unable to mount external usb

[matteo]

HI all,
after updating my debian testing machine I got some trouble with external usb devices.
The system is able to see them but it doesn't want to mount them.

This is the error I receive:

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Error mounting filesystem
Not authorized to perform operation (udisks-error-quark, 4)

Someone has an idea on what is going on?

Thanks!

[mardybear]

You'll probably need to be more specific to get specific help. Do you want it mounted into fstab? What are the outputs of blkid, cat fstab, mount, etc? How are you trying to mount? Did you plug in the device and try dmesg | tail ?

Edit:

Not authorized to perform operation

Have you tried mounting as root?

[matteo]

Hi,
I'm not a debian expert at all, so sorry if my question has been quite simple.
I just plug an external usb device and I tried to mount it via GUI (with the disk menu) and also with a terminal using mount (also root).
Nothing happens.

Output of

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dmesg | tail

is:

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ma7730@debian:~$ dmesg | tail
[ 1075.407545] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 1075.407813] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1075.407819] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1075.411637] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1075.411644] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1075.446913]  sdb: sdb1
[ 1077.515155] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 1077.515172] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1077.515176] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 1077.877033] systemd-hostnamed[8573]: Warning: nss-myhostname is not installed. Changing the local hostname might make it unresolveable. Please install nss-myhostname!

thanks in advance!

[matteo]

FYI, I'm able to mount it as root..

No idea if this information could be useful..

[mardybear]

Yes very helpful to know you can mount as root. The dmesg error message is, therefore, likely a red herring:

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[ 1077.877033] systemd-hostnamed[8573]: Warning: nss-myhostname is not installed. Changing the local hostname might make it unresolveable. Please install nss-myhostname!

...and it rules out a hardware issue.

If you can mount as root then you're making good progress. Unmount using the umount command before attempting to mount as a regular user, as i believe root will otherwise lock out the device. Use the mount command to confirm whether the device is mounted/unmounted.

Me would have thought your desktop environment would automagically mount it, though. This isn't possible through your file manager? Which DE and file manager are you using? What type of device are you trying to mount? If needed, you can always create an /etc/fstab entry for your USB device and reboot. If configured correctly it should let you mount the USB device as a regular user. Read up on fstab as there are lots of options, depending on exactly what you want (eg auto vs noauto, specific users only, default, etc). If you frequently swap USB devices then you can also specify USB0, for example, rather than a device-specific UUID.

This doesn't seem to be the most comprehensive, just a starting point:
https://wiki.debian.org/fstab

Post back if still having problems.

[matteo]

Hey..

I'm using gnome as DE, so Nautilus as file manager.
I think that all the problems are related with the updates I made on Saturday (update & upgrade). After that I'm not able to login "normally" into Debian: the autologin has been switched off and I cannot see a drop-down menu with my name (I'm the only user and the admin of the computer.

So to log in, I have to open an emergency console (control + alt + f1), login and type STARTX. Then I can use Debian as usual. Maybe this kind of login causes some problem? I don't know, maybe there are 2 different sessions and with the second I don't have all the permissions?

FYI: I'm not able to unlock the users options in Settings -> Users (they are all grey).

Maybe this can help to understand what the hell is going on.....

thanks

[mardybear]

Maybe this can help to understand what the hell is going on.....

Thanks for the backstory. You have a lot more computer issues than just mounting a USB device. Since you are admittedly a newbie you should have probably installed Wheezy rather than Jessie. Jessie is prone to breakage after upgrades and it's primary purpose is for 'testing' so experienced users can identify and report bugs. Why use Jessie when Wheezy is very stable ? ...don't say to play steam games You might simply be over your head for your current knowledge/experience.

Nautilus should be quite good at automounting. Were you able to mount a device as a regular user before these last updates?

As before, what type of device are you trying to mount?

Provide detailed information regarding the command you are using for mount and the exact error message received. If the USB device is seen by the system then simply using mount -a should work. If not post the error message.