Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

[Holley]

I had my external USB harddisk working ok, then had to reinstall breezy.

I left my external drive plugged in while re-installing, and its now unrecognised ... is it possible to force USB device detection?

(the external drive still works ok on another machine)

Any help greatfully recieved!

[askrieger]

Re: Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

Your usb drive may already be detected. It may be that kubuntu assumes that anything that is connected at the time of installation is permanently attached. Look in the gray stripe across the bottom of the screen (called the panel or the kicker). Left click on the little house. This launches the konqueror file manager. in the konqueror file manager click on the media folder and see if it has a subfolder labeled sda#, sdb#, or sdc#, where # is a number. If so click on that subfolder. It may be your usb drive. If the folder is empty, it might simply be that the drive is not mounted. Click on the crt icon on the kicker panel. This launches a console called "konsole". You will see a prompt on the top line of the konsole. Type the line "sudo mount /media/sd?? (where ??) are the letter and number combination of the subfolder in the media folder). Hit return. The word password will appear. Enter your password. If there is no error message, go back to Konqueror. Click on the subfolder again. Your usb drive should be there now.

I apologize for takeng so much space to describe something that could have been explained in two sentences. It's not that I think you're an idiot. This post may be read by someone who has never used linux or possibly even a computer before. So a little bit of hand holding is sometimes appreciated.

[Holley]

Re: Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

Thanks (and I appreciate the extended explanation which might help others). Don't worry about being technical with me either though, I'm new to Kubuntu and USB within Linux, but not new to *nix

There's no sd1# (or similar) in the media folder (it did show up as sd1a when I had kubuntu on the first time). I've tried plugging it in /after/ booting and with another USB socket (no change).

Worst case scenario is I'll install samba and share it on a Windows machine, but thats really putting the cart before the horse ...

[askrieger]

Re: Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

Do you have an entry in /etc/fstab for /media/sd1a or /dev/sd?? ? The reason I phrase the entry like that is that my fstab has a line "/dev/sdc1 /media/sdb1...." I seem to recall having some kind of problem getting kubuntu to recognize my external drive when I started. In the end I swapped the plugs between my printer and the drive. The printer still worked and the drive appeared with a different port number (go figure!)

If you decide to try a manual fstab entry and need some help, give me a shout.

[Holley]

Re: Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

I had a quick look at the Linus USB page's FAQ, and on its advice switched off 'Plug & Play OS' in the bios (which was off on the original install, but on during the re-install, since I'd tried some stuff to try and work out what was going on before the olf harddisk went). It didn't change

Then I had an epithany, perhaps it was the device rather than Linux causing the problem ... I unplugged the external drive from the mains, leaving the USB cable in, and plugged it back in. It got picked up right away and works now

Thanks for the help, the old grey cells seem to work better when you talk to someone else!

(now if I can just work out where I'm going wrong with the Loki installer for Quake 2 lol ... but thats for another day)

[askrieger]

Re: Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

I'm glad to hear it's working. I'm just reminded that back in the old days (when one installed Linux by buying a cardboard box full of disks), the instructions always said "Turn off Plug and Play BIOS before you begin installation"

[Holley]

Re: Is there a way to force USB storage device detection?

Yeah, all the info is back there, just needs dragging out and airing off once in a while, lol.