# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  Ubuntu 8.04 not detecting my USB drive???

## Replicon

So I've got a ton of USB devices (a 1TB external HD, an mp3 player USB key, etc.) and they all work fine... but then, I just recently got one that I can't get to work. It's a watch with USB storage on it.

When I plug it in, nothing happens. When I tail /var/log/messages, nothing pops up (usually, there's a message about such and such device showing up). Nothing. It works fine on a Windows laptop, so I know the device is not busted. How does one troubleshoot that? Normally, when things don't work and are troubleshootable, it at least notices that something is there that it fails to mount...

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## ninja9578

What format is the drive in?

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## dsr

Run _ls_ in _/dev/disk/by-uuid_ before plugging the watch in. Then plug it in and wait about ten seconds before running _ls_ again. You should see a new symbolic link that points to the device's location. Try mounting it by hand (`mount /dev/disk/by-uuid/FOOBAR /mnt'). You might have to specify its filesystem's format.

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## Replicon

No difference in /dev/disk/by-uuid - just my three regular partitions showing up.

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## dsr

Then I guess the Linux kernel isn't recognizing the hardware? Sorry, I have no clue why it's recognized on Windows but not Linux.

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## Replicon

I've read some random reports of certain USB devices not being recognized in 8.04 (but working fine in 7.10), so I'll probably just have to wait it out. Maybe when I install the next long-term support version, it'll be there.

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## [SomeGuy]

Upgrade to 8.10...much better and less buggy.

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## Ynot

2 possible causes

1)
 The device is unformatted (or in a format that you can't read)

Plug the device in, and fire up a partition editor
See if you can actually see the device

2)
It's not a USB mass storage device
but instead uses a different protocol (or it's own custom protocol)

You can't view the contents of some cameras in a file manager, due to the camera not exposing the filesystem over USB
instead they use a protocol called PTP

If you could post the exact make, model of the device

***********

In any case,
could you plug the device in, wait a few seconds, and post the last ~20 lines of



```
dmesg
```

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## Replicon

Ah here we go:




```
[ 1045.916685] usb 7-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
[ 1047.038601] usb 4-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
[ 1047.143347] usb 4-6: configuration #85 chosen from 1 choice
[ 1047.197593] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
[ 1047.211886] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[ 1047.212115] scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 1047.212256] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1047.212259] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[ 1047.212506] usb-storage: device found at 5
[ 1047.212508] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 1050.947560] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 1050.948304] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Company  PMP Platform OPN      PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 1050.950231] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 2016384 4096-byte hardware sectors (8259 MB)
[ 1050.950856] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 1050.950864] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 1050.950869] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1050.953122] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] 2016384 4096-byte hardware sectors (8259 MB)
[ 1050.954779] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 1050.954786] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 1050.954790] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1050.954800]  sdb: unknown partition table
[ 1050.958686] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 1050.958765] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
```


And then when I remove it:




```
[ 1065.489210] usb 4-6: USB disconnect, address 5
[ 1101.949964] usb 7-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
[ 1103.134292] usb 4-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
[ 1103.227148] usb 4-6: configuration #85 chosen from 1 choice
[ 1103.230720] scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 1103.232257] usb-storage: device found at 7
[ 1103.232263] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 1107.096822] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 1107.097372] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Company  PMP Platform OPN      PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 1107.099070] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 2016384 4096-byte hardware sectors (8259 MB)
[ 1107.099699] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 1107.099705] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 1107.099710] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1107.102560] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 2016384 4096-byte hardware sectors (8259 MB)
[ 1107.103916] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 1107.103923] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[ 1107.103928] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1107.103935]  sdb: unknown partition table
[ 1107.109041] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 1107.109125] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 1176.430920] usb 4-6: USB disconnect, address 7
```


Finally, some sign that it found itself.

What's kind of weird is that NOW I'm seeing something under var/log/messages too. Didn't before. I still don't see anything when running lsusb.

I know it's formatted, because it came with stuff already on it. If I remember correctly, on my windows laptop, it said something about PMP and OPN or somesuch for the device name. I can re-check later. It might actually be a dos filesystem. I wonder if the system update I *just* downloaded might have fixed something.

In any case, it's still not detecting, but now my box is at least showing a sign of life when I plug it in.

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## dsr

As Ynot said, check to see if your system recognizes the drive's format. Run `cfdisk /dev/sdb' or `parted /dev/sdb' if you have GNU parted installed. If the drive is formatted but not in a form recognizable to Linux, you could backup its contents with `dd' and then reformat it to a Linux-friendly format.

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## Replicon

I'd be a bit leary about reformatting it. The device is a watch with a camera on it, so I want to ensure that the watch itself can write to the device  :smiley: 

It might be like some msdos format though. I'll see what the thing says about what format it sees and let you know when I get back home. cheers!

