Cannot mount my thumbdrive!!

[knopphead]

I started out playing with my new knoppix 3.3 live cd. Now I'm engaged in a fierce battle with it to make it function properly with my usb jump drive! Earlier today I had the jump drive formatted with ext2; knoppix recognized it in r/w mode and would mount it, but would not interact with it. After researching some previous posts, I determined I needed to format it in FAT16....which I did. However, it ended up with 4 partitions on it (funny, my windows machine didn't tell me that!)

Anyway, I'm assuming that in order to proceed I must be able to mount them....but I'm given error messages stating that neither sda1,sda2,sda3, or sda4 can be mounted because they are "not a valid block device" . What the hell does that mean?!!?

I fear I may be loosing this battle....I have precious little ammunition (knowledge) to "mount" a counterattack.

Anybody have a suggestion??

[OErjan]

eeeh? 4 partitions?? try repartitioning it again, anf format in fat32. (fat 12, 16, 32... are all vfat).
you shold then be able to reach it with the comand

 mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/pen

that in turn might require you to make the directory /mnt/pen but...

[knopphead]

Well, I reformatted it in FAT32, but knoppix still sees partitions /sda1 thru /sda4. Neither one of which I can mount!!

command: mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/pen

response: mount: mount point /mnt/pen does not exist

command: mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

response: mount: mount point /mnt/usb does not exist

command: fdisk /dev/sda (/sda1 thru /sda4)

response: unable to open /dev/sda...........

My linux "education" hasn't covered changing things in the directory yet...

I've reformatted this drive on both my windows ME and XP. The fdisk command doesn't work for removable disks in ms-dos. So I'm at a loss on how to format this thing with one partition!! Please let me know if you can think of something else!!

Thanks for responding!!!!!

[swooshtika]

Well, I reformatted it in FAT32, but knoppix still sees partitions /sda1 thru /sda4. Neither one of which I can mount!!

command: mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/pen

response: mount: mount point /mnt/pen does not exist

command: mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

response: mount: mount point /mnt/usb does not exist

command: fdisk /dev/sda (/sda1 thru /sda4)

response: unable to open /dev/sda...........

My linux "education" hasn't covered changing things in the directory yet...

I've reformatted this drive on both my windows ME and XP. The fdisk command doesn't work for removable disks in ms-dos. So I'm at a loss on how to format this thing with one partition!! Please let me know if you can think of something else!!

Thanks for responding!!!!!

I had the same exact problem when I tried to use my SONY Micro Vault drive.

[OErjan]

ok, the errormessages tell me that you have no /mnt/pen directory, nor a /mnt/usb.
do

mkdir /mnt/usb

mkdir /mnt/pen

, now try again.
it should work.
now to the partitioning, I would try linux cfdisk to partition it, as root (you become root with the comands sudo su in knoppix)
I would then use (still as root)

mkdosfs /dev/sda1

to make the fat filesystem, it should work.
there might be trouble with the drive under win though but...
nothing alarming for me, just had to format it in win once.
to quit being root you issue the comand exit (od ctrl+d).

[knopphead]

To: cfdisk
knoppix responds:

FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive
Press any key to exit cfdisk

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ mkdir /mnt/usb
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/usb': Permission denied

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ mkdir /mnt/pen
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/pen': Permission denied

I can create directories simply called usb @ pen :

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ ls
Desktop pen tmp usb

But nothing seem to be affected by it...

[OErjan]

you have to make the directories as root perhaps.

[knopphead]

Alright now....in root am able to cfdisk, but only my actual hda partitions are read, not the sda.

So, I noticed all 4 of the sda partitions are in my home/desktop directory. When I created /usb and /pen directories I tried mounting them again, but no success....What am I doing incorrectly?

I appreciate your replies....please bare with me!

[OErjan]

ok then you might get it working by doing

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /home/desktop/usb

the mountpoint is any empty directory you want.
it is just a place to "hang the painting", linux cares little for where that is, like any cat cares for correct placement of paintings, not a second glance (yes my cat is called Linux ).

seriously, mountpoint i just a place where you go to access the files.
if you make the dir in /mnt/ the code i gave earlyer should work.
ok what does

fdisk /dev/sda

say? no not sda1, forget the 1 you want to see the whole disk.
keep asking, i will try helping.
what you do wrong. not much, it is me failing to explain.

[OErjan]

knopphead: why have you spread your questions so? it is hard for both me and you to follow he instructions.
i have found you in 3 diferent topics.
keep the usbthumbdrive Qestions in one (here? ) it is easyer to answer well then.
if i know what you have tried and what info you have i can be clearer on instructions, as it is now it is a jiggsawpuzzle for you (and me).
as for info on the disk. do

dmesg|grep sd

post the output here, then

fdisk -l  /dev/sda

and again post here