USB port not recognizing USB flash drives in Dolphin

[Priest_Apostate]

Using Debian 12 on laptop - while troubleshooting an issue with mariadb not installing, I found that my sole USB port isn't recognizing USB drives installed into it.

STEPS TAKEN:
1. ran the "dmesg -w" command to see new messages once I installed a drive, to test recognition in Dophin. Said test drive was confirmed to be recognized on my Rocky desktop.
Readout is as follows:

*******************************************************
lsusb readout:
$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 006: ID 21c4:0cd1 Lexar USB Flash Drive
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 1c7a:0576 LighTuning Technology Inc. EgisTec EH576
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f2:b7b9 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Integrated Camera
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0bda:4853 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


dmesg readout:
[ 3218.785992] usb 4-2: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 3218.810948] usb 4-2: New USB device found, idVendor=21c4, idProduct=0cd1, bcdDevice=11.00
[ 3218.810958] usb 4-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 3218.810961] usb 4-2: Product: USB Flash Drive
[ 3218.810964] usb 4-2: Manufacturer: Lexar
[ 3218.810965] usb 4-2: SerialNumber: 0300700000015352
[ 3218.813266] usb-storage 4-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 3218.814119] scsi host0: usb-storage 4-2:1.0
[ 3219.995099] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access Lexar USB Flash Drive 1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 3219.995785] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 3219.997020] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 243404800 512-byte logical blocks: (125 GB/116 GiB)
[ 3219.997686] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 3219.997693] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
[ 3219.998199] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO
or FUA
[ 3220.005819] sda: sda1
[ 3220.006295] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 3252.510288] rtw89_8852be 0000:03:00.0: FW status = 0x8f001100
[ 3252.510304] rtw89_8852be 0000:03:00.0: FW BADADDR = 0x0
[ 3252.510311] rtw89_8852be 0000:03:00.0: FW EPC/RA = 0x0
[ 3252.510317] rtw89_8852be 0000:03:00.0: FW MISC = 0xb8989787
[ 3252.510323] rtw89_8852be 0000:03:00.0: R_AX_HALT_C2H = 0x10
[ 3252.510328] rtw89_8852be 0000:03:00.0: R_AX_SER_DBG_INFO = 0x62080002

*******************************************************

Tried the second drive:
*******************************************************
lsusb readout:
$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 1c7a:0576 LighTuning Technology Inc. EgisTec EH576
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f2:b7b9 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Integrated Camera
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0bda:4853 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bluetooth Radio
Bus 003 Device 007: ID 154b:00ee PNY USB 2.0 FD
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


dmesg readout:
[ 3665.502602] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
[ 3665.668121] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=154b, idProduct=00ee, bcdDevice= 1.00
[ 3665.668134] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 3665.668137] usb 3-1: Product: USB 2.0 FD
[ 3665.668140] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: PNY
[ 3665.668143] usb 3-1: SerialNumber: 07188C1078853193
[ 3665.672085] usb-storage 3-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 3665.672809] scsi host0: usb-storage 3-1:1.0
[ 3668.566023] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access PNY USB 2.0 FD PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 3668.566966] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 3668.569690] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 30294016 512-byte logical blocks: (15.5 GB/14.4 GiB)
[ 3668.571446] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 3668.571454] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 3668.572716] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] No Caching mode page found
[ 3668.572721] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 3668.594875] sda: sda1
[ 3668.595246] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk

*******************************************************

• Rebooted the system - no change with USB drives being recognized by Dolphin.
• Checked online for suggestions/recommendations - nothing recent showed for forcing a refresh.

While I was planning on reinstalling the OS to fix the original issue with MariaDB, I did want to know if anyone has any suggestions for forcing the file manager to see the devices, as, from the readouts above, the system does recognize the devices.


System Info:

OS: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) x86_64
Host: 82XF IdeaPad Slim 5 16IRL8
Kernel: 6.5.0-0.deb12.4-amd64
Uptime: 1 hour, 9 mins
Packages: 3380 (dpkg)
Shell: bash 5.2.15
Resolution: 1920x1200
DE: Plasma 5.27.5
WM: KWin
Theme: [Plasma], Breeze [GTK2/3]
Icons: [Plasma], breeze [GTK2/3]
Terminal: konsole
CPU: 13th Gen Intel i7-1355U (12) @ 5.000GHz
GPU: Intel Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics]
Memory: 4682MiB / 15713MiB

Many thanks in advance, if anyone could point me in the right direction!

