USBDisks
USB Disks
SME will automatically mount connected USB disk drives into the /media folder.
Auto-mounting will be performed based on the specific USB port used to connect your drives unless you use another method to specify mount points.
This means that if you insert USB drive 'A', it should auto-mount to /media/usbdisk. If you now dismount this disk and mount drive 'B' in the same USB port, it, too, will auto-mount to /media/usbdisk. Additionally, if you connect drive 'A' to another USB port, it may auto-mount to /media/usbdisk1.
The easiest way to avoid this behavior is to provide a label for each of your USB drives, and specify the desired mount point in /etc/fstab based on the drive label.
ext2/ext3 vs. FAT32/VFAT
- ext2/ext3 works great under Linux
- ext2/ext3 supports hard links, symlinks
- ext2/ext3 can be read under Windows using http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs
- fat32/vfat comes pre-configured on most USB hard drives
- fat32/vfat is suppoted natively by Windows.
Identifying your USB drive
After connecting your USB drive, execute the command
mount
and look for anything mounted in /media/???.
If your drive did not auto-mount, search /var/log/messages for the kernel commands related to your device using:
egrep "(kernel|fstab|scsi).*(usb|USB)" /var/log/messages
You should have a line logged by fstab-sync giving the auto-mount folder created and the device name for your new device that looks like this:
Sep 23 17:11:14 office fstab-sync[32193]: added mount point /media/usbdisk1 for /dev/sdd1
You should now be able to mount your USB drive using the values found in /var/log/messages. In our example, that would mean:
mount /media/usbdisk1
or
mount /dev/sdd1
Formatting your USB drive
ext3
Copied with slight changes from Affa#Alternatively_setup_a_USB_drive
- Connect a USB hard disk to the USB Bus. Now you must determine what device the kernel has assigned to the drive. View the /var/log/message and search for Initializing USB Mass Storage driver. A few lines below you'll find the name of the device. In this example it is sdc. Replace /dev/sdc by your device in following instructions.
- Use the fdisk program to create a linux partition
# fdisk /dev/sdc
You'll most likely find an existing vfat dos partition, which you have to delete first. In the following we assume, that you have created a single partition /dev/sdc1. - Now format the drive with an ext3 filesystem
mkfs.ext3 -L MyLabel /dev/sdc1 - Make the mount point
# mkdir -p /mnt/affadevice - Customize /etc/fstab as shown here: Customizing fstab
- Mount the drive
mount /mnt/affadevice - Crosscheck your work using the df command
# df
vfat
It's probably easier to format your vfat drive on your windows system. You *must* have one, or you wouldn't be using this format...
If that sounds unhelpful, you could try (warning, untested!):
mkfs.vfat -n MyLabel /dev/sdd1
labeling your USB drive
ext3
e2label /dev/sdd1 MyLabel
vfat
Linux uses 'mtools' to manage FAT, FAT32, and VFAT partitions. 'mtools' uses drive letters to access devices. These drive letters must be defined in /etc/mtools.conf before any of the mtools will work. You can create a definition for your USB drive using a command like this one (be sure to replace /dev/sdd1 with the device name identified above for your USB drive!):
echo 'drive e: file="/dev/sdd1"' >> /etc/mtools.conf
Once you have created the drive letter in mtools.conf you can view or edit the disk label using the following commands.
Show the current label:
mlabel -s e:
Clear the volume label:
mlabel -c e:
Assign a new volume label:
mlabel e:MyLabel
Customizing fstab
Add the following line to the /etc/fstabLABEL=MyLabel /mnt/affadevice ext3 defaults
- Replace 'ext3' with 'vfat' if your drive is formatted as vfat.
- Replace /mnt/affadevice with the folder in which you want your USB drive mounted
More Information
- There is a contrib for managing USB disks: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=35466.0