Usb devices not mounted or recognised

[mac71]

Hi, I've had this problem for about two weeks now, and its really starting to irritate.

All of my usb slots are fine (both in ubuntu and windows), as they have all been individually checked with known working devices.

The problem is, none of them detect or mount usb memory sticks, mp3 players, or cameras. I can get it to detect and mount usb stick and mp3 player if i plug them in at boot but not after. The camera just doesn't show at all.

This cant be to do with the individual devices as they have all worked fine since dapper.

If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

[kgriff]

Mac,
I don't necessarily have a solution for you, but I can tell you what I've found out so far.
I'm having the same problem you are, and I've not found much information about it. There's lots of talk about USB devices not automounting, but very few people talking about our problem.
Do you, by any chance, know what your USB controller is? You can see this using lspci.
The only partial solution I've found is to disable USB 2.0 support in BIOS. This seems to work sometimes. From my testing, if you reboot your machine with USB 2.0 off, plug in a USB device, and have it recognized, USB will function fairly normally until the next reboot. The next reboot, USB may or may not work. It's pretty much a crap shoot with each reboot.
On those reboots when USB does work, my camera, flash drive, USB printer, USB hub, USB HDD are all recognized and function. Not that this is a good solution for data transfer, as data transfer is extremely with USB 2.0 disabled.

I've got a theory, with no evidence to support the theory, that this is a kernel issue.

In any event, please post your USB controller here and we'll go from there.

[irksomekitty]

I'm a newbie, so forgive me if this isn't in the right place, but I can't get my pictures from my Kodak EasyShare C533 camera. Except once. And it just doesn't show up anywhere.

Okay. F-spot wouldn't open, at all. Period. The first time I plugged in my camera I got a message that said a camera was found, and would I like to import the images? I clicked OK, and then nothing happened.

I tried to open F-spot, with or without the camera, and got a busy cursor, then nothing. Not even an error message. Checked forums, found a suggestion to try G-thumb if F-spot didn't work. Uninstalled F-spot, and installed G-thumb. Success! Retrieved photos from camera smooth as silk.

Then I disconnected the camera and took more pictures. Now G-thumb doesn't work either. When I try to import my pictures, G-thumb shows the NAME of my camera, but can't or won't get pictures from it. In any case, the camera doesn't show up anywhere on the system. First I searched for possible solutions, and didn't find anything that worked. So I tried restarting the computer, turning the camera off and back on, and disconnecting and reconnecting the camera, in over a dozen combinations, but nothing worked (and got no error messages to point me in the right direction, either). I then tried various combinations of screaming, vulgar hand gestures, and stomping my feet. That didn't work either. So now I'm asking for help.

This machine is a "reconditioned" piece of junk that I picked up for cheap cheap cheap after my nice computer died. I installed Ubuntu on it because it was slower than molasses running WinXP, and now it's fast fast fast, but I can't get my pictures! Wahh! Help!


Here's the information I got from running hardinfo: I can't make heads or tails of most of it.


