Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Can't use USB pendrives

Bug #76040 reported by Sven Herzberg
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Ubuntu Installer Team

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubiquity

This problem appeared at least on the IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet and the Lenovo X60s as they don't have a CD/DVD drive.

I booted the Ubuntu Live System from a USB Pendrive and installed Ubuntu using the graphical installer.
The installation created a file /etc/fstab with a mount point definition for a CD/DVD drive (will attach the file).
This file specifies a file system (udf,iso9660).
As the notebooks don't have a CD/DVD drive, plugging in a USB pendrive results in assigning /dev/sdb to the USB drive.
As the file system is already specified in /etc/fstab, I can't mount the pendrive as a user and get an error message about a wrong filesystem or bad superblock.
"sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/usbdisk" works but I don't think that this is the way it should be.

Removing the last line from /etc/fstab works for me.

Revision history for this message
Sven Herzberg (herzi) wrote :

Attaching original fstab

Revision history for this message
Harvey Muller (hlmuller) wrote : Ubiquity creates bad /etc/fstab when LiveUSB used

When an ubuntu livecd is converted to liveusb, ubiquity (or d-i) creates a bad /etc/fstab. The liveusb usb flash device is configured as the cdrom (/media/cdrom0). Consequently, when a flash drive is inserted afterwards, gnome-mount fails to mount the device because it is attempting to mount it as a cdrom.

The workaround is to manually edit /etc/fstab and correct the entries. A long term solution would address correct cdrom device detection and/or correct fstab creation. The root cause and effective solution are currently beyond my level of knowledge.

Attached is the fstab originally created during the installation. Any questions will be answered promptly.

Best regards,

Harvey

Revision history for this message
Harvey Muller (hlmuller) wrote :

Changed status to Confirmed, assigning to Ubuntu Installer Team

Changed in ubiquity:
assignee: nobody → ubuntu-installer
status: New → Confirmed
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