Problem with USB and more

[a.drewmc]

Okay, so I just started using ubuntu (Feisty 7.04) and love it, however when I plug in any USB device it never mounts, apart from it physically being there I cannot tell it is connected to the laptop. I have tried it on these devices

SanDisk Sansa Connect
OLD SanDisk 128MB
SanDisk 1 GB micro SD card with SD adapter.

It is vital that I get this working otherwise I will be forced to switch back to Windows.

All these devices have been tested on a windows XP machine

Here are some specs about my computer
Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB RAM
80GB hard drive
Compal HEL-80 (http://www.xoticpc.com/article_info.php/articles_id/20)

PLEASE I LOVE UBUNTU BUT I NEED USB TO WORK.

[ddrichardson]

Check by opening the terminal and doing fdisk -l after the drive is inserted to see if the drive is being picked up.

You may be able to mount it manually until you find out what's wrong.

[a.drewmc]

no bones:

andrew@andrew-laptop:~$ fdisk -l
andrew@andrew-laptop:~$

PLEASE HELP ME!

Would a re-install of ubuntu help?

[ddrichardson]

sorry - that needs doing as sudo:sudo fdisk -l

[a.drewmc]

andrew@andrew-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9355 75144006 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 9356 9729 3004155 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9356 9729 3004123+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
andrew@andrew-laptop:~$

Cant find a the drive.

[ddrichardson]

First, check for any USB or Plug & Play options in BIOS.

Second check the output of dmesg when the device is plugged in and report any errors.

[Jouke74]

For the beginner: "dmesg" is also a command. Sudo means doing things under the "administrator account", named "root".... If none of the devices are working I guess you have a problem with your USB port, not the things that go into that. Indeed check the BIOs for USB and switch legacy on / off, thus the other option on which it is now.