Linux: How to use USB pen / flash stick

More and more people these days using the USB pen and flash memories instead of floppies and CDs. They come is different sizes from 128MB upto 2 GB. Moreover, may new Linux user find it difficult to use usb devices, the main problem is people don’t understand how it works...

USB devices use SCSI devices names

SCSI devices such as /dev/sda use to represent your first USB pen/stick and equivalent partitions are as follows:

Sample 256 MB USB PEN (E: is 100 MB, F: is rest of the free space)
Linux Partition => Windows XP/NT
/dev/sda1 => E: (assuming that C: is hard-disk; D: is VD/CD/RW)
/dev/sda2 => F: (assuming that C: is hard-disk; D: is DVD/CD/RW; E: is first drive USB pen 100 MB drive)

Linux Kernel must have support for USB

Linux kernel must compiled with support for
i) SCSI disk
ii) USB Support
iii) USB Mass support

Most of the modern Linux distribution comes with all sort of support. If it is not included, get latest kernel from http://kernel.org/ and make sure you compile it with above features + file system support such as ext2/3, vfat and so on…

Commends to mount USB Pen / Flash memory stick under Linux

a) Log in as the root user (or use sudo command)

b) Create a mount point
# mkdir –p /mnt/pen
# mkdir –p /mnt/pen

c) To mount the disk run mount command:
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/pen

This command will mount MS-Windows XP/Vista E: into /mnt/pen

d) To use it or to see your files:
# cd /mnt/pen
# ls –l

e) To copy files from /home/rdl/*.c to directory to pen drive us cp command:
# cp –v /home/rdl/*.c /mnt/pen

f) You can use rest of the all command such as rm, rmdir, mv etc to copy, move or delete files.

g) To format the /dev/sda2 as Linux ext3 partitions use the following command:
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2

h) To delete all partition and to create new partition use run fdisk program:
# fdisk /dev/sda

Refer to fdisk man page for more information on how to delete and create partitions.

g) To list all partition on all devices use the following command:
# fdisk –l

h) Use dmesg command to get more info on your USB devices:
# dmesg | grep –i "usb"

i) Run scandisk (window like stuff) on /dev/sda1:
# umount /dev/sda1
# fsck /dev/sda1

Further readings:

=> See the detailed guide USB Flash Memory HOWTO

Featured Articles:

• 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know
• 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips
• Linux: 20 Iptables Examples For New SysAdmins
• My 10 UNIX Command Line Mistakes
• 25 PHP Security Best Practices For Sys Admins
• The Novice Guide To Buying A Linux Laptop
• Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users
• Top 20 OpenSSH Server Best Security Practices
• Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software