13 replies to this topic

[Melchoire]

I just installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my HP mini netbook and I'm trying to transfer songs to it through a usb drive. But when I plug one in it doesn't get detected(at least to my knowledge). I don't get an alert that says something like "media detected" and I'm completely new to linux so I don't know how to find the files from the drive.

However running this command at the terminal:

sudo fdisk -l

outputs:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000be4be

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 19076 153219072 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 19076 19458 3068929 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 19076 19458 3068928 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 8000 MB, 8000110592 bytes
160 heads, 19 sectors/track, 5139 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 3040 * 512 = 1556480 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 5140 7812592 b W95 FAT32

And you can see it's being detected as "/dev/sdb" but what now?

[Warlord.]

You try mounting it?

sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt

[Melchoire]

You try mounting it?

sudo mount /dev/sdb /mnt

"mount: you must specify the filesystem type"

I also tried

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrv

and I get


wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

[Warlord.]

If it's formatted with NFTS, you'd use ntfs-3g in the place of vfat; but I'm not sure.

Here's the Ubuntu help page on it if you haven't seen it yet:

https://help.ubuntu....unity/Mount/USB

Edited by Warlord., 13 October 2010 - 11:18 PM.

[Melchoire]

While we're at it how do you open a file browser like the ones in windows?

[Warlord.]

While we're at it how do you open a file browser like the ones in windows?

Nautilus is Ubuntu's equivalent of Windows Explorer.

Edited by Warlord., 13 October 2010 - 11:33 PM.

[artificial]

USB would need to be formatted differently for Linux and Windows.

If I were you (and if the option is available) I'd just transfer it over a network.

[Melchoire]

USB would need to be formatted differently for Linux and Windows.

If I were you (and if the option is available) I'd just transfer it over a network.

Yeh that's what I figured the problem was and I googled some more and I think this command worked:

"sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb"

then I tried mounting with this command:

"sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrv"

and I didn't get any errors of any sort so I assumed it worked.

But HOW do I open it up and go through the files?

Edit: I got the "File Manager" open finally But when I browse over to /mnt/usbdrv it's just a "lost-and-found" folder nothing else

[Hydrogen]

Mkfs formats the drive. You've lost all data on it. Not really but in all practical purposes, you have.

Go over the network like artificial said. Much easier.

[Melchoire]

Mkfs formats the drive. You've lost all data on it. Not really but in all practical purposes, you have.

Go over the network like artificial said. Much easier.

Lulz, yeh I thought it stood for "make filesystem" so it could change the filesystem type to something else. But I tried the exact same thing with a different USB drive and it worked fine. I didn't even need to format or anything or do anything special

[Pyro699]

"mount: you must specify the filesystem type"

I also tried

sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrv

and I get


wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

bad superblock usually means that there is something wrong with the disk (like you unplugged it while it was writing data, or something like that). I had this problem and had to go into a windows machine, use disk repair, safely eject and then plugged it back in.

My work uses Ubuntu so feel free to ask me any other questions

[Melchoire]

bad superblock usually means that there is something wrong with the disk (like you unplugged it while it was writing data, or something like that). I had this problem and had to go into a windows machine, use disk repair, safely eject and then plugged it back in.

My work uses Ubuntu so feel free to ask me any other questions

I have a huge list of small problems I need sorted but I'll start with a few

1. How do you change the default icons on the side-bar? I'm using 10.10 and this version has a sidebar with apps and such.
2. Is there a short-cut for opening the terminal?
3. How does one install tar..gz or tar.bz2 files?
4. A small portion of the screen gets cut off by my monitor at the bottom. Is there a way I can play around with these settings?

[Pyro699]

I have a huge list of small problems I need sorted but I'll start with a few

1. How do you change the default icons on the side-bar? I'm using 10.10 and this version has a sidebar with apps and such.
2. Is there a short-cut for opening the terminal?
3. How does one install tar..gz or tar.bz2 files?
4. A small portion of the screen gets cut off by my monitor at the bottom. Is there a way I can play around with these settings?

1. I dont have 10.10 installed, so im not too sure... check this out though. Im sure it holds some answers
2. Ctrl+Shift+T, you can change that in System->Preferances->HotKeys (or something like that im on a windows machine atm xD)
3. It depends on what your trying to install... If its themes or styles... you can just open them in the theme manager
4. System->Preferances->Screen Resolution

Those are all just off the top of my head, i just left work xD But that should point you in the right direction

[Melchoire]

1. I dont have 10.10 installed, so im not too sure... check this out though. Im sure it holds some answers
2. Ctrl+Shift+T, you can change that in System->Preferances->HotKeys (or something like that im on a windows machine atm xD)
3. It depends on what your trying to install... If its themes or styles... you can just open them in the theme manager
4. System->Preferances->Screen Resolution

Those are all just off the top of my head, i just left work xD But that should point you in the right direction

CTrl+shift+T doesnt work


It's not the screen resolution thats the problem though. I'm on the highest settings right now, any smaller would make it really inconvenient =P I need the panel that move the picture up and down.