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Accepted
Binh T. Nguyen
Asked: 2019-08-01 19:21:10 +0800 CST

mkusb doesn't detect my usb drive

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After some troubles (in this question), I managed to install mkusb manually.

But for some reason, it didn't detect my USB drive. I tried to format it (as ext4 and fat32), mount/unmount (some errors, though!). But it didn't work out.

Here are some outputs:

$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            1,8G     0  1,8G   0% /dev
tmpfs           364M  1,7M  362M   1% /run
/dev/sda5       218G   11G  196G   6% /
tmpfs           1,8G   45M  1,8G   3% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           1,8G     0  1,8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop0       89M   89M     0 100% /snap/core/7270
/dev/loop1       35M   35M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/818
/dev/loop2       54M   54M     0 100% /snap/core18/970
/dev/loop3      4,2M  4,2M     0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/406
/dev/loop4      3,8M  3,8M     0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/100
/dev/loop5      1,0M  1,0M     0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/61
/dev/loop8      3,8M  3,8M     0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/91
/dev/loop7       55M   55M     0 100% /snap/core18/1066
/dev/loop6      141M  141M     0 100% /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/74
/dev/loop9       89M   89M     0 100% /snap/core/6964
/dev/loop13      15M   15M     0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/45
/dev/loop12      43M   43M     0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1313
/dev/loop10     150M  150M     0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/67
/dev/loop15     141M  141M     0 100% /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/90
/dev/loop14      13M   13M     0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/139
/dev/loop11     2,3M  2,3M     0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/260
/dev/loop16      15M   15M     0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/296
tmpfs           364M   40K  364M   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdb1       7,4G   17M  7,0G   1% /home/mike/drive

$ sudo lsblk -f

NAME   FSTYPE  LABEL           UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
loop0  squashf                                                      /snap/core/7
loop1  squashf                                                      /snap/gtk-co
loop2  squashf                                                      /snap/core18
loop3  squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop4  squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop5  squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop6  squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop7  squashf                                                      /snap/core18
loop8  squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop9  squashf                                                      /snap/core/6
loop10 squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop11 squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop12 squashf                                                      /snap/gtk-co
loop13 squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop14 squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop15 squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
loop16 squashf                                                      /snap/gnome-
sda                                                                 
├─sda1 ntfs    System Reserved 2E821ED1821E9E01                     
├─sda2 ntfs                    B20C27BC0C277A8D                     
├─sda3 ntfs    Work            A65A98375A9805E9                     
└─sda5 ext4                    704da54c-9899-41b5-ad00-f17a9b75287e /
sdb                                                                 
└─sdb1 ext4                    800f174e-ec6e-4e4e-8066-ee02a794449f /home/mike/drive

$ sudo lsblk -m
NAME     SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
loop0   88,5M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop1   34,6M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop2   53,7M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop3      4M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop4    3,7M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop5   1008K root  disk  brw-rw----
loop6  140,7M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop7   54,4M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop8    3,7M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop9   88,4M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop10 149,9M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop11   2,3M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop12  42,8M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop13  14,5M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop14    13M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop15 140,7M root  disk  brw-rw----
loop16  14,8M root  disk  brw-rw----
sda    465,8G root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda1   549M root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda2  48,3G root  disk  brw-rw----
├─sda3 195,3G root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sda5 221,6G root  disk  brw-rw----
sdb      7,5G root  disk  brw-rw----
└─sdb1   7,5G root  disk  brw-rw----

$ sudo parted -ls
Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ01ACF0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  577MB   576MB   primary   ntfs         boot
 2      577MB   52,4GB  51,9GB  primary   ntfs
 3      52,4GB  262GB   210GB   primary   ntfs
 4      262GB   500GB   238GB   extended
 5      262GB   500GB   238GB   logical   ext4


Model: SMI USB DISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8054MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  8054MB  8053MB  primary  ext4         boot

$ dus
 dus 12.3.2 
live system or temporary superuser permissions
Drive that contains source file: /dev/sda
Live drive, that is booted from: /dev/sda
cands=2
->
15:18
15:18   ->  465,8G
15:18
built-in device
->
15:18
 7,5G
15:18
built-in device
p_target: target=/dev/
No target device or bad target device
p_clean:
live system or temporary superuser permissions
clean if necessary and return
clean if necessary and quit

Any ideas how to fix it ?

18.04 mkusb

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The bug does not appear for me, so it is difficult for me to find it and squash it.

    But there is a workaround, that I tried and verified in a test computer (not my main working computer). This workaround makes the operation risky, because you specify the target drive manually, so you must check very carefully, that you will write to the correct drive. Otherwise you might destroy valuable data in another drive.

    In your question the target drive (the USB drive) is /dev/sdb. Please double-check that it is still correct.

    Create a working directory where you keep your iso files and create the file cmdfile.

    sudo -H dus-persistent pff:cmdfile

    where the file cmdfile contains three lines

    • the iso file
    • the target device
    • the percentage for persistence (can be 100 % if you don't want any NTFS partition).

    Example:

    ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso
/dev/sdx
75

    and a fourth line if you want to modify the settings (not use the defaults).

    Please replace /dev/sdx with /dev/sdb after double-checking that it is correct.

    • 0