Mounting USB HDD

[Static_C]

Hi. How do I mount my USB hard drive? What device would it be? I tried right-clicking the desktop and doing create new>hard drive. But none of the listed devices will mount my hard drive. What am I missing? I don't think it's a USB problem, b/c my USB printer works perfectly.

????
Chris

[champagnemojo]

Have you tried mounting /dev/sda and /dev/sda1 and such? I don't know what mount points you have in your fstab. If you don't have a mount point for it you could cd into mnt and "mkdir usbdrv" and then try "mount /dev/sda /mnt/usbdrv" or something.

[Static_C]

Ok. I've had some interesting results.

Chris@Static_C:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda
Chris is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Chris@Static_C:~$ mount /dev/sda
/dev/sda: Input/output error
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified
Chris@Static_C:~$ mount /dev/sda1
mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Chris@Static_C:~$

What's the deal w/ line 2? Who am I being reported to? Me? lol

[fingers99]

Dunno if you're using the CD or a HD install.

You want a line in /etc/fstab (if it's a HD install, it's probably already there: just remove the # in front of it):

/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,sync,umask=000 0 0


(Note that this assumes that /mnt/sda1 already exists -- if not, create it, also that your usb drive is formatted with some kind of fat, if not, change the filesystem type)

then (as root) do

mount -a

[rickenbacherus]

Ok. I've had some interesting results.

Chris@Static_C:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda
Chris is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Chris@Static_C:~$ mount /dev/sda
/dev/sda: Input/output error
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified

The above command is an attempt at mounting the entire disc not just a partition.

Chris@Static_C:~$ mount /dev/sda1
mount: can't find /dev/sda1 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Chris@Static_C:~$

Well what partitions do you have?

fdisk -l /dev/sda

It isn't necessary (albeit handy) to do anything to fstab to mount the drive. You can make any mount point you want like so:

mkdir /mnt/sda1
mkdir /usb1
mkdir /iamanapeman

Then you can mount any partition to any mount point you like.

mount /dev/sda1 /usb1
mount /dev/sda2 /iamanapeman

It just doesn't matter where you mount the drives as long as the mount point actually exists

What's the deal w/ line 2? Who am I being reported to? Me? lol

Just add yourself to /etc/sudoers and you won't get reported anymore. Don't feel bad, even root gets reported if he's not in that file.

[champagnemojo]

Use the command visudo from within the root shell to edit the sudoers list btw. Uncomment out the knoppix user (remove the #) and change knoppix to whatever your username is.

[Static_C]

The above command is an attempt at mounting the entire disc not just a partition.

It's the whole HDD I'm trying to mount. It isn't partitioned (yet). But even mounting sda1 doesn't work.

mkdir /mnt/sda1
mkdir /usb1
mkdir /iamanapeman

Then you can mount any partition to any mount point you like.

mount /dev/sda1 /usb1
mount /dev/sda2 /iamanapeman

So, if I mkdir and create the mount point, how do I point the USB drive to it? mount /dev/sda/mount point?

Just add yourself to /etc/sudoers and you won't get reported anymore. Don't feel bad, even root gets reported if he's not in that file.

lol I had to laugh when I read that.

You want a line in /etc/fstab (if it's a HD install, it's probably already there: just remove the # in front of it):

/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,sync,umask=000 0 0

Hmm, that confuses me. How does that work?

(Note that this assumes that /mnt/sda1 already exists -- if not, create it, also that your usb drive is formatted with some kind of fat, if not, change the filesystem type)

The USB HDD is ntfs. I don't care about write access, I just want to be able to access the files.


For some reason, Knoppix-STD doesn't give me this problem. I simply mount the drive, and that's it. I wish I knew why Knoppix 3.3 is so picky.

[Static_C]

Ok, update. I did mkdir /mnt/usb1 and mount /dev/sda1 as root. It let me do it ONLY from the root shell. But now I'm only able to access it from the root account. In my user account I tried right-clicking the desktop and creating a hard disk, then for Device I typed "/dev/sda1"

It creates the icon on my desktop, but it doesn't allow me access when I try to open it. It only lets me do it if I'm in the root account (which I hate logging in under). I tried changing the permissions for the directory to allow group access in the properties window (as root), but it said it couldn't change permissions. I also couldn't access it straight from /mnt/usb1 (except as root).

I'd really like to access this drive under my own account. Will changing the sudoers file do this?

Use the command visudo from within the root shell to edit the sudoers list btw.

Ok, I type visudo and it shows me the sudoers file, right?

Uncomment out the knoppix user (remove the #) and change knoppix to whatever your username is.

That will give me all the permissions that Knoppix user has? When you say "uncomment," does that mean that the statements w/ a # are considered comments, not executable? Like in programming? Anyway, after I type visudo from the root shell, how do I edit things? It mentions reading the man file, but I don't know which manual contains visudo.


Thanks again for all the help! I appreciate the patience you must have.

[rickenbacherus]

Ok, update. I did mkdir /mnt/usb1 and mount /dev/sda1 as root. It let me do it ONLY from the root shell. But now I'm only able to access it from the root account. In my user account I tried right-clicking the desktop and creating a hard disk, then for Device I typed "/dev/sda1"

chmod 777 /mnt/usb1

Then all users will have acess to the drive. Root still needs to mount it but you don't have to log in as root. You can get root in a terminal or use sudo to mount the drive.

It creates the icon on my desktop, but it doesn't allow me access when I try to open it. It only lets me do it if I'm in the root account (which I hate logging in under). I tried changing the permissions for the directory to allow group access in the properties window (as root), but it said it couldn't change permissions. I also couldn't access it straight from /mnt/usb1 (except as root).

I'd really like to access this drive under my own account. Will changing the sudoers file do this?

Use the command visudo from within the root shell to edit the sudoers list btw.

Ok, I type visudo and it shows me the sudoers file, right?

You can edit /etc/sudoers with any editor. It doesn't have to be vi (although I realize it tells you just that in /etc/sudoers). I prefer xedit myself as vi is about as friendly as a coiled rattlesnake.

su
xedit /etc/sudoers

root ALL=(ALL) ALL
Static_C ALL=(ALL) ALL

[Static_C]

Thanks guys!

I finally got around to trying this last night. It works now!

I can mount from my user account as well.


Thanks again guys. I really appreciate it.