Thinkpads Forum

Hello, I just installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my IBM ThinkPad T40, and when I plug a USB drive into the laptop, nothing happens. How can I fix this?? I checked to make sure Ubuntu was up to date.

Need to determine if its the laptop, the driver (uBuntu) or the USB device.

Do you have something else you can plug in, a mouse would be fine. Let us know if it finds it. That will eliminate the Laptop and the driver (uBuntu)

Ron

Problem solved! I posted the problem on the Ubuntu forum, and solved it. But thanks anyways. Here is where I posted it for future reference: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... st10670595

For anyone with a problem getting any 2010 or newer Linux distro release to recognize a USB Drive. I have and use several pen drives, all major brand name, Sony, Kingston, PNY, etc., different sizes 2gb, 4gb, 8gb and in the past 512MB, 1gb, even the 4 & 8 gb Matsuichi USB micro drives.

All worked (and work still) as well or better than under Windows, even attache with the goofy software. I've used Ubuntu, LinuxMint, PepperMint, Puppy, DSL,, etc to restore a drive when I accidentally mess it up in WIndows and could not get Windows to "see" it so I could "fix" it. I have
on occasion performed a procedure under Linux that resulted in that distro not recognizing it or at least it would not appear on the desktop.
When that happens, I found out on most occasions I could find the icon by navigating to "computer".

Some distros (or variants thereof) will not recognize USB drives with certain formats and some will report you do not have premission to access.
LinuxMint 9 for some reason would not let me access two USB drives that had PuppyLinux 4.XX installed, when I went to reformat them. I simply booted Puppy 5.25 did the reformat and had it install the 5.25 ISO, no problem for Puppy since it loads itself into RAM. It simply took the ISO from the live CD and installed it to the drives.

Be cautious, always double check what format you use with a pen drive. Generally I stick to VFat and Fat32 as Linux distros and Windows can "see" and work with those. I am very careful about formating a drive with Linux file format, ext 2 or ext3 or Windows NTFS. If you use multiple operating systems and diverse O\S computers, you use a system specific format only with a drive you are sure you will use only with the compatible operating system.

As a rule, you can expect Windows not to work with anything specifically Linux. You can expect anything Linux to be programmed to be as flexible as possible. Hardware and software members of the Microsoft cartel will not have operating system flexibility. The Microsoft monopoly doesn't like it. Fortunately, there are some computing corporations that don't have to and will not cater to Microsoft whims. Hewlett Packard
is my favorite. HP is great about cooperating with Linux community. TP-Link the wireless router and adapter maker is another one. They always supply Linux software and drivers with their hardware. My TP-Link hardware is plug and play in Linux core. Alpha which makes the superbly functional, powerful, & low priced high gain USB wireless adapters makes sure its drivers are plug and play and the high gain plays well with Linux wireless sniffer & access point finder software.

The best policy is to buy Linux, meaning buy only hardware you know works well with Linux. If all of us did this, more companies would cooperate and serve our Linux needs more. I am certain there are a lot more Linux users than we think there are. Its in the Interest of both Apple and Microsoft and their partners to convince the public that few people use Linux. I can tell you as a fact that this isn't true for entire countries such as Thailand, Hongkong, Japan, Korea. Every Japanese school kid has a hand held Sharp Zaurus. For several years Zaurus has been powered by Sharp Linux. Every Japanese school kid has wireless for their Zaurus. Zaurus is heavily used in Thailand, Korea, Indonesia.

Many US smartphones work under Linux. Android, a Linux variant, has a large and growing share of pocket tablet and other mobile devices. The first laptop replacement tablet Motorola Xoom runs on Android 3.0

Linux users, I figure, equal the number of Apple computer users, yet we we continue to hear this 1% number which is clearly bunk. In the early days, there was a successful computer maker who built proprietary fences around itself. They were extreme like Microsoft. To keep people from pirating their software, they used an extreme, idiotic but cheap method of copy protection. They used a script that involved slamming the floppy disk drive head and that forced owners to shell out bucks to have their floppy drive recalibrated every few months. There was a shortage
of techs so that meant losing use of your expensive drive for a few weeks. The Company was Commodore Business Machines and they bit the dust. For the time, they had an excellent competitive priced and popular product, the C-64, then the C-128D (a very unusual machine I sort of miss) and finally the Amiga line. Commodore wen down partly due to their user be d___ copy protection schemes and their Apple-like
control everything practices.

I expect Microsoft and Apple to go the way of other huge players like Commodore and AOL due to arrogance, greed, and buyer be d---
attitude. The same may be Google's fate if the founders do not reign in their ever growing ego and arrogance.

--Bruised

Are You Part of the Problem...OR...Victim of the Solution??

wow .. you really let ALL out ..
a good walk though, down the memory lane !!!