[Wylug-help] usb pendrives

[Roger Greenwood]

On Saturday 22 January 2005 07:48, mikeb at gbdirect.co.uk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 22, 2005 at 07:14:13AM +0000, Roger Greenwood wrote:
> > Hi Lee,
> >
> > I am trying to use the built in systems but am finding myself delving
> > deeper and deeper. I have already tried changing /etc/fstab but I will
> > now have another go - many thanks for your help.
> >
> > The drive is recognised as a scsi disc at /dev/sda or /sda1 or /sdc1 or
> > /sdc2 etc depending which way the wind is blowing (I don't yet fully
> > understand why it differs).

Update - if I don't properly unmount a drive (due to it being "busy") then the
next time I plug the pendrive in, it gets given the next device
number. /dev/sda1 is now stuck and I can't unmount it at all. A reboot seems
very drastic but may be the only way - USB help is very hard to find.
>
> This is part of the (mis-)design of the usb & scsi subsystems -
> unfortunately usb mass storage devices are given device numbers (and hence
> names) starting with /dev/sda1 from when they are recognised. This means
> that if you have two or three of these things and then plug them in in
> different orders they get given different names depending on the order you
> do it.

A brief look at man udev appears to be a solution by allowing you to create
your own device names (unless I'm reading it wrong!)
>
> > The frustrating thing is that I am pushing the wonders of Linux to my
> > kids, but when they go to school it just works (on windows) and therefore
> > dad is thick and linux sucks  (if you are 14).
>
> I'm afraid that in my opinion this IS one place where linux sucks somewhat.
> The handling of removable media in windows has always been so much easier
> for the end user than in Unix-like systems.
>
> If Microsoft wanted to make users unsettled about Linux, here's a good
> area.
>
> The solution is non-obvious to me. I'd love to know if there is an easy
> way to make it work. Automounters may have cracked it by now and I shall
> watch with interest to see if a good end-user solution exists.
>
>
> Mike
>
>
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