usb devices only mounted or recognized during startup

[hillmort]

hello all
this is my first time posting a topic on a linux forum since starting to run it month or so ago. So far the books I have google and persistence have either showed me what could be done or couln't be...but with this I just have no idea where to start.

I am running Mint LTS 5 on an IBM Thinkcentre, the install went superbly, I already have a little experience with Debian so I was able to configure everything i needed very quickly but there is one thing odd i have noticed......

*****USB devices can only be recognized or mounted if they are loaded into the ports during boot up!
You can't plug in a mouse, controller or external hard drive after booting and have the system recognize it.
This is a minor, but extremely irritating problem as I am going to be needing to use flash drives a lot over the next few weeks.

Things have noted that may be of help in solving the problem:
- The computer is also dual booting windows xp which is able to recognize the devices normally.
- lsusb lists nothing at all in the ports where devices are connected AFTER booting
- I have verified that all the usb ports all DO work, none are "dead" or disconnected.
- I checked dmesg to see if there was anything odd during boots that might be related, nothing odd, (but I AM a noob soo...if any one thinks those results might be useful I can post them.. )

If anyone has any ideas for how to fix this, or any commands I could try to get some me more information, I would REALLY appreciate it as it is the only thing I really need to do to have this computer fully capable of handling my everyday tasks.

"zug zugzug zug uzug zug" ('l-l')

[viking777]

I must ask, if you installed a month or so ago then why Mint5? Mint 7 or 8 would have been a better choice surely? And if you had used one of those I would be willing to bet you wouldn't have this problem.

Is it too late to rethink?

I don't know how else to answer your question sadly.

[hillmort]

I tried running various live cd's (ubuntu, opensuse, fedora) and they all also had the same problem. usb's only recognized if they are connected during boot, (or as I have recently noticed if you connect the devices when the computer is in "suspend") mode.
Still this is a really frustrating problem.
I reinstalled using Mint 8 (everything thing else was perfect) but same problem.....

Is this possibly related to the default kernel that all these distro's use not being configured properly to my hardware? and if so what should I do?
I've never compiled a kernel before but I wouldn't be opposed to trying, if thats what it takes.
any suggestions are most appreciated

probably a good idea to mention again that its an IBM Thinkcentre, and Windows XP (installed on another partition on the the same computer) has no problem recognizing usb drives in the normal way.

[ZenDJiNN]

I'm also having a similar problem here, on Mint 8 (64 bit) running on my laptop . If i plug one of my USB drives in (320gb) it's mounted & everything works OK, but then when i plug in my 8gb stick, Nautilus just crashes. From then on it's really hard to get USB sticks mounted. I have ntfs3g running (Does it come with mint as standard, i can't remember?).

Also, it's not entirely reproducible, as sometimes it works fine for a while, and i'll even have 2 x USB drives plugged in (1 x 320gb & 1 x 120gb) and a flash drive also...... then i may take the stick out, or one of the drives, put another in & bamm!! Happens again.

Anyone know if there's a fix for this? Apart from that one thing, it's working really well. If i can't get it fixed though i'll have to look to something else, which will be a real shame because Helena x64 is the first distro i've used in years, that really lets me be productive!

Here's hoping for a fix...... oh, and just in case, here's the contents of fstab..... (I REALLY dislike UUID!!! )

Code: Select all

 # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#  -- This file has been automaticly generated by ntfs-config -- 
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=1493e753-6e0b-46fd-af27-8e5c237646a1 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
UUID=ca1c794c-2920-42b1-8bc7-10534adc362e /Crunch64 ext4 defaults 0 2
# Entry for /dev/sdb1 :
UUID=2868EA1A68E9E692 /LACiE ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
UUID=B0F45E3DF45E064E /LACiE2 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda2 :
UUID=A63CE4BA3CE48721 /ZeNBiN ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
UUID=01C945F9EF41A600 /ZeNDJiNN ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
UUID=16955936-c984-4fb3-9bbd-204fd8ab3c6a /antiHome ext3 defaults 0 2
# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
UUID=bbd24936-c910-4b2f-b265-aa42081d1190 /antiX ext3 defaults 0 2
# Entry for /dev/sda8 :
UUID=6368746f-2074-616b-6f65-207575696400 /home ext3 defaults 0 2
# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
UUID=877b5686-023c-481e-bd3d-39a96067a95e none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/sda1 /media/ZenDJiNN ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0

Cheers!

[viking777]

(I REALLY dislike UUID!!! )

Then don't use it.

Open gparted from a live cd right click an a partition and give it a label. For instance your antix partition may be called 'antix' - fairly logical

Then change fstab to:

# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
LABEL=antix /antiX ext3 defaults 0 2

(Why half your partitions are /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! is a bit of a mystery btw)

Then repeat till all your partitions have labels.

