Trouble using a USB Memory Stick / Thumb drive (SOLVED)

Cuttlefish · posted: 2010-09-16 00:11

Hello all,
I've been having a good time tweaking antiX 8.5 to just the way I like it, but I'm having trouble trying to mount my thumb drive. It doesn't seem to be recognized.
I've been searching and have only come across this for 8.2 and a recommendation for adding Thunar.

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I'd really rather not...but I would if there was no other alternative. I am confident that you folks have a trick or two up your sleeves. __{{emoticon}}__

Thanks in advance,
Dave

wayne128 · posted: 2010-09-16 01:05

Cuttlefish wrote:Hello all,
I've been having a good time tweaking antiX 8.5 to just the way I like it, but I'm having trouble trying to mount my thumb drive. It doesn't seem to be recognized.
I've been searching and have only come across this for 8.2 and a recommendation for adding Thunar.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com/2009/07/review-antix-m82-thasunke-witko.html"
linktext was:"http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com ... witko.html"
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I'd really rather not...but I would if there was no other alternative. I am confident that you folks have a trick or two up your sleeves. __{{emoticon}}__

Thanks in advance,
Dave

hi dave,
on the other hand, i did not find your problem. i just started using antiX for a short time.

mine is new version antiX 8.5 dated July.

may be i would just describe how i use the USB thumb.
first, insert it on USB port
then open the file manager.
from file manager's left side panel, i can see a list of icon,"computer name","desktop" ,"Trash", Application,"my USB thumb", and all the partitions appear as"10GB Filesystem","8GB Filesystem" etc.

so the USB thumb is automatically mounted already.
what i do next is just click it and all the files will show up on the right panel..

perhaps you want to check if you are using the old April version or new July version.

rokytnji · posted: 2010-09-16 01:15

Manual way.

Open AntiX Control Center.>Hit Disks>Mount Connected Drives>Password>Mountbox>List Tab

Manually type in path for thumb drive that shows in List.

Should end up in /media/flash

Don't know why udev is not auto-mounting your pendrive.

Cuttlefish · posted: 2010-09-16 20:58

Hey guys. Thanks for your suggestions. I can't get either of them to work on my installed system, but wayne128's way works via live CD using pcmanfm.
wayne128. I did burn it in July. I haven't tried the iso update.

I find this interesting though:

Live CD: Applications -> System Tools -> PCMan File Manager

Installed: Applications -> Accessories -> File Manager (which should be pcmanfm)

I'm not really sure what to make of this.

rokytnji · posted: 2010-09-16 21:48

Cuttlefish wrote:Hey guys. Thanks for your suggestions. I can't get either of them to work on my installed system, but wayne128's way works via live CD using pcmanfm.
wayne128. I did burn it in July. I haven't tried the iso update.

I find this interesting though:

Live CD: Applications -> System Tools -> PCMan File Manager

Installed: Applications -> Accessories -> File Manager (which should be pcmanfm)

I'm not really sure what to make of this.

Hmmm. I run pre upgrade AntiX 8.5 on my EEEPC 900. To much trouble for me to reinstall and Anti has said if keeping up with apt-get dist-upgrades in pre-upgrade AntiX 8.5. That update reinstall is not needed in 8.5.

Nothing unusual about FileManager entry in Menu. Same on Mine. Can be easily changed though I can't remember at moment where subdirectory for accessories resides (lazy day for me).

My Pendrives automount, work with Mountbox also, all on pre upgrade AntiX 8.5.
But I run on Asus EEEPC 900 and my /etc/fstab is custom and I think, but am not sure becuase I have so many durn Installs going. That I have uninstalled hal also (but not sure on this netbook, Being lazy, it's raining, OK, I'll go see)

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y# apt-cache policy hal
hal:
  Installed: 0.5.14-3
  Candidate: 0.5.14-3
  Version table:
 *** 0.5.14-3 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Nope. Must be another box where I uninstalled hal. So Mountbox and Automount work OK with hal installed on my EEEPC 900.

Cuttlefish

Hmm. Looking at your code roky. I have my sources.lst not from testing but from squeeze. Could that be making a difference in my situation?

Dave

rokytnji · posted: 2010-09-16 22:24

Cuttlefish wrote:Hmm. Looking at your code roky. I have my sources.lst not from testing but from squeeze. Could that be making a difference in my situation?

Dave

Not sure Cuttlefish/Dave. Mine below for reference. Pretty much stock except for my EEEPC repos I added. On a unrelated note. I did a apt-get dist-upgrade last weekend on this unit which removed synaptic. I thought no big deal as I could re-install synaptic. Would not reinstall with my repos showed below enabled (dependency lib hell). I needed to enable sid repos to get my synaptic package manager back. Commented them back out after fixing that snafu. Never posted about it.

