usb memory stick

[DENNIS1940]

My Mageia 6 KDE does not show the usb memory stick which is plugged in.
( I want to download files to it for transfer to another computer)

I gave up on operation of XF burn as it only worked 25% of the time so it is not an option.
It looks as though it copies the file names but the files are absent or corrupt.

So please how do I get the memory stick to show on my desktop so I can add files to it?
(I apologise for such an elementary question but I'm stumped)
dennis

[banjo]

Perhaps the memory stick has gone bad. They do fail. I have two Gorilla drives that simply stopped working one day. They are not indestructible.

Here are some things you can do to trouble shoot the problem.

The CLI command lsusb will tell you whether or not the USB system has seen the stick.

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$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8001 Intel Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8009 Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:c069 Logitech, Inc. M-U0007 [Corded Mouse M500]
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c313 Logitech, Inc. Internet 350 Keyboard
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 13fe:4300 Kingston Technology Company Inc.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

In that output, you can see my Kingston drive in the USB system. The stick is not mounted, but USB sees it.

If the USB does not see the stick, the stick may be hosed. Hardware failure.

If the USB does see the stick, you can use a df command to see if it is mounted.

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df
Filesystem     1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             4035048         0   4035048   0% /dev
tmpfs             811280      9732    801548   2% /run
/dev/sda2      495914712 244114524 226586136  52% /
tmpfs            4056388     27784   4028604   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120         8      5112   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            4056388         0   4056388   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1         523248      3744    519504   1% /boot/efi
/dev/sdb1      488385532  10743064 477642468   3% /home/poobah/scans
cgmfs                100         0       100   0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs             811280         0    811280   0% /run/user/121
tmpfs             811280        16    811264   1% /run/user/1001

In the output above, there is no memory stick, which indicates that the drive is not mounted.

I mounted my drive and used df again.

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$ df
Filesystem     1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             4035048         0   4035048   0% /dev
tmpfs             811280      9736    801544   2% /run
/dev/sda2      495914712 244114700 226585960  52% /
tmpfs            4056388     27552   4028836   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120         8      5112   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            4056388         0   4056388   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1         523248      3744    519504   1% /boot/efi
/dev/sdb1      488385532  10743064 477642468   3% /home/poobah/scans
cgmfs                100         0       100   0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs             811280         0    811280   0% /run/user/121
tmpfs             811280        16    811264   1% /run/user/1001
/dev/sdc1       15151120        16  15151104   1% /media/brian/USB DISK

You can see the last entry is my USB DISK.

If your drive is not mounted, the file system on the stick may be hosed.

If the drive is mounted, you can use your file browser to dig down to its mount point, "/media/brian/USB DISK" in my case, to look at the contents of the drive.

Try some of these commands to see if you can determine the level at which the error is occurring.

Banjo
(_)=='=~

[DENNIS1940]

deleted post

[DENNIS1940]

following your clear directions:

The usb showed the memory stick.
Then df did not show it so the stick is not mounted. This makes perfect sense.

The removable drives drop down box shows that "mount removable drives when inserted" is checked
so there is something I need to do but not knowing what it is, I assumed that the checked line above in the drop-down box takes care of it.

ps: working from root may not be an option as my root password is not working
ps: the stick works with windows the other system on this dual boot computer

[banjo]

Sounds like the stick is OK as well as the file system on it.

On my system, when I plug in the USB stick, the notifier pops up a dialog asking what to do with the new drive. I can then mount the stick there. The mounting of the USB stick does not happen automatically. Does that dialog pop up? If not, maybe something is amiss with the notifier applet. If the dialog has timed out and disappeared, I can post it again by clicking on the USB symbol down in the right hand corner of the bar at the bottom. Is there a tiny USB logo down at the bottom of the screen?

You could try mounting the stick manually. There are instructions in many places on the web how to do that. I found a decent one here.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount/USB

That is for Ubuntu, but the commands should be fine on Mageia as well. Scroll down to "Manually Mounting".

[benmc]

ps: the stick works with windows the other system on this dual boot computer

cool.

so, just boot into Windows, copy across the contents of the USB into a Windows folder, Windows format the USB, and then copy back the contents from your saved Windows folder.
then try it again in your Mageia system.

p.s I have one USB that regularly fails and can be restored for use in this way.
I guess that, at some time, it is going to permanently fail.
I use the stick to watch downloaded torrents on the tv, so no great loss when it eventually fails.

[DENNIS1940]

This is fascinating.

I turned off my computer, removed the usb stick, booted into Mageia and plugged in the usb stick and a box appeared saying that "the usb stick was automatically mounted" the files on the stick appeared listed on my monitor. Amazed and happy, I opened the Mageia file manager found my mageia files to transfer but could not see the contents of the usb stick .

I turned off my computer, unplugged the stick, booted the computer, plugged in the stick but this time no box appeared saying the stick was mounted. so in the terminal emulator at ~]$ I entered "sudo fdisk -1" and see "command not found" I tried "sudo fdisk -l " and see "command not found".
Saddened, I turn to you :
do I have to enter this command in root? My password for it never did work.
[ this unplugging procedure ( for manual mounted usb with its dire warning is at the end of the ubuntu instructions you referenced]

at the lower right corner I did not see a usb logo... in fact I don't think I ever saw it

this one time thing is somewhat like my Mageia's operation of burning a disk, it worked only once

dear mr Banjo, thanks for your patience and generosity in helping me. I'm amazed at the quick and excellent help I find here.

