I am using Debian. I cannot mount Western Digital My Passport Ultra on my system. I have tried sudo mount /dev/sdbx /media/hdd. It worked fine for me. But the problem is that I have to repeat this process every time I restart my system. And it is hard for my friends to mount it on their Linux machine as well. (works fine on Windows!)
Why is it not mounting automatically even after reformatting the drive to NTFS from Linux? What is the permanent solution?
The package usbmount, which I already had installed, works for me. This calls udev to mount and unmount drives.
It was not working for my external hard drive. I checked why, and it turns out it only mount and unmount filesystems that are listed in the variable FILESYSTEMS, which is defined in /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf. However, my drive uses the NTFS filesystem, but ntfs was not in that list. Once I added it, the drive worked.
Another package that looks promising is udevil. I haven't got this working yet. If I do, I'll add information about it here.
NOTES:
Set VERBOSE=yes in /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf for more information.
# If set to "yes", more information will be logged via the syslog # facility. VERBOSE=yes udev is quite chatty. This is what is written to /var/log/syslog when the drive is plugged in.
Sep 14 01:26:16 orwell kernel: [733993.628022] usb 4-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci_hcd Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell kernel: [733993.813808] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=0820 Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell kernel: [733993.813811] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell kernel: [733993.813813] usb 4-1: Product: My Passport 0820 Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell kernel: [733993.813814] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: Western Digital Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell kernel: [733993.813815] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 575835314143335739373437 Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell kernel: [733993.814396] scsi14 : usb-storage 4-1:1.0 Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell mtp-probe: checking bus 4, device 7: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:16.2/usb4/4-1" Sep 14 01:26:17 orwell mtp-probe: bus: 4, device: 7 was not an MTP device Sep 14 01:26:18 orwell kernel: [733994.812729] scsi 14:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Passport 0820 1007 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 Sep 14 01:26:18 orwell kernel: [733994.813084] scsi 14:0:0:1: Enclosure WD SES Device 1007 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 Sep 14 01:26:18 orwell kernel: [733994.813595] sd 14:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0 Sep 14 01:26:18 orwell kernel: [733994.813681] ses 14:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device Sep 14 01:26:18 orwell kernel: [733994.813753] ses 14:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 13 Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.846168] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] 1953458176 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB) Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.847672] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.847675] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08 Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.848793] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] No Caching mode page found Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.848795] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.853234] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] No Caching mode page found Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.853236] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.868615] sdf: sdf1 Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.873548] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] No Caching mode page found Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.873552] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell kernel: [733999.873554] sd 14:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI disk Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18897]: loaded usbmount configurations Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18897]: trying to acquire lock /var/run/usbmount/.mount.lock Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18897]: acquired lock /var/run/usbmount/.mount.lock Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18897]: /dev/sdf does not contain a filesystem or disklabel Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18921]: loaded usbmount configurations Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18921]: trying to acquire lock /var/run/usbmount/.mount.lock Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18921]: acquired lock /var/run/usbmount/.mount.lock Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18921]: /dev/sdf1 contains filesystem type ntfs Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18921]: mountpoint /media/usb1 is available for /dev/sdf1 Sep 14 01:26:23 orwell usbmount[18921]: executing command: mount -tntfs -osync,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime /dev/sdf1 /media/usb1 Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell ntfs-3g[18952]: Version 2012.1.15AR.5 external FUSE 29 Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell ntfs-3g[18952]: Mounted /dev/sdf1 (Read-Write, label "My Passport", NTFS 3.1) Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell ntfs-3g[18952]: Cmdline options: rw,noexec,nodev,sync,noatime,nodiratime Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell ntfs-3g[18952]: Mount options: rw,noexec,nodev,sync,nodiratime,allow_other,nonempty,noatime,fsname=/dev/sdf1,blkdev,blksie=4096 Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell ntfs-3g[18952]: Ownership and permissions disabled, configuration type 7 Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell usbmount[18921]: executing command: run-parts /etc/usbmount/mount.d Sep 14 01:26:24 orwell usbmount[18921]: usbmount execution finished Many searches and attempts with lots of different software .. in the end I have found that in this case..
lsusb or sudo fdisk -l,this seems like i haven't tried everything and i was "lucky" as i agree this is a super non-tech way.. but i have found it to be the most consistent out of all other google-search/stack-searched etc.. techniques, PLUS for whatever reason i do not need to sudo mount in the terminal..?!?
anyway, some good options here if this does not work in your situation
running dmesg in the terminal with each new port connection also ID'd consistent failure prior to the return to the original usb-port attempt
[12077.405153] usb 1-1-port4: attempt power cycle [12078.013009] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 12 using ehci-pci [12078.428897] usb 1-1.4: device not accepting address 12, error -32 [12078.508929] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci [12078.928992] usb 1-1.4: device not accepting address 13, error -32 [12078.929228] usb 1-1-port4: unable to enumerate USB device re-connect to original port
[12401.860608] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd [12401.884232] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=10b8, bcdDevice=10.12 [12401.884284] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=5 [12401.884289] usb 4-1: Product: Elements 10B8 [12401.884292] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: Western Digital [12401.884296] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: 575834314142345232535935 [12401.886519] usb-storage 4-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected [12401.886828] scsi host2: usb-storage 4-1:1.0 [12402.905140] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD Elements 10B8 1012 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6 [12402.905620] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0 [12402.907088] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk... [12403.928367] .....ready [12408.025013] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953458176 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB) [12408.025568] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off [12408.025574] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08 [12408.026065] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found [12408.026076] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [12408.157584] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk [12408.575173] EXT4-fs (sdb): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
udevrule./etc/fstab, using the drive's UUID. This is easy to set up. As @HalosGhost says, there are other better ways to do this, but this is what I have been using.