 

[osprey]

The inability of the file manager to see the usbs may be because a partition on the usb is not being automatically mounted.

When a usb is plugged into the system, the kernel will register it, as you have found in the output of lsusb and dmesg. However, if a partition on the usb is not mounted into the filesystem, the file manager will not necessarily be able to see the files on the usb, or the usb itself. In such a case where the usb is not mounted, one can run the command:

mount

and see that it is not listed. But the command:

lsblk

will show a device name like: sda (where the a could be b or c etc.)

When a usb is mounted, or more correctly, when a partition on the usb is mounted, the lsblk output will show the device name as above, and also a partition name such as: sda1.

The question arises in your situation as to whether the Dolphin file manager has been configured to trigger the automatic mounting of a usb partition. Having no experience with Dolphin, but with other file managers I know, there has been a configuration option for "Volume Management" or some term like that, and then a tick-box which says something like "Mount mountable volumes automatically on program start". Perhaps check whether Dolphin has such a configuration option.

Ultimately you can test the Dolphin file manager in this matter by mounting a usb partition manually, and then checking to see if Dolphin can read the files on it.

 

[Priest_Apostate]

I think I understand what was causing the issue - but I am still a bit confused.

The drives that I used had installs of the Tails OS upon them, due to be experimenting with Tails on an earlier project:

********************************************
$ sudo blkid
/dev/mapper/Debian-var: UUID="91a6be98-8469-40a9-a758-ff3c9a21e872" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/nvme0n1p3: UUID="zonj3C-VSQW-Ztjd-xyA0-2fD1-jIQx-pAQ2bH" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTUUID="82b5bfee-62de-4125-a6a3-f32c0303fd3b"
/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="CDB1-6982" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition" PARTUUID="f93c972b-c46e-444d-8f34-07ff7d36b1cf"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: UUID="56dff4c1-4fed-46f4-8cc3-98b7c1b4adae" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext2" PARTUUID="875af108-3652-4fdd-961d-1b23583a5742"
/dev/mapper/Debian-home: UUID="6e4a00e3-f793-436a-aa7f-dcf4796ac8fd" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/Debian-swap_1: UUID="fb0e3390-0c89-4882-b42a-beb8b4f4f415" TYPE="swap"
/dev/mapper/Debian-root: UUID="98806f7c-d070-48e2-8de4-9d6a9146a84d" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/Debian-tmp: UUID="85cd460d-242d-4c1b-b60d-a8ce5ceb563c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="Tails" LABEL="TAILS" UUID="6F2A-6415" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Tails" PARTUUID="4e041e95-d8af-4826-9cf8
-b08ac76a2ca5"

********************************************

********************************************
sudo blkid
[sudo] password for XXXXX:
/dev/mapper/Debian-var: UUID="91a6be98-8469-40a9-a758-ff3c9a21e872" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/nvme0n1p3: UUID="zonj3C-VSQW-Ztjd-xyA0-2fD1-jIQx-pAQ2bH" TYPE="LVM2_member" PARTUUID="82b5bfee-62de-4125-a6a3-f32c0303fd3b"
/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="CDB1-6982" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI System Partition" PARTUUID="f93c972b-c46e-444d-8f34-07ff7d36b1cf"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: UUID="56dff4c1-4fed-46f4-8cc3-98b7c1b4adae" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext2" PARTUUID="875af108-3652-4fdd-961d-1b23583a5742"
/dev/mapper/Debian-home: UUID="6e4a00e3-f793-436a-aa7f-dcf4796ac8fd" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/Debian-swap_1: UUID="fb0e3390-0c89-4882-b42a-beb8b4f4f415" TYPE="swap"
/dev/mapper/Debian-root: UUID="98806f7c-d070-48e2-8de4-9d6a9146a84d" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="TAILS" LABEL="TAILS" UUID="2C7D-48C2" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="Tails" PARTUUID="80fa69c2-d5c2-434e-a522
-0d48ea044456"
/dev/mapper/Debian-tmp: UUID="85cd460d-242d-4c1b-b60d-a8ce5ceb563c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"

********************************************

This seems to be confirmed by the USB port recognizing another USB drive that has a CentOS 7 iso stored upon it (non-bootable).

I'm suspecting that because Tails is designed to be run from boot, that that might be contributing to why the drives don't show up in Dolphin - however, I'm not sure as to why that would be the case, if correct. The way I figure it, just because the drives are configured to run on boot shouldn't cause them to be "invisible" to the OS, post boot...

At least, that is my theory - I could be wrong...