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## Replicon

```
[email protected]:/$ sudo parted /dev/sdb
Warning: Device /dev/sdb has a logical sector size of 4096.  Not all parts of
GNU Parted support this at the moment, and the working code is HIGHLY
EXPERIMENTAL.

GNU Parted 1.7.1
Using /dev/sdb
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) quit                                                             
Information: Don't forget to update /etc/fstab, if necessary.             

[email protected]:/$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e4c2b

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1001     8040501   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            1002        1963     7727265   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            1964       24321   179590635   83  Linux
Note: sector size is 4096 (not 512)

Disk /dev/sdb: 8259 MB, 8259108864 bytes
255 heads, 62 sectors/track, 127 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15810 * 4096 = 64757760 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
```

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## Ynot

well,
something's screwy with the drive

Mount it on a windows machine, run chkdsk & scandsk, and see if that clears it

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## dsr

Look into this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compoun..._Binary_Format

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## Replicon

Ack! I don't have admin privs on my work laptop, so I can't run chkdsk or scandisk right now.

I did look into what the filesystem is when it gets mounted in windows, and it's listed as FAT32 (the USB mp3 player I have that works fine in linux shows up just as FAT in there).

I'll try to get my hands on a windows box I can run those apps on and check it. I suppose if worse comes to worse, there's a reset button on the watch that should reset the company defaults (but I'm not sure if that includes formatting it in the way it started off).

@dsr: Looks like CFBF is a file format, rather than a filesystem type. Is there anything specific you were hoping to get at on that path?

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## dsr

The MiniFAT sectors can be 4096 bytes in length, so I'm assuming your drive is using some kind of proprietary Microsoft filesystem format that employs CFBF.

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## Ynot

Chances are the drive is slightly corrupt

Sometimes (usually due to removing a device prior to unmounting it)
the device can get bogus data written to it's partition table

Usually this results in the reported size of a partition being larger than the reported size of the whole device

You can usually fix this using a partition editor

If you don't have it already, get gparted



```
sudo apt-get install gparted
```


Open gparted
(System > Admin > Partition Editor)

In the drop down box (top right)
select the device of the correct device
In this case, /dev/sdb

There's an information thing in the menus
It should tell you if there are any problems, and if so, whether they're fixable

As I said, chances are the size of the partition is reported as being bigger than the size of the device (or something similar)

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## Replicon

It comes up as unallocated. Also, it shows as 980.53MiB, which even if converted to proper 1024 MB, comes up to about 935 (hardly the 8GB I'd expected). Nothing about errors or whatnot.

Also, when running gparted:




```
sudo gparted
======================
libparted : 1.7.1
======================
Unable to open /dev/sdb - unrecognised disk label.
```

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## Ynot

The drive isn't encrypted or anything silly like that, is it?

I don't think I've ever come across a situation before where Windows could mount a drive, but it's completely unrecognized under Linux.

Anyway,
easiest solution is to mount it on a Windows machine, copy the contents off of it (use a different flash device, if you need the contents on your Linux box)
zap the drive, and reformat (as FAT32)

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## Replicon

Aite, thanks for all the help! I'll think about it and do some additional research before taking any action here. I'm very, very paranoid about the watch camera not being able to interface with the drive if I format it and then replace its contents. Plus, the manufacturer doesn't look like they want to be found  ::lol::

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## Ynot

Oh bugger,
forgot this was a camera....

Under Windows, do you access the camera via Windows Explorer?
(Ie. does it get assigned a drive letter?)

Or, is it done with a special program?

What is the make & model of the watch?

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## Replicon

In windows, it acts just like a regular mass storage USB device, yes. I believe the instruction manual says that you need a driver disc for Windows 98, but that all other versions support it fine. In addition, it mentions that it will work under Mac OS.

Model number appears to be: CVGR-I01

It's this watch: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026XV6KC

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## Ynot

> In addition, it mentions that it will work under Mac OS.



more than that,
mentions native linux support here
http://www.lightinthebox.com/High-De...ra_p56652.html

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## dsr

Replicon: Holy shit that's an awesome concept. How's the audio recorder quality?

Ynot: That's a different watch. 2GB not 8GB and it's a different model number. Much more affordable though. I've gotta get one of these things...

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## Replicon

Yup, it's a gadget I just HAD to have  :smiley:

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## Replicon

> How's the audio recorder quality?



Sorry, missed this last time.

The audio is probably what you'd expect. Not the best, but good enough for what it is (a mic that size, etc.) I can hear things just fine in a semi-busy food court, though haven't tried it in a really busy environment like a very social/packed bar with no loud music.

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