Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

[bcsco]

I've installed Kubuntu Feisty on my main hard drive (20gb). I have a 2nd hard drive that's FAT32 with 4 partitions. When I boot Feisty, it doesn't recognize those partitions, only my CD-ROM and floppy drives.

I've read elsewhere on this forum that Kubuntu recognizes FAT 32 drives so I don't know whether it's the difference between Kubuntu and Windows file structures that has me confused, or whether something is wrong with my installation. The 20gb drive is dedicated to Feisty; not partitioned, and Windows is NOT installed.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

To start "somewhere", could you please post the system's response to the K/console command fdisk -l ("minus ell") ...?

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

Thanks for replying. When I enter "fdisk -l" I get :
"bash: fkisk: command not found"

When I enter "fdisk - l" I get:
"Usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partition table
fdisk -l [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table(s)
fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size(s) in blocks
fdisk -v Give fdisk version
Here DISK is something like /dev/hdb or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is something like /dev/hda7
-u: give Start and End in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

Ooops ... and how about sudo fdisk -l ...?

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

Okay, got it. I'm a real newbie to this, so bear with me. Here's the dump:

"Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2327 18691596 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 2328 2434 859477+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2328 2434 859446 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 3673 29503341 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hdb2 3674 14593 87714900 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 3674 7313 29238268+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hdb6 7314 10928 29037456 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hdb7 10929 14593 29439081 b W95 FAT32"

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

O.k. - now let's try to get hold of one of the file systems residing on the second harddisk:

# create mount point
sudo mkdir /media/hdb1
# mounting (by hand, "minimalistic")
sudo mount -v /dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1
# check the results ;-)
more /etc/mtab | grep hdb1

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

Here's what I get. I'm glad you can make something out of it:

"jim@Midtower:~$ # create mount point
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo mkdir /media/hdb1
mkdir: cannot create directory `/media/hdb1': File exists
jim@Midtower:~$ # mounting (by hand, "minimalistic")
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo mount -v /dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1
mount: you didn't specify a filesystem type for /dev/hdb1
I will try type vfat
mount: /dev/hdb1 already mounted or /media/hdb1 busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/hdb1 is already mounted on /media/hdb1
jim@Midtower:~$ # check the results ;-)
jim@Midtower:~$ more /etc/mtab | grep hdb1"

BTW, thanks for your help!

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

O.k., first things first: Unix/Linux is case-sensitive as well as extremely delicate in terms of typing (and lines preceded by a hash key a mere comments ...) - exemplified: grep hdb1" is not the same than grep hdb1 (!).

In your case, however, I'd dare say that the second harddisk is already available to your system - you just don't get (read: see) it to verify that, please post the results from

sudo more /etc/mtab | grep hd

and, in parallel, point Konqueror to media:/ to take a look yourself

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

When I run : "sudo more /etc/mtab | grep hd" I get:

"jim@Midtower:~$ sudo more /etc/mtab | grep hd
Password:
/dev/hda1 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 vfat rw 0 0
jim@Midtower:~$".

FYI: If I reboot my PC, then immediately go to 'Konqueror/Storage Media', hdb1, hdb2, hdb3, hdb4 are all displayed as file folders. If I click on a given folder, nothing is shown as existing in that folder.

If I then run the routine:
"# create mount point
sudo mkdir /media/hdb1
# mounting (by hand, "minimalistic")
sudo mount -v /dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1
# check the results ;-)
more /etc/mtab | grep hdb1"

...and then return to Konqueror, hdb1 is now shown as a drive, and I can access the sub folders. If I perform the same routine, substituting "hdb2" (or whatever) for each of the other partitions, these are still shown as folders in Konqueror; they don't become drives as hdb1 has.

Does this mean I have to manually go through this routine every time I boot Kubuntu and want to access that drive? And why doesn't the routine work for partitions 2 - 4?

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

We're getting closer; let's move on to the table of file systems "known" to the system (read: to be mounted on demand), to be found in /etc/fstab - where, I'd guess, only the first of the "hdb"s is being mentioned ... please post the whole file to let me/us check that.

While /dev/hdb2 is an extended partition (read: a container for other partitions - not one initself) and therefore irrelevant to the task at hand, we're gonna handle /dev/hdb5, -6 and -7 similar to "no 1" ... and, of course, we're setting things up for more than one session

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

Here's the printout for "/etc/fstab":

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=01593ea3-1795-4e6f-a250-07c850c514b8 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=7239434b-321e-40dd-9c6f-d732f3715fcb none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see any reference to hdb1.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

O.k., now let's back up the fstab

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig

and add some entries for hdbX

sudo echo '/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
sudo echo '/dev/hdb5 /media/hdb5 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
sudo echo '/dev/hdb6 /media/hdb6 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
sudo echo '/dev/hdb7 /media/hdb7 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

and, again, check the results

sudo mount -av
sudo more /etc/mtab | grep 'hdb'

- but do not reboot unless you're sure that everything is working well (!!!).

--

Postscript: typos killed

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

That accomplished absolutely nothing. Results:

jim@Midtower:~$ sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo echo '/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo echo '/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb5 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo echo '/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb6 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo echo '/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb7 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
bash: /etc/fstab: Permission denied
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo mount -av
mount: proc already mounted on /proc
nothing was mounted
jim@Midtower:~$ sudo more /etc/mtab | grep 'hdb'
/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 vfat rw 0 0
jim@Midtower:~$

I go back to Konqueror/Storage Media/, and hdb1 is mounted but hdb2-4 are still file folders with nothing showing in them. I have NOT rebooted.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

That accomplished absolutely nothing.

Mumble, mumble ... then please open the file in an editor in "sudo mode",

e.g. by [Alt][F2]kdesu kwrite /etc/fstab

and add the relevant lines manually:

/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb5 /media/hdb5 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb6 /media/hdb6 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0
/dev/hdb7 /media/hdb7 vfat users,auto,umask=000 0 0

[bcsco]

Re: Kubuntu Feisty won't recognize FAT32 partitions on 2nd hard drive

I have fstab open in Kate and here's what it reads (which, BTW, is the same as the original):

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=01593ea3-1795-4e6f-a250-07c850c514b8 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=7239434b-321e-40dd-9c6f-d732f3715fcb none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Where within this do I add the lines you've provided?