[gentoo-user] usb external drive

[gentoo-user] usb external drive

[James]

Hello,

I use ivman with usb sticks and move them between windoze
and linux systems without issue. I just got a FreeAgent
usb 2.0 external disk drive and expected it to work
just like a usb stick (not really sure why I had this expectation).

It does not show up with a 'df' command,  like a usbstick
would under /media. I'm not sure why it does not behave like
a generic usb stick?

Anyway, the only doc I could find  is of moderate usage.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/usb-guide.xml

The device does not show up but I do get this error message to console:
df: `/media/sdb1': Input/output error

The kernel supports dos/fat file systems and the what the aforementioned
web page suggests for kernel options are included in my kernel.

I did manage to mount the device:
mkdir /mnt/usb
mount /media/sdb1 /mnt/usb

and then create and edit a file with vi.

What I'm looking for is a simple procedure I can use to set
up all my gentoo systems so I can easily move this drive from
machine to machine and have access to the files under gentoo
and windoz (2k,xp,vista).

ideas?
James


Any documents I missed or suggestions on seamless access are most welcome.
James



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[gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[James]

James <wireless <at> tampabay.rr.com> writes:


> I use ivman with usb sticks and move them between windoze
> and linux systems without issue. I just got a FreeAgent
> usb 2.0 external disk drive and expected it to work
> just like a usb stick (not really sure why I had this expectation).

> It does not show up with a 'df' command,  like a usbstick
> would under /media. I'm not sure why it does not behave like
> a generic usb stick?

Well I hate to be the only one answering my posts....

I think I found the problem. Linux does not think a (v)FAT
file system is on the drive. From dmesg I get this:

Late last I night I got this response to a manual attempt to
mount the drive:

mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrive

 # dmesg | tail
sdb: Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
 sdb: sdb1
sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdb
sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.


Today when I try and manually mount the drive I get this:

hda-intel: Invalid position buffer, using LPIB read method instead.
sd 4:0:0:0: Device not ready: <6>: Current: sense key: Not Ready
    Additional sense: Logical unit not ready, initializing command required
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
FAT: unable to read boot sector


I think I just need to format the drive with a fat partition.

This is the first USBdrive I've set up so I'm  being
cautious.   Am I missing anything else?

James


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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Albert Hopkins]

On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 14:37 +0000, James wrote:
> Well I hate to be the only one answering my posts....
> 
> I think I found the problem. Linux does not think a (v)FAT
> file system is on the drive. From dmesg I get this:
> 
> Late last I night I got this response to a manual attempt to
> mount the drive:
> 
> mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrive
> 
Based on your dmesg output, shouldn't you be mounting /dev/sdb1 (as
opposed to /dev/sdb)?

>  # dmesg | tail
> sdb: Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
> sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
>  sdb: sdb1
> sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdb
> sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
> usb-storage: device scan complete
> FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
> VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
> FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
> VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
> 


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[gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[James]

Albert Hopkins <marduk <at> gentoo.org> writes:


> > mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrive

> Based on your dmesg output, shouldn't you be mounting /dev/sdb1 (as
> opposed to /dev/sdb)?

Hello Albert,

I get this:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbdrive
mount: /dev/sdb1: can't read superblock


I found the problem with fdisk (the file system type):

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384001    7  HPFS/NTFS


I do not want to get into HPFS/NTFS as this drive must work
easily with both XP(vista) and Gentoo systems. It will be
moved between many systems frequently, so the easiest 
(least keystrokes) to auto_magically have this drive
usable between systems is my goal, even at the cost
of I/O performmance....


I just need to reformat the drive with a FAT 32 file system?
Maybe make 2 partitions of 250 meg (unless that is a problem?)
I'm not sure of the best way (syntax suggestions within FDISK ?)
or other suggestions?

Surely I do not want to turn it into a useless brick.


James




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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 15:38:42 +0000 (UTC), James wrote:

>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384001    7  HPFS/NTFS
> 
> 
> I do not want to get into HPFS/NTFS as this drive must work
> easily with both XP(vista) and Gentoo systems.

emerge ntfs3g - works for me.


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Beware! The end is... <aaarrgh!>

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Dan Farrell]

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:55:49 +0100
Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:

> On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 15:38:42 +0000 (UTC), James wrote:
> 
> >    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> > /dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384001    7  HPFS/NTFS
> > 
> > 
> > I do not want to get into HPFS/NTFS as this drive must work
> > easily with both XP(vista) and Gentoo systems.
> 
> emerge ntfs3g - works for me.
> 
> 
I second.  Fat32 is even worse than NTFS.  Lots worse.  Even my 64bit
systems happily use ntfs3g without problems.  
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Albert Hopkins]

On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 15:38 +0000, James wrote:
[...]
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384001    7  HPFS/NTFS
> 
> 
> I do not want to get into HPFS/NTFS as this drive must work
> easily with both XP(vista) and Gentoo systems. It will be
> moved between many systems frequently, so the easiest 
> (least keystrokes) to auto_magically have this drive
> usable between systems is my goal, even at the cost
> of I/O performmance....

