USB stick question... I've read loads of other threads

mobymac

I promise I've been looking in lots of other places and just can't seem to find the answer...

I can't for the life of me make my usb stick work. I've been working hard for the last two days trying to teach myself how to do this, but I'm against a wall. I'm pretty sure I've got udev set up correctly, I've compiled the kernel according to several of the tutorials listed here and elsewhere (gentoo wiki howto USB mass storage, UDEV primer, etc) but still can't get the device to accept an address (I think udev is assigning it now?). Here is dmesg from when I plug it in:

nbensa · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 12:48 am Post subject:

I was having problems with udev-068 and a USB pen-drive. A downgrade to 058 fixed my problem. Perhaps you'd like to check your udev version.

mobymac · Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:01 pm Post subject:

I'm still having the same problems, and it's not my udev version. I'm at my wit's end... please help?

optiactive · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 May 2004 Posts: 92

http://www.linux-usb.org/

Check the FAQ section of this site. Your issue is addressed in one of the questions. Just search the page for

mobymac · Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:34 pm Post subject:

it did, thank you. I'm closer. Now I'm getting this output in dmesg:

Naib · Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:49 pm Post subject:

and do you have those NLS charset compiled in or loaded if modules? you need to enable them in the config
_________________
#define HelloWorld int
#define Int main()
#define Return printf
#define Print return
#include <stdio>
HelloWorld Int {
Return("Hello, world!\n");
Print 0;

optiactive · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 May 2004 Posts: 92

I don't have any experience with the msdos fs. I've always used the vfat fs to mount my USB disk. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to compile the vfat fs into the kernel. I'm pretty sure that's how my kernel is configured because I never have to manually load the vfat module.

By the way, is the dmesg output a result of booting up, or are you running a command (such as "mount -t vfat...") after booting?

mobymac · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:24 am Post subject:

this is weird. I run "make menuconfig" in the correct directory (ie my current kernel directory, I've made that mistake before) and set vfat as compiled into the kernel. I make sure the correct charset and codepage are selected (you can't select them for module or not) and recompile by running "make," then "make modules_install" (though that shouldn't affect this at all anyway), then "cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage-2.6". I try doing that with the msdos option above the vfat one selected or not, nothing changes-- when I boot it says "Failed to load the vfat module." I'm losing my mind. Please help me find where I've gone wrong? This has to be user error.

also, dmesg is just from plugging in the device. I'm running udev and hotplug (I think) and it always at least recognizes that I put something in it, just doesn't correctly recognize what it is...

perkins · n00b Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 13

When you say you "make sure correct charset and codepage are selected": if you're refering to the settings in menuconfig's File Systems -> DOS, FAT, NTFS File Systems, then make sure you also have iso8859-1 enabled inside File Systems -> Native Language Support.

perkins · n00b Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 13

Oh, one other thing: from what you write, you're copying your new kernel over the old one - I take it you are also re-running your boot manager? (eg. in lilo, you would just run "lilo" - for grub, I don't know - never used it ;-)

AFAIK, at boot-time, the boot manager loads the kernel from a specific physical address on the hd, not a place in the filesystem, so just writing over your kernel image is probably not enough to get the new one loaded at boot - the boot manager needs to process the new kernel, which will have a different physical location on the disk..

dsd · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:46 am Post subject:

if you build vfat into the kernel you cant then try and load it as a module - so ignore the error and remove it from modules.autoload.d

you dont need to do anything to update grub other than change the config file

once you have changed your kernel config, recompiled, and rebooted, run "uname -v" - this gives you the date and time that the running kernel was compiled. mentally check it matches the date/time that you made these changes (i.e. should be just a few minutes before the current time)
_________________
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd

optiactive · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 08 May 2004 Posts: 92

I think the setting perkins referred to earlier is:

CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_1=y

Be sure this is set in your kernel.