Ubuntu 64bit 8.10 portable HDD issues

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Hi there,

Interesting problem I have after a fresh install of the new Ubuntu Linux.

Portable 80gig Western Digital Hard Drive keeps dismounting itself every time I transfer files off of it or try and play music off of it.

The only way I can get the drive to work is to restart Linux otherwise it won't mount again.

As I am no linux expert at all I am not sure what I could try and so far google and ubuntu forums are of no help.

Any ideas? Any info required? The HDD works perfectly on windows.

 

[sn3rd]

Hi there,

Interesting problem I have after a fresh install of the new Ubuntu Linux.

Portable 80gig Western Digital Hard Drive keeps dismounting itself every time I transfer files off of it or try and play music off of it.

The only way I can get the drive to work is to restart Linux otherwise it won't mount again.

As I am no linux expert at all I am not sure what I could try and so far google and ubuntu forums are of no help.

Any ideas? Any info required? The HDD works perfectly on windows.

Dismount?? How do you catch it again ??

Sorry... Flame over

Before this problem occurs, do

lsusb

and note the output. Then when the problem occurs again, do it again to see if it still being picked up.

If it doesn't, unplug it, re-plug it in (another port, if necessary), and check again if it is being picked up.

Also, while it is mounted do a

mount

and note the output. Paste the line pertaining to the external hard drive.

If it is happily "holding onto" the hard drive if you aren't using it, it sounds like it could be that it is not getting enough power Of course, I am assuming this is a 2.5" USB-powered external?

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Dismount?? How do you catch it again ??

Sorry... Flame over

Before this problem occurs, do

lsusb

and note the output. Then when the problem occurs again, do it again to see if it still being picked up.

If it doesn't, unplug it, re-plug it in (another port, if necessary), and check again if it is being picked up.

Also, while it is mounted do a

mount

and note the output. Paste the line pertaining to the external hard drive.

If it is happily "holding onto" the hard drive if you aren't using it, it sounds like it could be that it is not getting enough power Of course, I am assuming this is a 2.5" USB-powered external?

Dismount!! You know what I mean

Will try your suggestions and post shortly...thanks

I can see why it seems as though it is not getting enough power, although on Windows on the same PC there is no issue and yes it is a portable 2.5" USB-powered HDD

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

OK heres what I did.

Rebooted PC then did the lsusb command before plugging in USB HDD

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1231:805a
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c01a Logitech, Inc. M-BQ85 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Plugged HDD in USB...strangely this time there was no response for over a minute then suddenly an error pops up:

Unable to mount the volume 'WD Passport'.
DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken. (This error is weird but anyway)

After about 10 seconds it decides to pick up the drive anyway without me doing anything so it picked up fine...

I decided to do another lsusb command

Bus 002 Device 015: ID 1058:0702 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Passport External HDD
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1231:805a
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c01a Logitech, Inc. M-BQ85 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

So there it is.

Hmmmmm... then I transfer files across and play music etc and now it appears to be causing no issues at all :/ did it fix itself??? lol

So I am very confused but if it works then good! Will continue to monitor and report back if it gives any trouble...

Now over to try fix 5.1 surround sound which is a nightmare

 

[sn3rd]

OK heres what I did.

Rebooted PC then did the lsusb command before plugging in USB HDD

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1231:805a
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c01a Logitech, Inc. M-BQ85 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Plugged HDD in USB...strangely this time there was no response for over a minute then suddenly an error pops up:

Unable to mount the volume 'WD Passport'.
DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken. (This error is weird but anyway)

After about 10 seconds it decides to pick up the drive anyway without me doing anything so it picked up fine...

I decided to do another lsusb command

Bus 002 Device 015: ID 1058:0702 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Passport External HDD
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1231:805a
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c01a Logitech, Inc. M-BQ85 Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

So there it is.

Hmmmmm... then I transfer files across and play music etc and now it appears to be causing no issues at all :/ did it fix itself??? lol

So I am very confused but if it works then good! Will continue to monitor and report back if it gives any trouble...

Now over to try fix 5.1 surround sound which is a nightmare

Very strange indeed. I'm guessing the hard drive is formatted in NTFS?

What audio are you using? I may be able to help. You can also have a look at Linoman's blog, he has a succinct explanation of enabling 5.1

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

Thanks for assisting though

Have never formatted the HDD since I purchased it long ago...can't remember if it was NTFS or FAT32...will double check when I get home.

As for the sound I have managed to get the sound test to play out of all five speakers + sub individually. My only concern is that now MP3's don't play out of all speakers. This is probably because they are not true surround although in XP on Windows Media Player it used to play through all. I have managed to get them to play out of all speakers except the Center Speaker by enabling "duplicate front" or something of the sort.

Now to find a good graphic equaliser for Linux. Any suggestions? Rhythmbox does not seem to have one pre-installed but maybe there is a plugin of sorts I don't mind losing the one speaker for now but if there is a quick fix it would be fine as well.

 

[sn3rd]

Thanks for assisting though

Have never formatted the HDD since I purchased it long ago...can't remember if it was NTFS or FAT32...will double check when I get home.

As for the sound I have managed to get the sound test to play out of all five speakers + sub individually. My only concern is that now MP3's don't play out of all speakers. This is probably because they are not true surround although in XP on Windows Media Player it used to play through all. I have managed to get them to play out of all speakers except the Center Speaker by enabling "duplicate front" or something of the sort.

Now to find a good graphic equaliser for Linux. Any suggestions? Rhythmbox does not seem to have one pre-installed but maybe there is a plugin of sorts I don't mind losing the one speaker for now but if there is a quick fix it would be fine as well.

Can't remember the exact file, I think it's ~/.asound.conf (you can check Linoman's blog to find the correct file). If it doesn't exist, create the file. Put the following in it:

pcm.!dmix {
type plug
slave {
pcm surround51
channels 6
}
}
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmix"
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

Note the "route_policy duplicate". That's the key to having stereo audio play through all speakers

 

[Jonny Two Shoes]

I did what was in Linomans blog but it didn't work still have to enable duplicate front in order to get 4 of the 5 speakers working at least.

I also checked 5.1 in Rhythmbox but still no change.

Have tried various suggestions and all don't work.

Ag well probably something stupid I'm doing I guess lol.

Interestingly alsamixer only picks up Master. People talk about editing things in alsamixer in a terminal but I only get Master and no other settings. Is there a sound card driver that is missing or something?