USB stick not recognized

[oriol]

I have been using Kubuntu 9.04 since April and, since then, I had no problem using my 2GB USB flash drive. Whenever I plugged it in, it was automatically recognized and it appeared as a new device in Dolphin. A few weeks ago, however, it stopped working completely (I do daily updates with KPackageKit, but I do not know when this happened exactly). When I introduce the drive in the slot there is some processor activity, but the device never shows up anywhere. I know that the USB ports are working because I am able to access my MTP device via Amarok. Also, and although I am not sure if I am reading it correctly, my currently plugged in flash drive seems to be recognized by the system according to dmesg (see below). I have tried to find it in /dev/sdb and mount it myself, but I have not succeeded so far. And I know the USB drive works because I have a dual boot and it works fine when I boot into Window$. I am using KDE 4.3.2, but the problem appeared in 4.3.1.

mirosa@mirosa-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep usb                                                            
[  0.511042] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs                                                 
[  0.511042] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub                                                  
[  0.511042] usbcore: registered new device driver usb                                                    
[  3.108067] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.128068] usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.128368] usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.128623] usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.128870] usb usb5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.129133] usb usb6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.129373] usb usb7: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.129518] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual                                                
[  3.129547] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial                                               
[  3.129573] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic                                           
[  3.129575] usbserial: USB Serial Driver core                                                        
[  3.445244] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2                                         
[  3.578549] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  3.614129] usb-storage: device found at 2                                                         
[  3.614131] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning                                            
[  3.614140] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage                                              
[  3.784043] usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2                                         
[  4.163095] usb 2-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  4.384056] usb 2-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4                                         
[  4.533117] usb 2-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  4.534098] usb-storage: device found at 4                                                         
[  4.534100] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning                                            
[  4.772057] usb 7-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2                                         
[  5.013467] usb 7-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice                                                 
[  8.612331] usb-storage: device scan complete                                                        
[  9.532371] usb-storage: device scan complete                                                        
[  12.790743] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb                                                 
[  15.037838] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb_stk11xx_driver
[ 106.563535] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 2
[ 110.300891] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
[ 110.433651] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 110.434256] usb-storage: device found at 3
[ 110.434258] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 115.433514] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 2272.165808] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 3
[ 2284.105138] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[ 2284.239236] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 2284.244445] usb-storage: device found at 4
[ 2284.244452] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 2289.244661] usb-storage: device scan complete

mirosa@mirosa-laptop:~$ dmesg | grep sdb
[  8.613881] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 4110336 512-byte hardware sectors: (2.10 GB/1.95 GiB)
[  8.614406] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[  8.614410] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[  8.614413] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  8.616013] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 4110336 512-byte hardware sectors: (2.10 GB/1.95 GiB)
[  8.616530] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[  8.616534] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[  8.616537] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  8.616543] sdb:
[  8.617511] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 115.436539] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 4110336 512-byte hardware sectors: (2.10 GB/1.95 GiB)
[ 115.437030] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 115.437036] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[ 115.437043] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 115.451312] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] 4110336 512-byte hardware sectors: (2.10 GB/1.95 GiB)
[ 115.451906] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 115.451912] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[ 115.451918] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 115.451928] sdb:
[ 115.452988] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 2289.248835] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] 4110336 512-byte hardware sectors: (2.10 GB/1.95 GiB)
[ 2289.264781] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 2289.264790] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[ 2289.264795] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 2289.269341] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] 4110336 512-byte hardware sectors: (2.10 GB/1.95 GiB)
[ 2289.270846] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 2289.270853] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[ 2289.270859] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 2289.270871] sdb:
[ 2289.272093] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

Any ideas anyone? Thanks!

[lmilano]

Re: USB stick not recognized

Hi

Silly question, have you tried unplugging and plugging again once you are logged in?

[oriol]

Re: USB stick not recognized

Yes, of course. The problem has been there for several weeks now and I have tried to use the flash drive many times with always the same result: nothing happens. What surprises me the most is that the stick works flawlessly when using Windows in the same computer, and that an external USB hard drive that I have works perfectly well in my Kubuntu system. So it does not seem to be a problem of the flash drive, but it is not a problem with Kubuntu recognizing USB devices either. And the flash drive itself used to be properly recognized by Kubuntu only a few weeks ago.

[lmilano]

Re: USB stick not recognized

There are some services responsible to poll hardware: dbus, hal, and also a widget that shows the newly plugged hardware. Do you have that widget installed?

To check for dbus and hal, you can install sysv-rc-conf and run it from konsole. Hopefully that will do?

[oriol]

Re: USB stick not recognized

Thanks for your response. I installed the widget and it does recognize the flash drive. Then I can click on 'open with file manager' and the drive is mounted and I can navigate its files in Dolphin. However, whenever I move to another folder, the device disappears from Dolphin's left hand panel (although I can still access it from /media), which does not happen with any other of my USB devices (and did not happen before the problems started).

At least now I know that I can use the drive from Linux, even with an extra step, so thank you very much for your help. If you have any idea why the drive might not be mounted automatically and why it does not appear in Dolphin I would really appreciate your help. (I have to leave for work now, but I can try sysv-rc-conf later and post what I find out).

Thanks again!