Bytecc disk enclosure will not work [solved]

[banjo]

I just picked up an external disk enclosure to use with an old

Western Digital 40 gig disk that I have lying around. The enclosure

is a Bytecc ME-320. I mounted the disk into the enclosure, plugged

it all in and got...... nothing. The disk spins up and the LED goes

green red green indicating that the IDE has recognized the drive.

But my Linux system does not see it. I am running Mandrake 9.1.

 

I suspect that it is a driver problem. Here is the relevant output

from /var/log/messages:

Jun  8 21:56:15 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.7-5, assigned address 2

Jun  8 21:56:15 localhost kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x402/0x5621) is not claimed by any active driver.

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup usb-storage for USB product 402/5621/103

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost kernel: scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

I am confused by the last three statements, which indicate that

something has happened to set this device up with SCSI emulation

and driver "usb-storage". What am I missing here?

What do these messages really mean? Has a driver really been

assigned to this device and I have done something else wrong?

 

Nothing shows up as /dev/sd<anything> and attempting to mount

devices such as /dev/sda1 etc. results only in messages to the

effect that there is no such device. What is currently on the

disk is an old Mandrake 9.1 system that I do not use any more

(I upgraded to a larger disk a while ago). If I remember properly,

there are three partitions on the disk with ext3 file systems

on two of them. Something should be mountable.

 

BTW, my daughter's Western Digital external drive (FAT 32) works

fine on my system as does her pen drive and my Uno card readers.

So the system can work if I feed it the right equipment.

I believe that usb-storage is the driver that gets assigned

to those devices.

 

So, all you USB experts out there, should I just give up on

this device and give it to my son to use on his XP laptop?

Is there any way to get this recalcitrant USB device

to work on my old system? Hints? Tips? Suggestions?

 

I am running Mandrake 9.1. Would an upgrade of my system to

Mandy 10.<something> solve these issues, or would that be just

another expensive waste of time?

 

Thanks in advance.

Linux rocks.

Banjo

(_)=='=~

[pmpatrick]

It may just be incompatible, especially since other usb mass storage devices seem to work OK. One thing you can try is connecting the drive and turning it on then run as root:

 

# fdisk -l

 

That should list all your hard drive partitions that the system recognizes, whether mounted or not. It will also print out error messages if something is messed up on the usb hard drive partition table.

By the way, all usb storage devices run under scsi emulation in linux so the are designated /dev/sdxx. If you had a mandrake install on the disk which was auto partitioned by the mandrake installer, logical partitions were made so the first partition would be sda5. If the drive is being recognized, fdisk will tell you exactly what the partitions are. From there, you can figure out how to mount them.

[banjo]

pmpatrick,

 

Thanks for the info.

 

The disk is, indeed my old Mandy 9.1 installation. I let the

installer partition that disk so you may be right about the way

the scsi system is designating the partitions. I will check it out.

Maybe I am just looking in the wrong place.

 

My other USB devices are designated /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1 etc.

in the order that they are recognized. So that is where I looked for

this one. I will plug it in again and see if I can find out some more

info. The more I think about it, the more it looks like usb-storage

did recognize it and I just couldn't find it.

 

I will poke around some more and report back what I find.

I am learning a lot about how USB devices work.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

[DragonMage]

Banjo, Mandrake 9.1 is a bit long in the tooth isn't it as far as compatibility is concerned. I will not be surprised if the kernel in 9.1 doesn't support that particular model of USB chipset.

 

Anyway, if I read this link correctly, it seems that this particular casing uses a chipset that is quite problematic in Linux. You may need to upgrade the firmware or something.

 

http://missig.org/julian/blog/2004/06/10/p...irewire-device/

[banjo]

Thanks for that pointer. I had no idea that the enclosure was a problematic one.

I read the reviews at the vendor site and they were mostly positive.

 

I still have some things to try before I give up on it, but I might just have to write

this one off and try again. The problem is how to avoid this in the future. I just

looked again at the "specs" on the vendor web site and there is nothing there

about chipsets etc. Go figure. So, if I buy another one, how do I know?.....

 

As for upgrading my Mandy 9.1, that was going to be my next question for this

board. My problem is that, after two years of outsanding performance, my Linux

system is being used daily (all day!) by four people. Down time is very difficult

to get, and Heaven help me if I try to upgrade and break it.... or lose files.

 

So, my next question was going to be...."How the heck do I upgrade this

thing safely?" I have even pondered doing a virgin installation on a new disk

and then copying /home over to it. Good idea? Bad idea? Crazy idea?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Maybe I will get some fooling-around time with the enclosure this weekend.

I will report back what I find out.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~

 

P.S. My enclosure is striclty USB, not Firewire so the chipset issue may not

be so horrific as was indicated on the blog link.

Edited June 10, 2005 by banjo

[banjo]

Just as an aside, does anybody know how I could find out what chipset my

system is trying to talk to on that device? Is it in /proc somewhere?

 

Thanks again

Banjo

(_)=='=~

[pmpatrick]

Do:

 

$ cat /proc/scsi/scsi

 

that will list everything on the scsi bus. Here's what I get with my maxtor external hard drive:

 

$ cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
 Vendor: ATA      Model: ST3200822AS      Rev: 3.01
 Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi3 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
 Vendor: Maxtor   Model: OneTouch         Rev: 0200
 Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02

 

If it's being picked up there, it's probably being properly detected by your system. No info on the chipset, unfortunately.

 

Re upgrading to LE2005 or mdk 10.1, it's probably a very good idea but I can understand your reluctance if everything is working OK and there are four users. Doing a virgin install on a new disk sounds good but I would copy over your current /home to a separate home partition on the new disk first and direct the installer to use that as /home. Things in /home may be updated during the install so copying after the fact may not accurately simulate what would happen if you tried the same thing on your old disk. You should also be familiar with handling the boot loader and what options to choose,. You don't want to get yourself in a position where you can't boot back to your old mdk9.1 install because the LE2005 installer overwrote your boot loader. You should know how to recover from such an event using a live cd like knoppix.