Computer
Summary
Computer
Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Memory 385MB (215MB used)
Operating System Ubuntu 8.04
User Name janice (janice)
Date/Time Tue 27 May 2008 09:30:37 PM EDT
Display
Resolution 1024x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer Mesa DRI Rage 128 20051027 x86/MMX/SSE2
X11 Vendor The X.Org Foundation
Multimedia
Audio Adapter ICH4 - Intel ICH5
Input Devices
Macintosh mouse button emulation
AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
PIXART USB OPTICAL MOUSE
Power Button (FF)
Power Button (CM)
PC Speaker
Printers (CUPS)
PDF
Photosmart_C3100_series
IDE Disks
SCSI Disks
ATA Maxtor 93073U6
Model: 52X32COMBO Rev: 104G 52X32COMBO
Operating System
Version
Kernel Linux 2.6.24-17-generic (i686)
Compiled #1 SMP Thu May 1 14:31:33 UTC 2008
C Library GNU C Library version 2.7 (stable)
Distribution Ubuntu 8.04
Current Session
Computer Name janice-desktop
User Name janice (janice)
Home Directory /home/janice
Desktop Environment GNOME 2.22 (session name: Default)
Misc
Uptime 22 hours, 32 minutes
Load Average 0.57, 0.22, 0.13
Kernel Modules
Loaded Modules
xt_limit iptables rate limit match
xt_tcpudp x_tables match for TCP and UDP(-Lite), supports IPv4 and IPv6
ipt_LOG iptables syslog logging module
ipt_MASQUERADE iptables MASQUERADE target module
ipt_TOS iptables TOS mangling module
ipt_REJECT iptables REJECT target module
nf_conntrack_irc IRC (DCC) connection tracking helper
nf_conntrack_ftp ftp connection tracking helper
xt_state ip[6]_tables connection tracking state match module
af_packet
rndis_host USB Host side RNDIS driver
cdc_ether USB CDC Ethernet devices
usbnet USB network driver framework
mii MII hardware support library
snd_rtctimer
ipv6 IPv6 protocol stack for Linux
binfmt_misc
r128 ATI Rage 128
drm DRM shared core routines
rfcomm Bluetooth RFCOMM ver 1.8
l2cap Bluetooth L2CAP ver 2.9
bluetooth Bluetooth Core ver 2.11
ppdev
speedstep_lib Library for Intel SpeedStep 1 or 2 cpufreq drivers.
cpufreq_userspace CPUfreq policy governor 'userspace'
cpufreq_conservative 'cpufreq_conservative' - A dynamic cpufreq governor for Low Latency Frequency Transition capable processors optimised for use in a battery environment
cpufreq_ondemand 'cpufreq_ondemand' - A dynamic cpufreq governor for Low Latency Frequency Transition capable processors
cpufreq_stats 'cpufreq_stats' - A driver to export cpufreq stats through sysfs filesystem
freq_table CPUfreq frequency table helpers
cpufreq_powersave CPUfreq policy governor 'powersave'
sbs Smart Battery System ACPI interface driver
container ACPI container driver
sbshc ACPI SMBus HC driver
dock ACPI Dock Station Driver
video ACPI Video Driver
output Display Output Switcher Lowlevel Control Abstraction
battery ACPI Battery Driver
ac ACPI AC Adapter Driver
lp
snd_intel8x0 Intel 82801AA,82901AB,i810,i820,i830,i840,i845,MX440; SiS 7012; Ali 5455
snd_ac97_codec Universal interface for Audio Codec '97
ac97_bus
snd_pcm_oss PCM OSS emulation for ALSA.
snd_mixer_oss Mixer OSS emulation for ALSA.
parport_pc PC-style parallel port driver
parport
snd_pcm Midlevel PCM code for ALSA.
evdev Input driver event char devices
snd_seq_dummy ALSA sequencer MIDI-through client
psmouse PS/2 mouse driver
pcspkr PC Speaker beeper driver
serio_raw Raw serio driver
snd_seq_oss OSS-compatible sequencer module
snd_seq_midi Advanced Linux Sound Architecture sequencer MIDI synth.
snd_rawmidi Midlevel RawMidi code for ALSA.
snd_seq_midi_event MIDI byte <-> sequencer event coder
snd_seq Advanced Linux Sound Architecture sequencer.
snd_timer ALSA timer interface
snd_seq_device ALSA sequencer device management
snd Advanced Linux Sound Architecture driver for soundcards.
soundcore Core sound module
snd_page_alloc Memory allocator for ALSA system.
button ACPI Button Driver
iTCO_wdt Intel TCO WatchDog Timer Driver
iTCO_vendor_support Intel TCO Vendor Specific WatchDog Timer Driver Support
shpchp Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver
pci_hotplug PCI Hot Plug PCI Core
intel_agp
agpgart AGP GART driver
iptable_nat
nf_nat
nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_conntrack
iptable_mangle iptables mangle table
iptable_filter iptables filter table
