Thank you for you comments. Below is the output from mount
/dev/sdc1 on /run/media/ykarant/USB20FD type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,showexec,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro,uhelper=udisks2) /dev/sdb on /run/media/ykarant/e8df2b54-0637-4570-868b-9e542bf9a21f type xfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,seclabel,attr2,inode64,noquota,uhelper=udisks2) both of the /dev devices mentioned above are "automatic" from insertion into a USB jack (port) on a SL7 machine. The first is a 32 Gbyte flash drive "stick" with a works-installed MS file system, the second is an external 2 Tbyte USB harddrive with a XFS file system that is a dd copy of a partition from another SL 7 machine (that is having difficulties -- the partition is /home and the data is important). Note that the second is mounted as /dev/sdb (it was inserted before the flash drive), not as /dev/sdb1 . 2 Tbyte presumably is not "small", but nonetheless is mounted as /dev/xyz not /dev/xyzN . parted and gparted have no difficulties with either external USB drive once /dev/xyz "automatically" is created. The relevant outputs from parted run as root on the devices -- these contain/are mounted partitions: Using /dev/sdc Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands. (parted) print Model: PNY USB 2.0 FD (scsi) Disk /dev/sdc: 31.0GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Disk Flags: Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 4129kB 31.0GB 31.0GB primary fat32 lba Using /dev/sdb Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands. (parted) print Model: WD My Passport 25E1 (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: loop Disk Flags: Number Start End Size File system Flags 1 0.00B 2000GB 2000GB xfs Note that mount on the system reporting the above has no issue with mounting a /dev/xyz device not as /dev/xyzN Yasha Karant On 09/26/2018 10:34 AM, Gilles Detillieux wrote: > If a device has actual partitions, using a standard partitioning > scheme, even if it's just a single partition, then Linux should detect > that and create the appropriate device nodes in /dev. While less > common than a single partition covering most of the disk, some smaller > drives or devices have no partitioning at all, and therefore no > partition table at the start of the drive. In those cases, Linux will > set up a node for the drive, e.g. /dev/sdh, but no nodes for > partitions (e.g. no /dev/sdh1, 2, ...). If that's the case, then it's > likely that the whole drive is formatted as a single filesystem, so > you can mount /dev/sdh directly, or use mkfs on it if you want to > create a new filesystem. It's also possible for a drive to have a > corrupted partition table which Linux can't read, so it will create > the drive node, but no partition nodes. So, approach any drive that > has no clear partitions with a bit of caution. > > On 09/26/2018 12:05 PM, Yasha Karant wrote: >> To be clear, I created the partition and the XFS format using gparted, >> the gnome GUI interface to parted. My recollection from the past, and >> my observation as the drive was "flashing", was that I did not need >> manually to invoke mkfs using the GUI. However, rereading the man page >> for gparted, this step may have been lacking. I just confirmed by >> direct observation what I had forgotten; when a flash drive USB "stick" >> is inserted in a "modern" Linux system, at least two entries are created >> in /dev. In the immediate test case on the laptop before me, these are >> /dev/sdb and /dev/sdb1 (the USB flash drive is a MS Win format) and >> /dev/sdb1 is the mounted device. Thus, when the system reports /dev/xyz >> appears, the minimal first mount point would be /dev/xyzN as revealed >> through a ls of /dev/ . >> >> Question: what does one do if, after inserting a USB storage device, >> one gets /dev/xyz, say, but there is no /dev/xyzN despite parted >> reporting that the device does indeed have "MS" partitions as well as a >> filesystem? >> >> On 09/26/2018 07:47 AM, Gilles Detillieux wrote: >>> On 09/26/2018 08:34 AM, Howard, Chris wrote: >>>>> Why do parted and mount have this difference? >>>> /dev/sdg1 ? >>>> >>>> >>>> What he said. >>>> /dev/sdg is the whole device >>>> /dev/sdg1 is the first partition on that device. >>>> Partitions have file systems. Partitions with file systems can be >>>> mounted. >>>> >>>> parted works on the whole device. >>>> mount works on the partitions with file systems. >>> Also, if I'm not mistaken, when you create a partition using parted's >>> mkpart command, you designate which type of partition it is, and that >>> info is stored in the partition table, but it doesn't format the file >>> system for you. You have to follow parted with a mkfs command for each >>> partition you create, e.g.: >>> >>> mkfs.xfs /dev/sdg1 >>> >>> Then you can mount the partition. >>> >
