[solved] using a usb harddrive kit

[zohair]

I recently bought a usb kit for hooking up my old laptop harddrive to a usb port. Makes for huge portable storage.
It works fine with Windows XP and there is actually no need to install drivers or anything. But it doesnt work with Linux. There is a CD that includes some windows 98 and Mac drivers. I was wondering if I could use ndiswrapper to make this drive work.

Actually the disk is detected. There is a /dev/sdb entry but linux cant detect the actual partitions. I think its trying to but needs the correct drivers.

Here's some output from dmesg

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usb 5-7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7
usb 5-7: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi5 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 7
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
sd 5:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1
sd 5:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
sd 5:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1
sd 5:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
sd 5:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x10070000
end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 1


I think this shows that linux has actually detected the harddrive, but cant get it to work.
And thats how it goes on forever.

Any ideas please?? If anyone can help me get this working with ndiswrapper or anything else please help.

[e1even1]

looks like a bug. first thing i'd do is boot up without it and then stop hald and plug in the drive and see if you can mount it manually. if that helps get a newer hal. if not, then newer kernel.

you dont say which distro/version/kernel. try a version upgrade from say stable to testing (for example) and see if it helps.

EDIT: ndiswrapper is only for wifi drivers

[plugwash]

have you tried it with both windows and linux on the same machine to eliminate the possibility of hardware incompatibilities (yes USB is supposed to be a standard but that doesn't mean everyone follows it)?

[zohair]

looks like a bug. first thing i'd do is boot up without it and then stop hald and plug in the drive and see if you can mount it manually. if that helps get a newer hal. if not, then newer kernel.

you dont say which distro/version/kernel. try a version upgrade from say stable to testing (for example) and see if it helps.

EDIT: ndiswrapper is only for wifi drivers

Ok, I killed hald then plugged in the usb. Same messages as before.

Here's my kernel info

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Linux 2.6.18-4-686 #1 SMP Mon Mar 26 17:17:36 UTC 2007 GNU/Linux

The USB works on windows ok, and on the same hardware.
I'm using Debian Etch 4.0 stable

[e1even1]

ok, if you're sure, like plugwash said, that that kit works on that machine, then i would next get a new kernel from backports.

the idea there being that you put one of their repos or mirrors in your sources.lst and get a later kernel unless you would prefer to go to kernels.org and compile your own.

i'm actually quite surprised etch cant use an external drive. what kind of kit is it?

EDIT: of course, after you install a new kernel you'll need to reinstall your proprietary graphics driver and any other extra kernel modules you've added.

[llivv]

are you using KDE or Gnome?
and
Do you have pmount installed?

[zohair]

@eleven1
Its a cheap usb kit. They get imported from china in my country with minimal or no documentation. As I said before it has a driver kit for older Windows and Mac. But since it works without a driver on Windows, I thought that maybe it would work on Linux too.
New kernel doesnt sound like a bad idea. I'll work on that. No proprietary drivers yet on this system.

@livv
KDE and pmount is installed

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which pmount
/usr/bin/pmount


I also have the Automatix auto-mount script installed.

[e1even1]

@eleven1
Its a cheap usb kit. They get imported from china in my country with minimal or no documentation.

i was just thinking that if it has any markings and/or if you could give us the output of lsusb then we could try to help you find someone on the net who says they have it working with linux.

[zohair]

hey the kernel upgrade worked. Thanks guys. Linux is detecting it, and mounting it smoothly now.

I added the backports repo, then used synaptic to install linux image 2.6.20. Reboot later, and the hard disk works like a charm.

Now i wont have to sell it to some Windows n00b.