ip_tables IPv4 packet filter
x_tables [ip,ip6,arp]_tables backend module
ext3 Second Extended Filesystem with journaling extensions
jbd
mbcache Meta block cache (for extended attributes)
sg SCSI generic (sg) driver
sr_mod SCSI cdrom (sr) driver
cdrom
sd_mod SCSI disk (sd) driver
ata_generic low-level driver for generic ATA
usbhid USB HID core driver
hid
ata_piix SCSI low-level driver for Intel PIIX/ICH ATA controllers
floppy
pata_acpi SCSI low-level driver for ATA in ACPI mode
tg3 Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet driver
libata Library module for ATA devices
scsi_mod SCSI core
ehci_hcd 10 Dec 2004 USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
uhci_hcd USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usbcore
thermal ACPI Thermal Zone Driver
processor ACPI Processor Driver
fan ACPI Fan Driver
fbcon
tileblit Tile Blitting Operation
font Console Fonts
bitblit Bit Blitting Operation
softcursor Generic software cursor
fuse Filesystem in Userspace
Boots
Boots
Mon May 26 22:58 - 21:18 (22:19) Kernel 2.6.24-17-generi
Mon May 26 19:43 - 21:01 (01:17) Kernel 2.6.24-17-generi
Mon May 26 19:08 - 19:43 (00:34) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Mon May 26 14:53 - 19:07 (04:14) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Mon May 26 14:25 - 14:52 (00:27) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Sun May 25 22:00 - 14:24 (16:24) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Fri May 23 23:39 - 14:24 (2+14:44) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Thu May 22 18:59 - 14:24 (3+19:25) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Thu May 22 18:24 - 18:58 (00:34) Kernel 2.6.24-16-generi
Languages
Available Languages
en_AU.utf8 English locale for Australia
en_BW.utf8 English locale for Botswana
en_CA.utf8 English locale for Canada
en_DK.utf8 English locale for Denmark
en_GB.utf8 English locale for Britain
en_HK.utf8 English locale for Hong Kong
en_IE.utf8 English locale for Ireland
en_IN English language locale for India
en_NZ.utf8 English locale for New Zealand
en_PH.utf8 English language locale for Philippines
en_SG.utf8 English language locale for Singapore
en_US.utf8 English locale for the USA
en_ZA.utf8 English locale for South Africa
Filesystems
Mounted File Systems
/dev/sda1 27.4 GiB total, 20.8 GiB free
proc 0.0 B total, 0.0 B free
/sys 0.0 B total, 0.0 B free
varrun 188.2 MiB total, 188.1 MiB free
varlock 188.2 MiB total, 188.2 MiB free
udev 188.2 MiB total, 188.2 MiB free
devshm 188.2 MiB total, 188.2 MiB free
devpts 0.0 B total, 0.0 B free
lrm 188.2 MiB total, 151.0 MiB free
securityfs 0.0 B total, 0.0 B free
binfmt_misc 0.0 B total, 0.0 B free
gvfs-fuse-daemon 27.4 GiB total, 20.8 GiB free
Shared Directories
SAMBA
NFS
Display
Display
Resolution 1024x768 pixels
Vendor The X.Org Foundation
Version 1.4.0.90
Monitors
Monitor 0 1024x768 pixels
Extensions
BIG-REQUESTS
Composite
DAMAGE
DOUBLE-BUFFER
DPMS
Extended-Visual-Information
GLX
MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
MIT-SHM
MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD
RANDR
RECORD
RENDER
SECURITY
SGI-GLX
SHAPE
SYNC
TOG-CUP
X-Resource
XAccessControlExtension
XC-APPGROUP
XC-MISC
XFIXES
XFree86-Bigfont
XFree86-DGA
XFree86-DRI
XFree86-Misc
XFree86-VidModeExtension
XINERAMA
XInputExtension
XKEYBOARD
XTEST
XVideo
OpenGL
Vendor VA Linux Systems, Inc.
Renderer Mesa DRI Rage 128 20051027 x86/MMX/SSE2
Version 1.2 Mesa 7.0.3-rc2
Direct Rendering Yes
Network Interfaces
Network Interfaces
lo Sent 0.07MiB, received 0.07MiB (127.0.0.1)
eth0 Sent 21.30MiB, received 92.36MiB (192.168.1.97)
Users
Human Users
janice janice
System Users
root root
daemon daemon
bin bin
sys sys
sync sync
games games
man man
lp lp
mail mail
news news
uucp uucp
proxy proxy
www-data www-data
backup backup
list Mailing List Manager
irc ircd
gnats Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin)
nobody nobody
libuuid
dhcp
syslog
klog
hplip HPLIP system user
avahi-autoipd Avahi autoip daemon
gdm Gnome Display Manager
pulse PulseAudio daemon
messagebus
avahi Avahi mDNS daemon
polkituser PolicyKit
haldaemon Hardware abstraction layer
Devices
Processor
Processor
