# usb stick doesn't want to be mounted !

## eniac

Hi,

I'm running gentoo on my ibook.

Here's the problem:

```
root@damien 0 jonas$ mount /dev/sda /mnt/floppy/

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda,

       or too many mounted file systems
```

I get the same message when I use the -t vfat or  -t msdos option both are loaded as modules into my kernel...

Here's some extra output :

```
root@damien 0 jonas$ fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 522 MB, 522043904 bytes

17 heads, 59 sectors/track, 1016 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 1003 * 512 = 513536 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/sda1   ?     1864179     2032364    84344761   69  Unknown

Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):

     phys=(68, 13, 10) logical=(1864178, 14, 6)

Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:

     phys=(288, 115, 43) logical=(2032363, 13, 31)

Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.

/dev/sda2   ?     1696431     3560719   934940732+  73  Unknown

Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):

     phys=(371, 114, 37) logical=(1696430, 3, 15)

Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:

     phys=(366, 32, 33) logical=(3560718, 13, 25)

Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.

/dev/sda3   ?           3           3           0   74  Unknown

Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):

     phys=(371, 114, 37) logical=(2, 9, 37)

Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:

     phys=(372, 97, 50) logical=(2, 9, 36)

Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

/dev/sda4               1     3424839  1717556736    0  Empty

Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):

     phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(0, 0, 1)

Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:

     phys=(0, 0, 0) logical=(3424838, 16, 14)

Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Partition table entries are not in disk order

```

and 

```
root@damien 0 jonas$ file -s /dev/sda

/dev/sda: x86 boot sector, code offset 0x3c, OEM-ID "MSDOS5.0", sectors/cluster 16, root entries 512, Media descriptor 0xf8, sectors/FAT 249, heads 255, sectors 1019617 (volumes > 32 MB) , serial number 0xe8f522b9, unlabeled, FAT (16 bit)

```

----------

## MarkG

 *eniac wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> root@damien 0 jonas$ mount /dev/sda /mnt/floppy/
> 
> ...

 

Should that be:

```
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/floppy/
```

I use a different mount point for my usb stick than a floppy drive even if i dont have a floppy on the machine.

MarkG

----------

## wous

I have the same problem. Mounting /dev/sda1 does not help:

```

# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/

mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

```

In fact I think the memory stick does not have any partitions.

The output of dmesg is:

```

usb-storage: device found at 7

usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

  Vendor:           Model: USB 2.0 512MB     Rev: 2.00

  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02

sda: Unit Not Ready, sense:

Current : sense = 70  6

ASC=28 ASCQ= 0

Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x06 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0a 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x28 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00

SCSI device sda: 1024000 512-byte hdwr sectors (524 MB)

sda: assuming Write Enabled

sda: assuming drive cache: write through

SCSI device sda: 1024000 512-byte hdwr sectors (524 MB)

sda: assuming Write Enabled

sda: assuming drive cache: write through

 sda: unknown partition table

Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi5, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

usb-storage: device scan complete

```

Finally, I think vfat is correctly built in the kernel:

```

#

# DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems

#

CONFIG_FAT_FS=m

CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=m

CONFIG_VFAT_FS=m

CONFIG_FAT_DEFAULT_CODEPAGE=437

CONFIG_FAT_DEFAULT_IOCHARSET="iso8859-1"

CONFIG_NTFS_FS=m

# CONFIG_NTFS_DEBUG is not set

# CONFIG_NTFS_RW is not set

```

(kernel linux-2.6.10-gentoo-r6)

Thanks,

Wouter

----------

## Tuxuser

Have you found a solution? I'm suffering from the same problem with Kernel 2.6.11-r7.

Regards

Tuxuser

----------

## mcspiff

```

touch /dev/sda

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstick

```

----------

## icefaerie

```
ls -l /dev/s[dg]*
```

to see where it is.

```
mount /dev/sda1 -t vfat /mnt/usb
```

Well, mine is vfat.  Replace vfat with the appropriate format if it's something else.  Also replace sda1 with the appropriate location.  You can also use the -o uid=user option and replace user with the name of the user you want to be able to access it.  Otherwise only root can.

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## Tuxuser

Found it by myself but without explanation see: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=2420804#2420804

----------