I see your logo is a 5 string banjo. I inherited two 4 string Paramount banjos my father played from 1927 to 1992 he was a professional banjo player.

[DENNIS1940]

ps: the USB stick works with windows XP the other system on this dual boot computer

It works with SUSIE linux also on this computer but SUSIE was so bloated and clumbersome that I went to Mageia
Windows XP was simple and good but it was like having a target painted on me so I only use Linux for the internet

[banjo]

I see your logo is a 5 string banjo.

Yes. I play the 5 string banjo. I am not a professional. It is just a hobby. I really like the Dixieland sound of the 4 string, but I cannot play that music. So I stick to old-time 5 string tunes and some classic banjo tunes.

There is a way to boot Linux into single user mode where you can change the root password. I do not remember the details of how to do that, so that would take some research.

You can run Gparted with your memory stick plugged in to look at it and/or reformat it, but you will have to provide the root password for that as well.

I would suggest resetting your root password.

Sounds like you have some strange, intermittent things going on with your computer or OS.

[doktor5000]

You're mixing up quite a few things here.

At first you mention "XF burn" - Are you referring to xfburn from XFCE ? That is a CD/DVD burning program, where's the relation to the USB stick?

For the contents of usb the memory stick, what filesystem did you format it with? And please do the following: plug it in, and then run the following command in a terminal, and please post the full output here:

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lsblk -f

Also, in one of the posts you mentioned

so in the terminal emulator at ~]$ I entered "sudo fdisk -1" and see "command not found" I tried "sudo fdisk -l " and see "command not found".

For one, sudo is not installed/configured by default on Mageia. So if the message you saw said "sudo: command not found" then this would appear for every command you would prefix with sudo.
But for the question, yes fdisk needs to be run as root.

If you need to reset your root password, then please have a look at existing threads, e.g. viewtopic.php?f=41&t=6346
If you have an issue with that, please create a new thread for that. Golden rule is only one problem per thread, and please don't crosspost.

[DENNIS1940]

The memory stick still works for windows.

when I plugged it in the first time while Mageia was booted,
I saw the stick's content appear but after calling up the files saved in Mageia,
the space where the stick content had been displayed became a white rectangle with no content.
I do not see a usb logo in the bottom right corner

entering "1sblk -f" in terminal emulator gives no output,- only the statement that the command was not found
entering "df" displays several lines so the emulator still works

the stick came formatted and works. As I want to keep its files I would purchase another rather than reformatting it.

the only connection to xf burn is that it does not work either.
the only conclusion I can come up with is that there seems to be something wrong with my Mageia if it works once on the above and then fails.

[doktor5000]

entering "1sblk -f" in terminal emulator gives no output,- only the statement that the command was not found

Best copy&paste the command. It's lsblk -f starting with a lowercase L not with number one.

[DENNIS1940]

that change and there is output. I have attached a screenshot of the output.
much here is unfamiliar to me, what should I do next?

[doktor5000]

As root, what happens if you run a filesystem check as

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fsck.vfat /dev/sdb1

[DENNIS1940]

fsck.vfat /dev/sbd1 was not recognised in terminal emulation.
In root ? My Mageia's root password has not worked for two years.

[doktor5000]

Then the first thing you should do is to reset your root password, as already mentioned:

If you need to reset your root password, then please have a look at existing threads, e.g. viewtopic.php?f=41&t=6346
If you have an issue with that, please create a new thread for that. Golden rule is only one problem per thread, and please don't crosspost.

[kajosim]

I have a "free gift" USB which on Mageia6 behaved somewhat strange. It turns out that even though it is only 8GB has the Partion Table Type GPT.
I discovered it in MCC -> manage disk partitions. Chose Expert mode (bottom right) and at the top row click on a device (eg. sdb) but not on the partition in the row below . Then you get the information :

Device: sdd
Size: 7.5GB
Geometry: 1023 cylinders, 248 heads, 62 sectors
Name: 28D510197D03401A4386549B
Medium type: hd
Partition table type: table::gpt
on channel 0 id 0

Once again you need root password for MCC

Hint: copy/paste is very easy in Linux and works (almost) everywhere eg from browser window (like here) to a Terminal ( Konsole ) and from the terminal to browser.
mark text to be copied while pressing the mouse left key then move (shift focus) to where it should be pasted and click mouse middle key (now a days the mouse wheel).

Regards.

[DENNIS1940]

Thanks, It may get me past the problem. I appreciate your suggestion.dennis

[benmc]

fsck.vfat /dev/sbd1 was not recognised in terminal emulation.

you might like to retry that

fsck.vfat /dev/sdb1

you interchanged sdb1 for sbd1

[DENNIS1940]

fsck.vfat /dev/sbd1 was not recognised in terminal emulation.
In root ? .

this time it said "'no such file or directory"

[doktor5000]

You quoted yourself - did you enter the command as you posted? Then you still have the same typo as benmc already mentioned. It would help if you would simply
copy & paste the command you entered including the output, so we could see whether you input a wrong command or maybe some other issues.

But if this is not the same boot above, device name could have changed already - best check this against output of lsblk.