Name Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Family, model, stepping 15, 2, 9 (Pentium 4)
Vendor Intel Corp.
Configuration
Cache Size 512kb
Frequency 2394.25MHz
BogoMIPS 4793.40
Byte Order Little Endian
Features
FDIV Bug no
HLT Bug no
F00F Bug no
Coma Bug no
Has FPU yes
Capabilities
fpu Floating Point Unit
vme Virtual 86 Mode Extension
de Debug Extensions - I/O breakpoints
pse Page Size Extensions (4MB pages)
tsc Time Stamp Counter and RDTSC instruction
msr Model Specific Registers
pae Physical Address Extensions
mce Machine Check Architeture
cx8 CMPXCHG8 instruction
apic Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
sep Fast System Call (SYSENTER/SYSEXIT)
mtrr Memory Type Range Registers
pge Page Global Enable
mca Machine Check Architecture
cmov Conditional Move instruction
pat Page Attribute Table
pse36 36bit Page Size Extensions
clflush Cache Line Flush instruction
dts Debug Store
acpi Thermal Monitor and Software Controlled Clock
mmx MMX technology
fxsr FXSAVE and FXRSTOR instructions
sse SSE instructions
sse2 SSE2 (WNI) instructions
ss Self Snoop
ht HyperThreading
tm Thermal Monitor
pbe Pending Break Enable
up
pebs
bts
sync_rdtsc
cid
xtpr
Memory
Memory
Total Memory 385532 kB
Free Memory 83644 kB
Buffers 5044 kB
Cached 86064 kB
Cached Swap 3960 kB
Active 222472 kB
Inactive 48172 kB
High Memory 0 kB
Free High Memory 0 kB
Low Memory 385532 kB
Free Low Memory 83644 kB
Virtual Memory 1100412 kB
Free Virtual Memory 1039168 kB
Dirty 56 kB
Writeback 0 kB
AnonPages 179280 kB
Mapped 47988 kB
Slab 13116 kB
SReclaimable 5648 kB
SUnreclaim 7468 kB
PageTables 1724 kB
NFS_Unstable 0 kB
Bounce 0 kB
CommitLimit 1293176 kB
Committed_AS 573136 kB
VmallocTotal 638968 kB
VmallocUsed 12736 kB
VmallocChunk 626036 kB
PCI Devices
PCI Devices
Host bridge Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface
PCI bridge Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller
USB Controller Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
USB Controller Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
USB Controller Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
USB Controller Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
PCI bridge Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge
ISA bridge Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
IDE interface Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
IDE interface Intel Corporation 82801EB
SMBus Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
Multimedia audio controller Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER
Ethernet controller Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5782 Gigabit Ethernet
VGA compatible controller ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 PP/PRO TMDS [Xpert 128]
USB Devices
Printers
Printers (CUPS)
PDF
Photosmart_C3100_series
Battery
No batteries
No batteries found on this system
Sensors
Input Devices
Input Devices
Macintosh mouse button emulation
AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
PIXART USB OPTICAL MOUSE
Power Button (FF)
Power Button (CM)
PC Speaker
Storage
IDE Disks
SCSI Disks
ATA Maxtor 93073U6
Model: 52X32COMBO Rev: 104G 52X32COMBO
Benchmarks
CPU ZLib
CPU ZLib
This Machine 0.000
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) 2150.597408
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz 8761.604561
CPU Fibonacci
CPU Fibonacci
This Machine 6.035
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz 8.1375674
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) 58.07682
CPU MD5
CPU MD5
This Machine 29.216
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) 7.115258
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz 38.6607998
CPU SHA1
CPU SHA1
This Machine 40.404
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) 6.761451
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz 49.6752776
CPU Blowfish
CPU Blowfish
This Machine 21.788
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz 26.1876862
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) 172.816713
FPU Raytracing
FPU Raytracing
This Machine 29.353
Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz 40.8816714
PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) 161.312647

