# USB "keychain/thumb" drives?

## pjp

Has anyone used the USB drives that come in the size of a keychain?  I've been intersted 

in getting one to try them out, but don't really want to spend the $ if they don't work well.  

I don't really have a use for it yet, but I could probably come up with one  :Very Happy: 

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## fifolifo

I use the 64MB Sony Micro Vault and haven't run into a major problem yet.  The only minor problem I have is when I transfer files from my gentoo machine to the Sony.  I get an error message that says that it wasn't able to change the file permissions.  The files themselves transfer fine other than that.  I use it mostly to carry files back and forth from my work mach.(win2k) and my home pc.

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## pjp

 *fifolifo wrote:*   

> I get an error message that says that it wasn't able to change the file permissions.  The files themselves transfer fine other than that.

 

Interesting.  I figure most will work.  I'm curious if the error you receive 

is related to USB support, or a configuration issue.

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## delta407

It's probably silliness going on inside the USB Mass Storage driver, but I'm not certain. IMO, the keychain USB things are more expensive than they're worth, seeing as I can get an 8cm CD-R for $0.69.

Your mileage may vary, as always.  :Wink: 

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## pjp

 *delta407 wrote:*   

> It's probably silliness going on inside the USB Mass Storage driver, but I'm not certain. IMO, the keychain USB things are more expensive than they're worth, seeing as I can get an 8cm CD-R for $0.69.
> 
> Your mileage may vary, as always. 

 I personally try to avoid CD-R's now.  I've been going with RW's, cause CD-R's are yet another thing 

that ends up in the trash.  It is quite amazing how much computer stuff ends up not recycled.  Yes, the 

USB drives are quite expensive.  I'm holding out for the price to drop and the capacity to increase.

Personally, I find CDs a nuissance for anything but long-term storage.  Even the fastest write/rewrite 

speeds are far too slow for my liking.

Not to mention, I've never seen a blank 8cm CD  :Very Happy: 

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## delta407

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> Even the fastest write/rewrite speeds are far too slow for my liking.

 

I cooked the 130 MB ISO in 30 seconds yesterday; is that too slow? (That's not even my fastest burner.  :Wink: ) BTW, the USB drives aren't exactly the quickest things, either.

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> Not to mention, I've never seen a blank 8cm CD 

 

Really? My Sony Mavica uses them (which is an excellent digital camera), and I've not had a problem finding them at a variety of stores both at home and abroad. The local computer stores (Best Buy, CompUSA, MicroCenter) all seem to carry them.

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## pjp

*crawls out of a cave*

 *delta407 wrote:*   

>  *kanuslupus wrote:*   Even the fastest write/rewrite speeds are far too slow for my liking. 
> 
> I cooked the 130 MB ISO in 30 seconds yesterday; is that too slow? (That's not even my fastest burner. ) BTW, the USB drives aren't exactly the quickest things, either.

 WOW! First, would the same data burn as quickly on a 12cm disc?  I make my CDs with the option that lets any 

computer read them. What were that stats for the drive that did this?  And what is your fastest (and is there a 

noticeable difference)?  I'm using an HP 9100 series (not even the fastest when I purchased it). I've never been 

a big fan of USB stuff myself... I'd be perfectly happy if it died a horrible death and FireWire replaced it (Yes I know 

FW is more costly w/more overhead).

 *delta407 wrote:*   

>  *kanuslupus wrote:*   Not to mention, I've never seen a blank 8cm CD  
> 
> Really? My Sony Mavica uses them (which is an excellent digital camera), and I've not had a problem finding them at a variety of stores both at home and abroad. The local computer stores (Best Buy, CompUSA, MicroCenter) all seem to carry them.

 No, but I haven't looked for them either.  They've just never jumped out at me among the many stacks of 12cm discs.  

Looks like they make 8cm discs RW too?  WIll have to check this out.  (Side note: I still haven't configured CD writing 

under Gentoo)

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## delta407

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> *crawls out of a cave*

 

That would be your first problem.  :Wink: 

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> WOW! First, would the same data burn as quickly on a 12cm disc?

 

Yep. The 48x cook data at 7.2 MB/s, so 130 MB = 19 seconds. (Of course, there's spin-up time and such, but it's still really freakin' fast.)

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> What were that stats for the drive that did this?  And what is your fastest (and is there a noticeable difference)?

