Device notifier does not always detect device

[joneall]

I have a Kingston 8GB USB 3 memory key to which I copied a bootable version of rEFInd using dd. Now the system resolutely refuses to detect the key when I insert it. Since I cannot detect it, I cannot rewrite it or do anything with it.

Any suggestions?

I'm running Neon 4.4.0-116-generic.

[dibl]

I keep a bootable Parted Magic USB stick around for situations like this. No guarantee, but it looks like you need to boot a different OS first, until you find one that detects the Kingston key.

[joneall]

Reformatted key is detected

I keep a bootable Parted Magic USB stick around for situations like this. No guarantee, but it looks like you need to boot a different OS first, until you find one that detects the Kingston key.

Thanks for you suggestion.

Why the parted, which I have also? Can't I just boot another system (I have an LTS 16.04 ready) using rEFInd or grub? Why should one OS detect it and not another?

Then there is the point that this OS detected it once, allowed me to dd rEFInd to it. SInce then, it is not detected.

For what it's worth, the rEFInd key does not work when I boot it. It just gives a blinking underscore (I mean an underscore which blinks!) and nothing else. So I don't know what the state of the key is.

Ok, I just used gparted to format the key to FAT32 and now the detection works. So there are cases where the detection does not work. I wonder what it wants to see that it does not. Some sort of Plug'n'play thing, maybe.

[dibl]

I wonder what it wants to see that it does not. ...

A valid boot sector, I'm guessing.

[oshunluvr]

For clarity: When you state "does not detect..." do you mean the pop-up on the desktop does not happen or is the stick totally not accessible?

I ask because these are two very different things. Typically, a stick with a non-readable format will still be detected when inserted but not mountable, so it won't trigger the pop-up or show in Dolphin. The test is to open a terminal and view the results of dmesg to see if the insert triggered udev.