Well, there do exist NTFS drivers for Linux and, of course, Windows
already knows NTFS. Or you could reformat the partition with vfat.

The least keystrokes method would be to use a desktop environment like
Gnome or KDE and let it handle the chore for you.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Willie Wong]

On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 02:37:54PM +0000, Penguin Lover James squawked:
> Late last I night I got this response to a manual attempt to
> mount the drive:
> 
> mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrive
> 
>  # dmesg | tail
> sdb: Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
> sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
>  sdb: sdb1
> sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdb
> sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
> usb-storage: device scan complete
> FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
> VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.
> FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
> VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sdb.

I am just jumping in in the middle here, so I don't know whether this
is relevant or not. Do you have a /dev/sdb1 ? Have you tried mounting
that instead of /dev/sdb? I've heard of some thumbdrives not doing
partitions, but all the ones I own needs to be mounted via
/dev/sd?[0-9]

HTH, 

W
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Re: [gentoo-user] usb external drive

[Josh Helmer]

On Thursday 05 July 2007 5:27:19 James wrote:
> What I'm looking for is a simple procedure I can use to set
> up all my gentoo systems so I can easily move this drive from
> machine to machine and have access to the files under gentoo
> and windoz (2k,xp,vista).

When I did this I just used ext3 and then installed an ext2 driver for 
Windows.  I don't know whether the ext2 driver is supported under Vista but 
it works fine under XP.   The only options I know of are NTFS (flakey linux 
support) or VFAT (obsolete and wasteful filesystem).

Josh
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[gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[James]

Neil Bothwick <neil <at> digimed.co.uk> writes:


> >    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> > /dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384001    7  HPFS/NTFS

> emerge ntfs3g - works for me.


Hello Neil,

OK, I'll give ntfs-3g a shot. It looks OK, except it says it does not
work with compress files?

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_NTFS_write_with_ntfs-3g

"It provides full read-write access to NTFS, but currently lacks support for
encrypted and compressed files and POSIX attributes. "

so does it work with zip, tar, bz and compressed files?

Looking at the above wiki
and this wiki:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Mount_Windows_partitions_%28DOS%2C_FAT%2C_NTFS%29

There seems to be some conflict on setting up the drive and the kernel.

Do I need ntfs support compiled into the kernel?

I tried to follow the first page, verbatim and got this error:

#  ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/windows   <yes I made the /mnt/windows dir>

Error reading bootsector: Input/output error
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/output error
NTFS is inconsistent. Run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot it TWICE!
The usage of the /f parameter is very IMPORTANT! No modification was
made to NTFS by this software.                                        


But it seems to be working. I can cd into it and
edit files with vi.
Moving a pdf file worked too..

THANKS NEIL!

James



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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Albert Hopkins]

On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 18:04 +0000, James wrote:
> I do not have NTFS enabled in the kernel. The wiki on ntfs3g said not
> to:
> http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_NTFS_write_with_ntfs-3g

Likely because they mutually exclusive (i.e. both are drivers for the
same filesystem).  Although to be honest I've not used either. I just
know that they exit.

[...]

> DO tell how to get KDE to automagically make the drive available with 
> few keystrokes?   Many users will be sharing the drive and moving
> it around quite often.

Again, to be honest, I've never done it in KDE, although I assume it's
just about similar as in Gnome (which is go to
System/Preferences/Removable Drives and Media).  Just make sure you have
the hald service running.


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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Mick]

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On Friday 06 July 2007 19:28, Albert Hopkins wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 18:04 +0000, James wrote:
> > I do not have NTFS enabled in the kernel. The wiki on ntfs3g said not
> > to:
> > http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_NTFS_write_with_ntfs-3g
>
> Likely because they mutually exclusive (i.e. both are drivers for the
> same filesystem).  Although to be honest I've not used either. I just
> know that they exit.
>
> [...]
>
> > DO tell how to get KDE to automagically make the drive available with
> > few keystrokes?   Many users will be sharing the drive and moving
> > it around quite often.
>
> Again, to be honest, I've never done it in KDE, although I assume it's
> just about similar as in Gnome (which is go to
> System/Preferences/Removable Drives and Media).  Just make sure you have
> the hald service running.

