My USB disks don't mount correctly

[sailor (Jean O)]

Hello,

I have an issue with 2 different USB hard disks that don’t mount when I plug them in my PC. Two different brands, two different file systems (ext4 and vfat). Each one of them is sometimes successfully mounted (it happened tonight), but not often.

Here are the relevant ouputs I could gather after reading this forum. In the journalctl output, the devices “are not MTP” : is that relevant to the mounting issue ? If someone could help deciphering all those lines to find a solution, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Output from lsusb (extract):

Résumé

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 1058:25e3 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. My Passport 25E3
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 4971:1014 SimpleTech TOURO Mobile 3.0

Output from lsblk:

Résumé

jean@fedora:~$ lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,FSUSE%,MOUNTPOINT,UUID,MIN-IO,SCHED,DISC-GRAN,MODEL

NAME       FSTYPE   SIZE FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT UUID                                 MIN-IO SCHED DISC-GRAN MODEL
sda               931,5G                                                           512 bfq        512B HGST HTS541010A9E
└─sda1     vfat   931,5G                   52F5-FC25                               512 bfq        512B 
sdb               931,5G                                                           512 bfq        512B WDC WD10JMVW-11AJ
└─sdb1     ext4   931,5G                   cd686799-4c8d-491a-b4b6-5e55ce9b7f2d    512 bfq        512B 
zram0                 8G        [SWAP]                                            4096              4K 
nvme0n1           476,9G                                                           512 none       512B Lexar SSD NM6A1 5
├─nvme0n1p1
│          vfat     600M     3% /boot/efi  73B7-C6DD                               512 none       512B 
├─nvme0n1p2
│          ext4       1G    43% /boot      5623685a-029e-4d52-a174-e954e97f6217    512 none       512B 
└─nvme0n1p3
           btrfs  475,4G    31% /home      37e93046-8ec3-40bd-aba0-f4de5f389b74    512 none       512B

Output from cat fstab:

Résumé

jean@fedora:~$ cat /etc/fstab

#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Tue Dec 31 12:20:07 2024
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk/'.
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info.
#
# After editing this file, run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to update systemd
# units generated from this file.
#
UUID=37e93046-8ec3-40bd-aba0-f4de5f389b74 /                       btrfs   subvol=root,compress=zstd:1 0 0
UUID=5623685a-029e-4d52-a174-e954e97f6217 /boot                   ext4    defaults        1 2
UUID=73B7-C6DD          /boot/efi               vfat    umask=0077,shortname=winnt 0 2
UUID=37e93046-8ec3-40bd-aba0-f4de5f389b74 /home                   btrfs   subvol=home,compress=zstd:1 0 0

# Montage automatique de partages de mon disque dur réseau NAS1
//NAS1/JO_Backup /home/jean/NAS1_Backup cifs vers=2.0,credentials=/home/jean/credentials,rw,uid=nobody,gid=nobody,dir_mode=0774,file_mode=0774,noperm
//NAS1/JO_Media /home/jean/NAS1_Media cifs vers=2.0,credentials=/home/jean/credentials,rw,uid=nobody,gid=nobody,dir_mode=0774,file_mode=0774,noperm

Output from journalctl when I plug the USB disks:

Résumé

avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=4971, idProduct=1014, bcdDevice= 0.00
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=10, Product=11, SerialNumber=3
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.2: Product: TOURO Mobile 3.0
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.2: Manufacturer: HGST
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.2: SerialNumber: 21001402140002102025
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: usb-storage 2-2.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora kernel: scsi host0: usb-storage 2-2.2:1.0
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora mtp-probe[6588]: checking bus 2, device 9: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:05:00.3/usb2/2-2/2-2.2"
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora mtp-probe[6588]: bus: 2, device: 9 was not an MTP device
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora mtp-probe[6589]: checking bus 2, device 9: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:05:00.3/usb2/2-2/2-2.2"
avr 14 14:38:08 fedora mtp-probe[6589]: bus: 2, device: 9 was not an MTP device

avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.4: new SuperSpeed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1058, idProduct=25e3, bcdDevice=10.15
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.4: Product: My Passport 25E3
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.4: Manufacturer: Western Digital
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb 2-2.4: SerialNumber: 575855314141364150324352
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: usb-storage 2-2.4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora kernel: scsi host1: usb-storage 2-2.4:1.0
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora mtp-probe[6594]: checking bus 2, device 10: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:05:00.3/usb2/2-2/2-2.4"
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora mtp-probe[6594]: bus: 2, device: 10 was not an MTP device
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora mtp-probe[6595]: checking bus 2, device 10: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:05:00.3/usb2/2-2/2-2.4"
avr 14 14:38:10 fedora mtp-probe[6595]: bus: 2, device: 10 was not an MTP device