 

Try this guy on for size. I still prefer my TDK, though...  :Very Happy: 

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> Looks like they make 8cm discs RW too?  WIll have to check this out.  (Side note: I still haven't configured CD writing 
> 
> under Gentoo)

 

Go for it.

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## fifolifo

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Interesting.  I figure most will work.  I'm curious if the error you receive 
> 
> is related to USB support, or a configuration issue.

 

I think it's a conf. issue with the fstab setting I'm using for the device.  I was pretty generous with my kernel build when it came to support for USB device support.  The device itself was recognized immeadiately and without any problems at all.  It was just a matter of mounting it with whatever options you wanted.  I haven't really looked into adjusting the fstab options too much.  Since, it works well enough for what I need to do. 

In case you're interested, I've used these two links for info. when setting it up. 

http://home.netvigator.com/~ljkroker/dok/dok.html

http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/x498.html

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## taskara

wondering if you can give me a hand to get my keychain to work.

it is detected by the kernel, but the thing I am missing is the usb-storage.o module.

/lib/modules/2.4.19-gentoo-r7/kernel/drivers/ has no "usb" subdir.

how can I get the module ?

dmsg reveals:

     Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

     usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage

     USB Mass Storage support registered.

     hub.c: USB new device connect on bus2/1, assigned device number 2

     scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

     WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured

     USB Mass Storage device found at 2

cat /proc/bus/usb/devices shows it was detected:

T:  Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=12  MxCh= 0

D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=16 #Cfgs=  1

P:  Vendor=0aec ProdID=5010 Rev= 1.00

S:  Manufacturer=        

S:  Product=       USB Storage Device

S:  SerialNumber=0AEC301000001A00

C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=100mA

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage

E:  Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms

E:  Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms

But I think I need to load the usb-storage module so that I can mount it to a dir.

anyhelp appreciated  :Smile: 

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## rac

It looks like usb_storage is compiled into your kernel, so don't worry about loading it as a module.

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## taskara

you are right, I do  :Smile: 

however, how can I go about mounting my keychain ?

cat /proc/scsi/scsi revelas only my cd-rw, not my usb device  :Sad: 

so I think something must be going wrong somewhere.

usually on bootup it will assign a scsi device, ie:

...

Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage

scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

  Vendor: M-Sys     Model: DiskOnKey         Rev: 2.01

  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02

Attached scsi removable disk sdb at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

SCSI device sdb: 63648 512-byte hdwr sectors (33 MB)

sdb: Write Protect is on

 sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb4

...

then you can mount /dev/sdb

but I don't get that on boot, as you can see from my post above.

any thoughts ??

thanks for your help  :Smile: 

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## fifolifo

 *taskara wrote:*   

> 
> 
> cat /proc/scsi/scsi revelas only my cd-rw, not my usb device 
> 
> 

 

I've never booted my gentoo box with the Sony connected to the USB.  It's not that I don't want to.  I just forget and really, I don't need it most of the time.  But when I do plug it into the USB.  It gets detected right away.  My cat /proc/scsi/scsi displays this:

 Attached devices:

Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00

  Vendor: PLEXTOR  Model: CD-R   PX-W1210A Rev: 1.08

  Type:   CD-ROM                           ANSI SCSI revision: 02

Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00

  Vendor: Sony     Model: DiskOnKey        Rev: 2.51

  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02

As for cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

I don't have a "usb" sub-directory in /proc/bus

I run a gentoo box with a Redhat kernel, cause I run Win4Lin and I can get the necessary kernel patch for it.  I can't use the Vanilla source, cause it corrupts one of my hard drives.  So, maybe that's why I don't have the "usb" sub-directory in /proc/bus

If you want, I can e-mail you the .config file with the kernel setting that I used when I compiled.  It's way too big to post here.  Sorry, I don't have a better answer for you.

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## taskara

that's ok, thanks for your help anyway.

I think the problem is with loading the scsi component of the usb device.

so I'll have a fiddle and see what I can do.

hopefully I can get it working, I'll post if I do.

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## taskara

hey fifolifo, can you post your dmesg list ? (after booting WITH the keychain connected)

I wanna check out when it loads it as a scsi device.. that's my problem.

My burner get a scsi id (/dev/sr0) but it doesn't assign one for the usb drive.

ta heaps  :Smile: 

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