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

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Hello.

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I will be brief in this first version of the post because I don’t really have much to say.

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I’ve just tried using my two USB pens on my livingroom computer.

They are both USB 3.x, one is 32gb formatted FAT32 and the other is 256gb formatted NTFS.

When trying to mount them both on the “same face” of the PC they would not mount at the same time, with just “the first mounted” actually mounting while the other, regardless of the order I tried to mount them in, not being able to mount,
citing “an unknown error occurred” when trying to mount.

This is the PC in question:

~$ inxi -Fzxx
System:
  Kernel: 6.13.10-200.fc41.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 14.2.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.4 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 41 (KDE Plasma)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 3227H57 v: ThinkCentre M92p
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: MAHOBAY v: NO DPK serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: LENOVO_MT_3227 UEFI: LENOVO v: 9SKT63AUS date: 03/21/2013
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-3470 bits: 64 type: MCP
    arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 9 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1643 min/max: 1600/3600 cores: 1: 1643 2: 1643 3: 1643
    4: 1643 bogomips: 25543
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP108 [GeForce GT 1030] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nvidia
    v: 570.133.07 arch: Pascal pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 4 ports: active: none
    off: HDMI-A-1 empty: DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1d01
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.6 compositor: kwin_wayland
    driver: gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: Panasonic Panasonic-TV res: 1920x1080 hz: 60
    dpi: 104 diag: 1084mm (42.7")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia gbm: drv: nvidia
    surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 570.133.07 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030/PCIe/SSE2
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 0
    type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A device-ID: 10de:1d01 device: 1 type: cpu
    driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1e20
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP108 High Definition Audio vendor: Gigabyte
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 4 bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:0fb8
  API: ALSA v: k6.13.10-200.fc41.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e
    v: kernel port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.4 TiB used: 1.05 TiB (75.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10JPCX-24UE4T0
    size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Kingston model: SKC600256G size: 238.47 GiB
    speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Kingston model: DataTraveler 3.0 size: 231.05 GiB
    type: USB rev: 3.2 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 serial: <filter>
  ID-4: /dev/sdd vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Glide size: 28.65 GiB
    type: USB rev: 2.0 spd: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 236.89 GiB used: 206.29 GiB (87.1%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb3
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 454.6 MiB (46.7%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sdb2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 19.4 MiB (3.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sdb1
  ID-4: /home size: 236.89 GiB used: 206.29 GiB (87.1%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/sdb3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 512 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 12 GiB available: 11.59 GiB used: 5.04 GiB (43.4%)
  Processes: 340 Power: uptime: 28m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 256
    target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1
    Shell: Bash v: 5.2.32 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37

I have multiple Fedora KDE 41 PCs in my home, and altho I’ve just now experienced this (the 256gb is new, I have just now formatted and tested it for stuff to copy) I have good reasons to believe that regardless of which computer I’d be using, the same problem would surface.

The USBs in the back are the MOBO’s, the ones in the front are the Front Panel’s.

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I don’t know if the Fedora 42 update in 3 days will fix this, but regardless, for now it’s just a nuisance.
I don’t have to use multiple USBs at the same time like this “for serious/life-or-death stuff”.

Let me know if you know what to know, if you are in the know.

2

To troubleshoot the problem, try leaving sudo dmesg -w running in a terminal window and watch what it reports as you connect the drives. That is the most likely place a hardware error message would show.

Edit:

The above output appears to show that both drives are detected. If the problem is just with mounting the filesystems, my guess is that they have the same label or UUID and one is “masking” the other. Can you mount the filesystems manually from the command line using their unique device node paths?

Edit2:

If you are saying that whether or not they work simultaneously is dependent on their physical proximity, that would suggest that one drive is producing interference that is preventing the other drive from functioning. I guess that is possible, but I’ve never experienced it. See the link at about USB 3.0 radio interference at the end of @vgaetera’s post here: WiFi rtw_8821au dies periodically - #12 by vgaetera

Another possibility is that there is inadequate power on the associated ports to run both devices at once. I wouldn’t expect multiple computers of different brands to have that same problem though.

1 Like
3

When they are connected one at the back and one at the front they both mount no problem,
but when they are both on the same face I can mount only one at the time.

This is VERY UNUSUAL behavior because at the beginning they DID both mount on the front (used a USB splitter for the 32gb and the wireless K&M, but other than that nothing changed and THE SAME setup didn’t work anymore).

I have no idea why it stopped working.

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Speaking of working, MATE, you have posted A LOT under my issues!!
Thanks a lot for the help!

1 Like
4

Same USBs mounted on main PC (same USB 3.x hole, using a splitter) and they both mount at the same time.

6

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.

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7

Here’s some bitter news:

The USB model is called “Kingston DataTraveler Exodia DTX/256GB Flash Drive USB 3.2 Gen 1”.

I have read online that models like this (Kingston USBs all around, to be honest) are BAAADDDDD and honestly it shows in performance.

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USB 3.x should give almost 600Mb/s of write speed on average, so that 1gb is copied over in 2 seconds.

This USB instead has average speeds which jump between 7Mb/s and [1/2]Mb/s!!!

I may run some tests before I go give it back, for the sake of testing, but I am sure that any and all problems I’ve experienced is because some “very intelligent person” designed this E-waste and decided to sell it to people.

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Sorry for being tilted, but for €17 I may as well just have bought another 256gb SSD (€16 circa) and used my USB3-SATA3 adapter!!!

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There are fake USB keys with “good” reviews on Amazon, etc., that are made to look like much more expensive and larger capacity keys from reputable vendors. I assume sellers of fake products rely on massive numbers of fake (AI generated!) reviews. There is an early effort using AI to help identify fake reviews at https://www.fakespot.com/.

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It’s impressive how one can even manage to sell a 256gb USB which is even slower than a USB2.0 standard speed!

Regardless, at least for now I don’t have the strength to make any new online account… I’ll check that link at another time.

For now I’m still “destroying the partitions” I made on this USB to not leave anything of mine copied there, just in case.

It’s taking FOREVER since it’s SO SLOW.