hard drives are small, I'd like access to both, and I use one CD for running older Windows programs with Wine (hopefully) and the other for listening/burning, etc. I really don't want to reinstall Windows on this machine, though it was running XP pro SP3 pretty well, Xubuntu is much better on it.

I'd also like to be able to use a Western Digital 500 GB USB drive, if possible.

Otherwise, this OS is great for this older machine, and has revitalized a PC Card reader that I never could operate under NT, W2K, or XP pro with any service pack. So, many thanks to all the dedicated people who make this possible.

Any help on the other is appreciated. I did search for answers, and this may be obvious to someone with Linux experience, but I'm stuck.

Thanks in advance.

Larry

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Ubuntu util-linux Edit question
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Larry Marquardt
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

If you buy the western Digital drive and install it, it will be usable.

can you give the output of:

sudo fdisk -l; echo; mount; echo; cat /etc/fstab

Thanks

Revision history for this message
delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#2

There are very few issues with USB external drives. It will be automatically detected.
About the two disks, it could be also a hardware configuration issue if:
  - you mix a PATA and a SATA disk
  - you have two PATA disks both masters or slaves
Did appear the problem after Ubuntu installation or after addition of a new disk ?

Revision history for this message
Larry Marquardt (larrym82) said : 		#3

Thank you for your responses. I was hoping you would say that about the USB drive, and thought that would be the case, but have yet to try it.

delance,
The problem appeared after the Ubuntu installation. The drive with the OS is PATA and the other is ATA.

actionparsnip,
Here is the output you requested:

larry@Ancien:~$ sudo fdisk -l; echo; mount; echo; cat /etc/fstab
[sudo] password for larry:

Disk /dev/sda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3648 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9dc96e9e

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3647 29294496 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 41.0 GB, 40982151168 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4982 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00011833

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 4773 38333440 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 4773 4983 1685505 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 4773 4983 1685504 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sdb1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/larry/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=larry)

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sdb1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sdb5 during installation
UUID=3f1dbcf1-ac2f-46d6-83aa-9a12b468ee28 none swap sw

Revision history for this message
delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#4

See http://opensuse.swerdna.org/susentfs.html
    Check that your user group is "users" and user name "marquardt", else update following commands with true values
sudo mkdir /windows # create folder for mounting point
sudo chown marquardt:users /windows # give ownership to marquardt
    And add following line in /etc/fstab
/dev/sda1 /windows ntfs-3g uid=marquardt,gid=users,umask=0022 0 0
    Then reboot and check disk is mounted.

If it works, please mark "Answers" solved.

Revision history for this message
Larry Marquardt (larrym82) said : 		#5

There's more to this picture than I thought. I was able to download Disk Utility from the repository, and could view the second hard drive, to that problem is solved.

The CD problem seems to be hardware related after all, and I've managed to foul up the installation by changing and forgetting my admin password. Doh!

Anyway, I'll mark this solved and carry on.