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# See sources.list(5) for more information

# Note:If you want maximum stability, only use the stable repos.
# If you want to install kde3.5, you MUST only use the stable repos.
# (this will change when kde3.5 is no loger available in stable)

# MEPIS 8 series. 
# Only for kernel upgrades. Best NOT to use.
# deb ftp://ftp.mepis.com/mepis/ mepis-8.5 main 
# MEPIS mirrors
# deb ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.mepis.org/mepis/ mepis-8.0 main 
# deb http://fr1.mepis-deb.org/mepis/ mepis-8.0 main 
# deb http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.mepis.org/mepis/ mepis-8.0 main 

# Debian Testing. 
# Testing enabled for 'rolling' release.
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free  
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free 
# deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free 

# Debian Stable
# This will 'soon' be"Squeeze". Use for maximum stability.
# deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free 
# deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free 
# deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free 
# deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free main  

# Multimedia Stable and Testing
# deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ stable main non-free 
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ testing main non-free 

# Goggles music manager
deb http://apt.progchild.de/ stable main 

# opera
# deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ lenny non-free 

# virtualbox
# deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/ lenny non-free 

# liquorix kernels 
# deb http://liquorix.net/debian/ sid main 

###### Debian Unstable/Sid##########
########
###### Use at your own risk! ########
# deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free 
# deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ unstable main non-free 

#######EEEPC Debian Sid uapproved Repositories########
###### Use at your own risk! ######
#deb http://eeepc.debian.net/debian sid main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://eeepc.debian.net/debian sid main contrib non-free

For the eeepc repos. I had to manually add keys for them.
For anybody interested.

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8.

Repository

The new installer adds our ../../Repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list automatically. This includes some packages required to take full advantage of hardware in the Eee PC which not yet suitable for inclusion in the official Debian archives.

Model specific issues

Please go to ../../Models to find out about model-specific configurations.

So I guess. What necessarily works for some. Won't work for others because of personal tweaks and stuff.

dark-D · posted: 2010-09-16 22:36

testing and squeeze are the same thing at the moment. why don't you try to update your install to bring it up to date, but be careful when you do it, not to remove something that you need. to update enter as root:

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apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

or if you don't want to update the entire distribution just install pcmanfm again to get the latest release:

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apt-get update && apt-get install pcmanfm

i think after that, you need to remove the lxde icons if you don't use them.
you could use synaptic for this as well.
HTH

edit: btw for ntfs i always struggle to mount it, i don't know why, i blame it on windows. i can mount it as root, but not as regular user. i always force it to mount in fstab. just a mention, i doubt it that you have ntfs on your usb stick.

Cuttlefish · posted: 2010-09-17 00:26

Well, by some miracle, that I can't understand, I am able to mount my thumb drive. I can do it through pcmanfm. I was looking for the thumb drive icon on the left hand side of the file manager, but instead I just saw my partitions. I decided to mount one of them for the heck of it and there was the drive in /media/disk. I guess this is something I'm going to have to mull over for awhile. I'm not exactly sure how to unmount though. Do I right click on each partition do make sure that I have unmounted?

...Thanks,
Dave

ICE-M, I did do a dist-upgrade. No problem.

wayne128 · posted: 2010-09-17 02:09

Oh no __{{emoticon}}__

while my first old laptop, being multi-boot with others, antiX runs well and no trouble mounting USB stick.

when i did similar multi-boot to a desktop, strange thing is, now i see the problem what Dave described, but mine is really more serious,
1. i use previous method using pcmanfm to mount, not successful
2. use roky's manual method, no go
3. even use terminal method su, root, mount /dev/sdb1, no go

even running on live CD, i cannot mount USB stick using all above 3 methods.
something must be wrong..
__{{emoticon}}__

rokytnji · posted: 2010-09-17 13:56

The live cd statement is what is stumping/throwing me.

even running on live CD, i cannot mount USB stick using all above 3 methods.

Are you sure USB is turned on in Bios on that Desktop?

Since Multiboot you will probably answer yes. But I would check any ways.

wayne128 · posted: 2010-09-17 13:58

ICE-M « Fri Sep 17, 2010 7:46 pm »
try inserting the sticks with pcmanfm opened, not closed.

thanks ICE-M,
this works! on installed antiX

wayne128 · posted: 2010-09-17 14:02

rokytnji wrote:The live cd statement is what is stumping/throwing me.

even running on live CD, i cannot mount USB stick using all above 3 methods.
Are you sure USB is turned on in Bios on that Desktop?

Since Multiboot you will probably answer yes. But I would check any ways.

oh you already knew my answer,
Bios i have never changed setting.
all other OS had no problem , each can automatically mount USB drive when insert on USB port.

this is strange behaviour, but now i use this trick, open pcmanfm first, then insert USB, it works

Cuttlefish · posted: 2010-09-17 20:20

Hey, this issue sounds like it has been resolved. I think I'll mark it as such.
Thanks everyone for your help.

Dave

Cuttlefish · posted: 2010-09-20 00:01

Hmm. I might have spoken a bit too soon. I think I have only 1/2 of this solved.

When I try and unmount I will get this message."Failed to eject media; one or more volumes on the media are busy."

Are there any sure fire methods for unmounting the drive.?

-Dave