Flash drive problem

    Hi folks. I've a strange little problem with my datastick, a Kingston
DTIU3/2Gb. When I plug it in at home I have no problems ... I can mount it
and transfer files to and from it. At work, I get an error message:

mount: /dev/sda1 is not a valid block device

Also, if I 'tail -f /var/log/message' when I plug in the datastick there
is a continual procession of messages like this:

Sep 15 10:37:54 chem4823 kernel: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using
uhci_hcd and address 46
Sep 15 10:37:54 chem4823 kernel: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using
uhci_hcd and address 47
Sep 15 10:37:55 chem4823 kernel: usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using
uhci_hcd and address 48
.
.
.etc.

This does not happen at home. The datastick is recognised and is
mountable. The office machine and the home machine are using the 2.6.17.9
kernel. I've tried compiling the 2.6.17.9 kernel on the office machine
using the config file from home ... no luck, same observations.

I know the usb ports on both machines work ok since I can transfer files
from my digital camera on either machine via a usb port and my webcam
works on the office machine (haven't tried it at home yet).

It's beginning to feel to me like a hardware thing rather than software
problem. Has anyone ever run across something like this?

Keith Brown
Department of Chemistry/
Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Center
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

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Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.
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Received on Fri Sep 22 13:07:11 2006