[banjo]

I AM IN!

 

I have mounted my old disk using the Bytecc enclosure!

 

The problem was that I had the jumpers set on the drive

incorrectly. Inside of the enclosure there is a sticker

that says "You must set the drive to Master or it will

not work."

 

So I downloaded the WD setup documents and set the jumpers

to "Master". I should have read further because there are

two Master jumper settings for the Western Digital drives,

Master with two drives and Master with a single drive.

I had jumpered the drive as Master with two drives.

Evidently that does not work when it is the only drive

on the IDE.

 

After Googling the net for a while I found a reference

to this problem on comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage

from Francis Hartojo:

 

WD drives that I've used have basically 4 settings:  single, master,

slave and cable select.  If it's the only drive on the bus, then

it should be set as a single, usually by not installing any jumpers

on the relevant pins.  Just for giggles, I tried jumpering it as

a master drive and it wasn't recognised by the system.

 

So, the Western Digital jargon for "Master" when it is

the only drive on the IDE controller is "Single".

 

I put it all back together and it worked like a charm.

I was able to mount it and read my old files. Yay.

 

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

 

 

==============================

::: Additional Information :::

==============================

 

In case there are any noobies (like me) out there who are dealing

with USB problems, I thought that I would put some of the information

that I dug out while trouble-shooting this problem

into this topic. This is fairly detailed stuff, so if you already

know it or are not interested, just quit reading now.

 

I plugged in the Bytecc and hooked it to the USB and then turned it on.

 

Then I looked at /var/log/messages to track the registration of

the USB device. Here is what a healthy message log

looks like when the device is recognized properly:

 

Jun  8 21:56:15 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.7-5, assigned address 2

Jun  8 21:56:15 localhost kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x402/0x5621) is not claimed by any active driver.

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup usb-storage for USB product 402/5621/103

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage

Jun  8 21:56:18 localhost kernel: scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

 

 

Then I went to /proc/bus/usb and printed out the devices

file to see what the USB had done for me. That file contains

all of the nitty-gritty kewl information about the hardware

and where it is mounted. In the extensive output below,

my device is described in the section that starts with

 

T:  Bus=04 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=04 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=480 MxCh= 0

 

This tells me that the USB device is assigned to Bus 4

at Level 1 (the computer's internal hub is at level 0)

and Port 4 and device 2. It also tells me that the

speed is set to 480 Mbits, which is USB 2.0 speed.

 

Here is the entire output, which shows all of the USB

devices, including the internal hub...........

(this is not for the faint of heart).

 

[root@localhost mnt]# cd /proc/bus/usb

[root@localhost usb]# ls

001/  002/  003/  004/  devices  drivers

[root@localhost usb]# cat devices

T:  Bus=04 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=480 MxCh= 6

B:  Alloc=  0/800 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0

D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1

P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.04

S:  Manufacturer=Linux 2.4.21-0.13mdk ehci-hcd

S:  Product=Intel Corp. 82801DB USB EHCI Controller

S:  SerialNumber=00:1d.7

C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub

E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  2 Ivl=256ms

T:  Bus=04 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=04 Cnt=01 Dev#=  2 Spd=480 MxCh= 0

D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1

P:  Vendor=0402 ProdID=5621 Rev= 1.03

S:  Product=USB 2.0 Storage Device

S:  SerialNumber=00042222200000249785

C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=  0mA

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage

E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 512 Ivl=0ms

T:  Bus=03 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2

B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0

D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1

P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 0.00

S:  Product=USB UHCI Root Hub

S:  SerialNumber=ec00

C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub

E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  8 Ivl=255ms

T:  Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2

B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0

D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1

P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 0.00

S:  Product=USB UHCI Root Hub

S:  SerialNumber=e880

C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub

E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  8 Ivl=255ms

T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2

B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0

D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1

P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 0.00

S:  Product=USB UHCI Root Hub

S:  SerialNumber=e800

C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA

I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub

E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  8 Ivl=255ms

[root@localhost usb]#

 

The interpretation of all that spaghetti can be found

at http://www.linux-usb.org/ if you are interested.

 

After I saw that the usb-storage driver had been registered

and the device was there I went looking for the drive.

 

[root@localhost brian]# ls /dev | grep sd

ptysd@

sd/

sda@

sda1@

sda2@

sda5@

sda6@

 

Those devices are the normal partitions that should be there

for a disk that has a Linux installation on it. So I attempted

to mount the drive:

 

[root@localhost mnt]# mkdir /mnt/oldhome

[root@localhost mnt]# chmod 777 /mnt/oldhome

[root@localhost mnt]# mount -r /dev/sda6 /mnt/oldhome

 

The -r switch mounts the drive readonly (just to be safe).

 

After that, I could read my old files by "cd /mnt/oldhome/brian"

and there they were.

 

Finally, I unmounted the drive:

 

 

[root@localhost mnt]# umount /mnt/oldhome

 

and turned it off. Success!

 

I hope this information is useful for someone who is

trying to deal with the USB system. It took me a while to

figure out where to look and what to look for.

 

Thanks to all of the great members of this board

for helping me through this.

 

Linux rocks!

Banjo

(_)=='=~

[banjo]

pmpatrick,

 

Thanks for the tips on upgrading.

 

I will look into that in the future. I do have Knoppix and

I have used it on one occasion to save my butt (after I

had changed something that made my system unbootable).

 

Right now, I am thinking about how I want to reformat my

new (old) disk to use as a backup.

 

Banjo

(_)=='=~