avr 14 14:38:11 fedora kernel: scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 25E3 1015 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
avr 14 14:38:11 fedora kernel: scsi 1:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1015 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
avr 14 14:38:13 fedora kernel: scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     HGST                      0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
avr 14 14:38:13 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
avr 14 14:38:13 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: ses 1:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: ses 1:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 13
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk...
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953523708 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/932 GiB)
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 27 00 00 00
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] No Caching mode page found
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel:  sda: sda1
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: ses 1:0:0:1: Wrong diagnostic page; asked for 1 got 8
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: ses 1:0:0:1: Failed to get diagnostic page 0x1
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: ses 1:0:0:1: Failed to bind enclosure -19
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: .ready
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953458176 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel:  sdb: sdb1
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
avr 14 14:38:13 fedora udisksd[1064]: Error probing device: Error sending ATA command IDENTIFY DEVICE to '/dev/sda': Unexpected sense data returned:
                                      0000: 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00    ................
                                      0010: 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00    ................
                                       (g-io-error-quark, 0)
avr 14 14:38:13 fedora key.dns_resolver[6590]: NAS1: No address associated with name
avr 14 14:38:17 fedora udisksd[1064]: Error probing device: Error sending ATA command IDENTIFY DEVICE to '/dev/sdb': Unexpected sense data returned:
                                      0000: f0 00 01 00  00 00 00 0a  00 00 00 00  00 1d 00 00    ................
                                      0010: 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00    ................
                                       (g-io-error-quark, 0)
avr 14 14:38:18 fedora systemd[1]: fprintd.service: Deactivated successfully.
avr 14 14:38:18 fedora audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=fprintd comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
avr 14 14:38:18 fedora audit: BPF prog-id=168 op=UNLOAD

Output from mount:

Résumé

jean@fedora:~$ mount
/dev/nvme0n1p3 on / type btrfs (rw,relatime,seclabel,compress=zstd:1,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvolid=257,subvol=/root)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,seclabel,size=4096k,nr_inodes=4020736,mode=755,inode64)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel,inode64)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,seclabel,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup2 on /sys/fs/cgroup type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel,nsdelegate,memory_recursiveprot)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
bpf on /sys/fs/bpf type bpf (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,mode=700)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel,size=6445320k,nr_inodes=819200,mode=755,inode64)
selinuxfs on /sys/fs/selinux type selinuxfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=35,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=6620)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/tracing type tracefs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,seclabel)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,seclabel,pagesize=2M)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-network-generator.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-udev-load-credentials.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-sysctl.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-vconsole-setup.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
/dev/nvme0n1p3 on /home type btrfs (rw,relatime,seclabel,compress=zstd:1,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvolid=256,subvol=/home)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,seclabel,size=16113300k,nr_inodes=1048576,inode64)
/dev/nvme0n1p2 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel)
/dev/nvme0n1p1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=winnt,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/credentials/systemd-resolved.service type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nosymfollow,seclabel,size=1024k,nr_inodes=1024,mode=700,inode64,noswap)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw,relatime)
//NAS1/JO_Media on /home/jean/NAS1_Media type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=2.0,cache=strict,upcall_target=app,username=jean,uid=65534,forceuid,gid=65534,forcegid,addr=192.168.1.155,file_mode=0774,dir_mode=0774,soft,nounix,serverino,mapposix,noperm,reparse=nfs,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,bsize=1048576,retrans=1,echo_interval=60,actimeo=1,closetimeo=1)
//NAS1/JO_Backup on /home/jean/NAS1_Backup type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=2.0,cache=strict,upcall_target=app,username=jean,uid=65534,forceuid,gid=65534,forcegid,addr=192.168.1.155,file_mode=0774,dir_mode=0774,soft,nounix,serverino,mapposix,noperm,reparse=nfs,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,bsize=1048576,retrans=1,echo_interval=60,actimeo=1,closetimeo=1)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,seclabel,size=3222656k,nr_inodes=805664,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000,inode64)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
portal on /run/user/1000/doc type fuse.portal (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)

[glb (Gregory Lee Bartholomew)]

@sailor

Each one of them is sometimes successfully mounted (it happened tonight), but not often.

If it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, that sounds vaguely similar to this other issue that was recently reported:

Unusual USB mounting behavior: they don't both mount "on the same face of the computer"

In the past, many Windows and Linux systems did not enforce USB power limits. At work we replaced SGI boxes with Apple systems (for Photoshop users) and started encountering USB power limits with devices that worked on PC’s. I would not be surprised to see changes in this area on linux. https://www.baeldung.com/linux/control-usb-power-supply has some examples you can explore.

The conclusion there seems to be that the problem might be related to some sort of power management work in recent kernels. Can you get one of the drives to work consistently either by increasing the available power (e.g. running the system plugged-in instead of on the battery) or by reducing the power that is being drawn from associated USB ports (e.g. disconnect all your other USB devices or plug them into a different jack panel).

[sailor (Jean O)]

Thank you Gregory @glb. My computer is always plugged (not a laptop) and I don’t think my other USB devices use much power, but I will of course explore this lead.

I realise one of the USB connectors on my “small form factor” PC (Geekom A5) has a specific symbol indicating it is a USB Power Delivery (although this is not indicated in the user manual). I tried connecting the 2 disks there, with a small hub, and it seems to be working. I will confirm later after some more testing.

[sailor (Jean O)]

I confirm the issue is solved by using the “power deliwery” USB for the hard disks. Thanks again, @glb.