Introduction

Help on debugging removable device issues.

Things to try first

Run fsck (dosfsck?) on the disk to make sure it does not have any configuration errors. Sometimes a misconfigured drive will work fine in Windows but not in Linux.

In Hardy or later, remove the "usefree" option with gconf-editor (Applications --> System Tools --> Configuration Editor). This can prevent drives from auto-mounting.https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-mount/+bug/151025 The "usefree" option should be removed from system --> storage --> default_options --> vfat --> mount_options

Some have found that reinstalling hal helps with automount problems.http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=571768

How to report

When reporting a problem with removable devices, such as USB storage devices ("keys", hard drives, card readers, music players, digital cameras, etc.), please do the following steps:

1. disconnect the device

2. stop gvm
   

   • killall gnome-volume-manager

3. start gvm and capture output
   

   • gnome-volume-manager -n 2>&1 | tee gvm.log

4. if that doesn't work, try
   

   • /usr/lib/gnome-volume-manager/gnome-volume-manager -n 2>&1 | tee gvm.log

5. and in another terminal, start udevmonitor and capture output
   

   • sudo udevmonitor -e | tee udev.log

6. connect the device
7. wait a few seconds
8. press Control-C in the first terminal to stop the foreground gnome-volume-manager
9. press Control-C in the second terminal to stop the udevmonitor

10. capture lshal, dmesg and ls the attached volumes
    

    • lshal > lshal.txt
      dmesg > dmesg.txt
      ls -l /dev/sd* > devices.txt

11. attach gvm.log, lshal.txt, devices.txt, dmesg.txt and udev.log (dapper only) to the bug report

12. press Alt-F2 and type gnome-volume-manager to get your background g-v-m back (or just log out and back in again)

13. paste the output of id into the bug report

14. paste the output of id hal into the bug report

15. paste the output of id haldaemon into the bug report

16. paste the output of uname -a into the bug report

In easy cases this is everything that is needed. However, you might be asked for a "hal debug output"; please do the following steps to get it:

1. disconnect the device

2. stop hald
   

   • sudo killall hald

3. start hald while capturing its output
   

   • sudo hald --daemon=no --verbose=yes 2>&1 | tee hal.log

4. wait until the flood of messages settled
5. connect the device
6. wait again until no more messages appear
7. press Control-C to stop the foreground hal

8. restore the background hal:
   

   • sudo /etc/init.d/dbus-1 restart (in Warty and Hoary)
     OR
     sudo /etc/dbus-1/event.d/20hal start (in Breezy, Dapper, Edgy and Feisty)

9. attach hal.log to the bug report
10. restart your desktop session

Debugging procedure

TBD.

Known bugs

Description of known issues, how to recognise them and stock responses/actions.

Open

Closed

Non-bugs

TBD.

CategoryBugSquad CategoryDebugging