USB memory mount problems

[techAdmin]

Recently I had an issue with the 2.6.7 kernel believing that /dev/sda1 did not exist, couldn't find an easy anwer, lots of good information in the process.

The initital error occured when trying to mount the sda1 memory stick, which on boot appears to have been recognized fine, the startup code shows it being located, shows the size of the stick, and show it being assigned to sda, at scsi 0 etc.

However, when this is run:

:: Code ::

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

it claims that there is no such device. And a check of the /dev directory confirms this, there is no sda1.

Unplugging the memory reader, then running

:: Code ::

tail -f /var/log/messages

, and then plugging the unit in shows in real time the unit getting assigned sda1, but again, when mount is run on /dev/sda1 the system claims there is no such device name, and a check of /dev shows that this is not the case.

linux questions forums on this problem. Turned out to be unrelated, a bit too complex for the issue, but had a link to this amazing series:
Linux.com :: howtos :: usb memory. Found the solution on this page:

:: Quote ::

In most distributions these points exist in abundance. You should check that this is the case in your setup (ls /dev/sda*. If there are none you can create them by doing (as root, indicated by the hash).

:: Code ::

 
             # mknod /dev/sda  b 8 0
             # mknod /dev/sda1 b 8 1
             # mknod /dev/sda2 b 8 2

etc, up to /dev/sda15 if necessary. The device as a whole is mapped to /dev/sda, while /dev/sdax (x = 1 ... 15) represent the various partitions of the device.

After I ran this,

:: Code ::

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

once again found and mounted the drive.