USB drive does not show in /media (Fedora, Core3)

[willeewonka]

Hi,

I have just bought a external USB disk and this is what I am using:

* Laptop with 128 MB memory
* Fedora Core 3
* One USB1 port

The drive apperes on the Fedora installation at work but when I connect it to my laptop at home nothing happens...
I am just now looking at something called hotplug to see if that might do the trick, but I am not sure how to use that either...

Thanks a million for any help!

/Johan

[Tyr_7BE]

Are you saying the USB drive doesn't show up when you plug it in? But it does autodetect on another fedora install at work?

Sounds like the problem could be hotplug, or it could be that you don't have hald or udev running (these two things are integral to automounting new media).

First things first. Are you using Gnome? If you're using Fedora I hope so. Under your preferences there should be an option called "Removable Storage". Check that out and make sure you're automatically mounting new removable media.

If that's all good, then try the following: as root user, type "/etc/init.d/hald restart" and "/etc/init.d/udev restart". The name of the programs might be a little different (I'm on something debian-based so things might not line up 100%) but if you can figure out how to restart these two services then do so and see if that fixes the problem.

If that doesn't fix the problem, then type the following command as root: "tail -f /var/log/syslog" and watch what happens when you plug in your USB drive. Any error messages?

[willeewonka]

Thanks!

I have not installed Gnome due to space issues. I was hoping to solve that with my external harddrive :-|
I will try all your commands tonight and maybe even install Gnome.

I'll get back in a few hours with my findings.

Thanks again!

/Johan

[Tyr_7BE]

You don't necessarily need to install Gnome, but what will probably help is if you install "Gnome Volume Manager". You should be able to search for it in yum ("yum search gnome" maybe?). Gnome Volume Manager is responsible for monitoring for events like plugging in USB devices and taking appropriate action. Install it, and start it up with "gnome-volume-manager". You should be able to bring up the preferences menu with "gnome-volume-properties".

Let us know how it works out!

[Schotty]

Doesnt it mount as /dev/sda1

[willeewonka]

Ok, I have checked that "udev" and hlad (haldeamon was the only thing starting with hald on my system) are running. I tried to restart but no change...
Schotty points out correctly that it should in deed mount as /dev/sda1 but that my problem, it does not show at all...
I am just updating all packages using apt-get. After I'll try the gnome-volyme-manager.

I'll be back and thanks for your suggestions so far!

/Johan

[willeewonka]

A small step...
When I plug in the usb disk the xterm window print the following message plus more like it. !! As the usb drive work fine on the Fedora installation at work, are there any files I can copy from there that would help out here?

Thanks again,

Johan

[wille@hubbabubba ~]$ manager.c/717: New Device: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial
libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: No property info.capabilities on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial
libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: No property info.capabilities on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial
manager.c/717: New Device: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial_0
libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: No property info.capabilities on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial_0
libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: No property info.capabilities on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial_0
manager.c/717: New Device: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/scsi_host_0
manager.c/717: New Device: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/scsi_0_0_0_0
libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: No property info.capabilities on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/scsi_0_0_0_0
libhal.c 911 : Error sending msg: No property info.capabilities on device with id /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/scsi_0_0_0_0
manager.c/780: Device removed: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/scsi_0_0_0_0
manager.c/780: Device removed: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/scsi_host_0
manager.c/780: Device removed: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial_0
manager.c/780: Device removed: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial
manager.c/717: New Device: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_402_5621_109_-1_noserial

[Tyr_7BE]

Ok that means that it's being detected when it's plugged in, meaning that hotplug, dbus, haldaemon, and udev are functioning correctly, which is really good. It's just not taking the correct action (taking action when something is plugged in is what gnome-volume-manager does). Do you have gnome-volume-manager running? You have to start it by typing "gnome-volume-manager" and configure it with "gnome-volume-properties".

Also, try typing "tail -f /var/log/syslog" as root and then plugging in your device...see if anything interesting appears.

[willeewonka]

Ok, baby steps, baby steps ;-)

I will continue testing at home. Just one thing, I do not have a syslog in /var/log/ ...?

Again, I'll be back!

Thanks,

Johan

[Tyr_7BE]

Hmmm...what about /var/log/messages?