The wiki says not to use the FUSE module in the kernel, but to emerge it as a 
separate module.  I don't think it says anything about not including the 
normal ntfs driver (I'm sure I have it built in mine).
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Willie Wong]

On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 05:22:16PM +0000, Penguin Lover James squawked:
> http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_NTFS_write_with_ntfs-3g
> 
> "It provides full read-write access to NTFS, but currently lacks support for
> encrypted and compressed files and POSIX attributes. "
> 
> so does it work with zip, tar, bz and compressed files?

encrypted and compressed as in by the filesystem: i.e., if you have a
disk under Windows and you turn on the compression option for that
filesystem (as in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307987 ) you won't
be able to read the data with ntfs-3g. Ditto for NTFS encryption. 

W

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb external drive

[Dan Farrell]

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 09:27:02 -0700
Josh Helmer <joshhelmer@cox.net> wrote:

> The only options I know of are NTFS (flakey linux 
> support) 
I've not heard of one bad thing happen with the in-kernel NTFS
read-only support, which is primarily useful for retrieval and password
hosing on XP boxes.  Neither have I heard of any problems at all with
FUSE + ntfs-3g r/w.  

>or VFAT (obsolete and wasteful filesystem).
Yeah, no kidding. 
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[gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[James]

Albert Hopkins <marduk <at> gentoo.org> writes:

> Again, to be honest, I've never done it in KDE, although I assume it's
> just about similar as in Gnome (which is go to
> System/Preferences/Removable Drives and Media).  Just make sure you have
> the hald service running.

Ok,

I give this a whirl.

thanks,


James




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[gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[James]

Mick <michaelkintzios <at> gmail.com> writes:


> The wiki says not to use the FUSE module in the kernel, but to emerge it as a 
> separate module.  I don't think it says anything about not including the 
> normal ntfs driver (I'm sure I have it built in mine).


I do not have ntfs support built into the kernels on the 2 gentoo
system where ntfs3g is now working. I simple made the (dir)
set a mount point, put an entry in fstab so it happens automatically
on reboot.

I manually mounted the drive like this:
ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

and it works just fine......


James

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Mick]

On 06/07/07, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Mick <michaelkintzios <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>
> > The wiki says not to use the FUSE module in the kernel, but to emerge it as a
> > separate module.  I don't think it says anything about not including the
> > normal ntfs driver (I'm sure I have it built in mine).
>
>
> I do not have ntfs support built into the kernels on the 2 gentoo
> system where ntfs3g is now working. I simple made the (dir)
> set a mount point, put an entry in fstab so it happens automatically
> on reboot.
>
> I manually mounted the drive like this:
> ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
>
> and it works just fine......

Did you have to re-emerge ntfs-3g with setuid flag for your normal
user to be able to mount the ntfs partition for writing?

Also, I noticed that there is a startup script /etc/init.d/fuse listed
under rc-update.  What is that for?
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: usb external drive

[Dan Farrell]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 15:35:05 +0100
Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 06/07/07, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> > Mick <michaelkintzios <at> gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >
> > > The wiki says not to use the FUSE module in the kernel, but to
> > > emerge it as a separate module.  I don't think it says anything
> > > about not including the normal ntfs driver (I'm sure I have it
> > > built in mine).
> >
> >
> > I do not have ntfs support built into the kernels on the 2 gentoo
> > system where ntfs3g is now working. I simple made the (dir)
> > set a mount point, put an entry in fstab so it happens automatically
> > on reboot.
> >
> > I manually mounted the drive like this:
> > ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows
> >
> > and it works just fine......
> 
> Did you have to re-emerge ntfs-3g with setuid flag for your normal
> user to be able to mount the ntfs partition for writing?

pascal ~ # ntfs-3g 
ntfs-3g: No device is specified.

ntfs-3g 1.616 - Third Generation NTFS Driver

Copyright (C) 2005-2006 Yura Pakhuchiy
Copyright (C) 2006-2007 Szabolcs Szakacsits

Usage:    ntfs-3g <device|image_file> <mount_point> [-o option[,...]]

Options:  ro, force, locale=, uid=, gid=, umask=, fmask=, dmask=,
          streams_interface=. Please see details in the manual.

Example:  ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/win -o force,locale=en_EN.UTF-8

Ntfs-3g news, support and information:  http://ntfs-3g.org

> 
> Also, I noticed that there is a startup script /etc/init.d/fuse listed
> under rc-update.  What is that for?

Adding the fuse control filesystem to /proc or /sys appears to be the
primary function.

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