# Problem mounting USB Stick (FAT formatted)



## MauroEldritch (Sep 28, 2013)

I'm trying to mount a generic USB stick, without success. Here's (somewhat) useful output:


```
(...)
da4: < USB DISK 2.0 PMAP> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device 
da4: 40.000MB/s transfers
da4: 1961MB (4016128 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 249C)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4 (disconnected)
umass1: at uhub4, port 7, addr 3 (disconnected)
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): lost device - 0 outstanding, 1 refs
(pass6:umass-sim1:1:0:0): passdevgonecb: devfs entry is gone
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): removing device entry
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4
umass1: <vendor 0x13fe USB DISK 2.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.10, addr 3> on usbus4
umass1:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x4100
umass1:5:1:-1: Attached to scbus5
da4 at umass-sim1 bus 1 scbus5 target 0 lun 0
da4: < USB DISK 2.0 PMAP> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device 
da4: 40.000MB/s transfers
da4: 1961MB (4016128 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 249C)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4 (disconnected)
umass1: at uhub4, port 7, addr 3 (disconnected)
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): lost device - 0 outstanding, 1 refs
(pass6:umass-sim1:1:0:0): passdevgonecb: devfs entry is gone
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): removing device entry
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4
umass1: <vendor 0x13fe USB DISK 2.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.10, addr 3> on usbus4
umass1:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x4100
umass1:5:1:-1: Attached to scbus5
da4 at umass-sim1 bus 1 scbus5 target 0 lun 0
da4: < USB DISK 2.0 PMAP> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device 
da4: 40.000MB/s transfers
da4: 1961MB (4016128 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 249C)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4 (disconnected)
umass1: at uhub4, port 2, addr 3 (disconnected)
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): lost device - 0 outstanding, 1 refs
(pass6:umass-sim1:1:0:0): passdevgonecb: devfs entry is gone
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): removing device entry
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4
umass1: <vendor 0x13fe USB DISK 2.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.10, addr 3> on usbus4
umass1:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x4100
umass1:5:1:-1: Attached to scbus5
da4 at umass-sim1 bus 1 scbus5 target 0 lun 0
da4: < USB DISK 2.0 PMAP> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device 
da4: 40.000MB/s transfers
da4: 1961MB (4016128 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 249C)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4 (disconnected)
umass1: at uhub4, port 2, addr 3 (disconnected)
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): lost device - 0 outstanding, 1 refs
(pass6:umass-sim1:1:0:0): passdevgonecb: devfs entry is gone
(da4:umass-sim1:1:0:0): removing device entry
ugen4.3: <vendor 0x13fe> at usbus4
umass1: <vendor 0x13fe USB DISK 2.0, class 0/0, rev 2.00/1.10, addr 3> on usbus4
umass1:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x4100
umass1:5:1:-1: Attached to scbus5
da4 at umass-sim1 bus 1 scbus5 target 0 lun 0
da4: < USB DISK 2.0 PMAP> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device 
da4: 40.000MB/s transfers
da4: 1961MB (4016128 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 249C)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
GEOM_PART: integrity check failed (da4, MBR)
```

From this point, I knew my stick was da4 (correct me if I'm wrong)

Then I did `# mount /dev/da4 /mnt/usb`

```
mount: /dev/da4: Invalid argument
```

My fault. Then I tried:

`# mount -t msdosfs /dev/da4 /mnt/usb`

```
mount_msdosfs: /dev/da4: Invalid argument
```

Also, tried with `mount_msdosfs` with no positive results.

Using GNOME Desktop, when browsing to "Computer" I can see the stick connected. And obviously, if disconnected, I can see it vanishing, but, whenever I try to double-click it nothing prompts out, and nothing happens. Device properties are all empty.

It's a generic stick formatted on FAT. Works on my old PPC Mac, and on another Windows machine.


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## wblock@ (Sep 28, 2013)

Almost all USB memory sticks will have an MBR with one partition containing the filesystem.  (`gpart show da4` will show the structure... except it may not on that one, due to those GEOM_PART errors.)

To mount a normal memory stick, mount the first MBR partition (slice) on it:
`# mount -t msdosfs /dev/da4s1 /mnt`


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## MauroEldritch (Sep 28, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Almost all USB memory sticks will have an MBR with one partition containing the filesystem.  (`gpart show da4` will show the structure... except it may not on that one, due to those GEOM_PART errors.)
> 
> To mount a normal memory stick, mount the first MBR partition (slice) on it:
> `# mount -t msdosfs /dev/da4s1 /mnt`



`# mount -t msdosfs /dev/da4s1 /mnt`

```
mount_msdosfs: /dev/da4s1: No such file or directory
```
Not working. Would you main explaining me how to get rid of the GEOM_PART errors listed?


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## wblock@ (Sep 28, 2013)

The error probably indicates a partition table that has partitions larger than the disk, or overlapping.  Hard to tell without the `gpart show` output.

Make a backup of the contents, then reformat it: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2013-September/253244.html.


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## jb_fvwm2 (Sep 28, 2013)

The most recent 'invalid argument' suggests that maybe /mnt does not exist yet? FWIW not three hours ago I converted a 16G from msdos to mbr...

```
/bin/rm -v R*.exe 
/bin/rm -rf S*
umount /mnt
gpart destroy -F da0
gpart create -s gpt da0
gpart add -t freebsd-boot -s 512k da0
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 da0
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -b 1M -s 14G da0   # 16G thumbdrive
gpart add -t freebsd-swap da0
```
Instructions almost verbatim from the freebsd-questions list of July 2012. [I've not tested it is bootable yet... it is empty for the time being. ]


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## MauroEldritch (Sep 28, 2013)

It's solved now. While your solution didn't work exactly as it is (the first step didn't want to take da4 as an argument), the rest made the whole trick. On my first try Windows took the pen drive as full (completely), but on a second try it worked.

Is there a way to automount USB drives? Or I should get to modify fstab for that?

As always, thank you!

Edit 1: Sorry, didn't mean to be rude with you jb, just haven't seen your message. It's pretty like what I did! Everything's working now. Thanks to you too for your help and time.


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## srobert (Sep 29, 2013)

MauroEldritch said:
			
		

> Is there a way to automount USB drives? Or I should get to modify fstab for that?


When I plug in an msdosfs USB flash drive, it appears in Thunar under DEVICES (Thunar is the file manager commonly used in the xfce4 desktop.) When I click on that (as a normal user) it automatically mounts under /media/_some-directory_. I think it requires the gvfs option with Thunar (but I'm not certain about that). This should work similarly with GNOME's file manager. I don't think changes are required to /etc/fstab for this, but if they are the required changes will likely be documented in the pkg-message of the necessary packages.


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