Sorry I don't know the answer to the usb problem though, it sounds really strange, particularly the fact that it is intermittent.

Edit. Just had one thought but it is a long shot - open synaptic package manager, locate udev, and mark it for reinstallation. Don't hold out a lot of hope for that though.

[ZenDJiNN]

(I REALLY dislike UUID!!! )

Then don't use it.

LOL!! Indeed, and in the past i've always changed my fstab to NOT use UUID's but to use the standard /dev/sda1 / type of thing. I have to confess that i'd never thought of, heard of, or used, Labels. DUH!!

Open gparted from a live cd right click an a partition and give it a label. For instance your antix partition may be called 'antix' - fairly logical

Does it have to be from a Live CD or can i just use Gparted from within whatever distro i'm currently using? I'll give the latter a go and if there's any probs i'll try the Live CD route. (Which is still Mint x64)

Then change fstab to:

# Entry for /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! :
LABEL=antix /antiX ext3 defaults 0 2

That's great, and many thanks for the info...... i was kind of hoping for a more automated way of doing it rather than manually (Mainly because i do a lot of distro testing on this lappie and regularly have either grub or fstab probs of one kind or another) but hey, any workaround is good. I shall go through my fstab this morning & change the relevant stuff. Having said all that, it's not so much the static devices that seem to be problematic, but the "Plug-able" USB stuff, mainly HD's & Keys. I did have a thought that perhaps it could be something as simple as the power available to the USB ports, as apparently (AFAIK) they don't all have the same amount of power available. I have tested this on several desktop machines and found that, at least with the 2.5" portable variety of USB drive that uses the USB port for it's power supply?, it DOES make a difference which port is used. So perhaps it's something as simple as that?

(Why half your partitions are /dev/ !! UNKNOW DEVICE !! is a bit of a mystery btw)

Indeed, i am also baffled by this.... if anyone else that's reading this knows how this happened, please share.

Sorry I don't know the answer to the usb problem though, it sounds really strange, particularly the fact that it is intermittent.

You've been very helpful, especially with the whole LABEL thing, and i shall definitely give that a go & see what occurs. As for the Intermittent USB problem, the very fact that it doesn't always happen leads me to suspect that it could be a USB power related issue, as it does seem to happen more when i have both USB hard drives plugged in (Both taking their power needs via USB) and THEN plug in for example an 8gb USB key..... and bam, Nautilus goes down. Possibly just too much power drain.

Thanks once again..... you have given me good advice & much to think about & try. Fingers crossed.

Cheers........

[viking777]

You don't have to use a live CD, but you can't change or add a label to a mounted partition (at least not from gparted, it may be possible from the command line with 'e2label', I can't quite remember) and a live CD is the only way to ensure that all partitions are unmounted which is why I suggested it.

[ZenDJiNN]

You don't have to use a live CD, but you can't change or add a label to a mounted partition (at least not from gparted, it may be possible from the command line with 'e2label', I can't quite remember) and a live CD is the only way to ensure that all partitions are unmounted which is why I suggested it.

LOL..... you are correct of course, and after i'd written the reply & posted it, i suddenly realised what i'd asked? Duh!

As an update, because the Helena Mint install was an "Update/Upgrade" (of sorts, clean install but re-using /home with all settings in there etc from v7?) i decided to do a fresh install of Helena (after saving my /home partition elsewhere of course) and then re-introduce the stuff that i need back in, one folder at a time. Then i can hopefully see what's going on. I've finished the install, replaced both Tomboy & Firefox data and i'm now just setting it up how i like it.

Early days but hopefully it may go some way towards a cleaner, more stable system? Only time will tell i guess.

I did also take the opportunity of putting Labels onto everything during the install, and once it's all up & running as i'd like (which should only take a while) i shall go into fstab & change the relevant data in there also, and start using Labels instead of UUID.

If i hit any more snags etc, or the same/similar probs come up again, then at least i'll know it's not my half-baked sudo-legacy install that's causing it. My money's still on the whole USB power thing.

Thanks once again for your help.

Jin

[ZenDJiNN]

Hey, viking777...... a quick update for you.

Since re-installing Mint x64, and then copying over whatever stuff i need from my old /home (as described above) i've only had 1 Nautilus crash, and that was when every USB port in the machine had something plugged in, and i'd also been doing a TON of file copying (Sorting out partitions & files.... HD "Spring Clean" as it were) so it looks like it could have been some legacy setting from v7 that was causing it? I still think the power to the USB's could be suspect, but so far it's been almost 100% regardless of what i've been throwing at it!

Thanks again for all the help.

Cheers......

Jin