[kgriff]

irksomekitty,
Regarding your camera: In those instances when you are unable to download pictures from the camera, does camera show up in the Places menu, or on the Desktop? (Forget about gThumb or F-Spot for now. I don't think either of those are the problem.)
If the camera does show up in Places, but not on the desktop, then the volume is probably not mounted. Your computer does not necessarily know that your camera is a camera. It looks at it as an external USB storage device. In order to read data from a storage device, whether it is internal or external, the drive has to first be mounted. To mount the volume, click on its' name in Places.
If it shows up in Places and on the Desktop, it is probably mounted already. In this case, double click on the desktop icon and it should open in Nautilus. At this point, you should be able to see the pictures on the camera.

Try this and let me know what happens. Sorry if I sound patronizing above with the description of volumes and mounting, but I don't know your experience or knowledge level with this.

[mac71]

Hi,
Here's my read out from lspci
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0a:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705_2 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

I believe its a kernel issue also. I have a copy of mandriva spring 2008 which has the same issues, while pclinuxos 2007 is using 2.6.18 and all is working fine.

If anyone knows of a permanent fix, it'd be great.

[irksomekitty]

irksomekitty,
Regarding your camera: In those instances when you are unable to download pictures from the camera, does camera show up in the Places menu, or on the Desktop? (Forget about gThumb or F-Spot for now. I don't think either of those are the problem.)
If the camera does show up in Places, but not on the desktop, then the volume is probably not mounted. Your computer does not necessarily know that your camera is a camera. It looks at it as an external USB storage device. In order to read data from a storage device, whether it is internal or external, the drive has to first be mounted. To mount the volume, click on its' name in Places.
If it shows up in Places and on the Desktop, it is probably mounted already. In this case, double click on the desktop icon and it should open in Nautilus. At this point, you should be able to see the pictures on the camera.

Try this and let me know what happens. Sorry if I sound patronizing above with the description of volumes and mounting, but I don't know your experience or knowledge level with this.

It's not showing up ANYWHERE, at ALL. The camera is plugged in, and turned on. I uninstalled G-thumb, and installed digiKam, and once again was somehow able to get my photos... but this might only work once, too!



... I'll have to test it.

At any rate, my ignorance ticks me off. Where's a good place for a newbie to learn more about how this stuff works? Workarounds are okay for a quick fix, but not understanding bothers me. I'm intelligent enough to figure out a way to JUST MAKE IT WORK, if I knew what was actually going on (instead of just randomly trying different things with my fingers crossed).

Help! Somebody infuse me with knowledge (or point me to a website that has nice, clear explanations, preferably with a glossary)!

[krlhc8]

My flash drive worked fine under Hardy until I upgraded to the newest kernel 2.6.24-17-generic. I don't understand how it could be a kernel issue though because I rebooted with 2.6.24-16, and it still wouldn't mount the device.

[kgriff]

krlhc8,
I agree that, in your case, it doesn't sound like a kernel issue. What is the USB controller in your machine? In my case, on the computer in question, I have not anything installed other than Hardy and USB is sporadic. My controller is ATI SB600. I have another machine, also running Hardy, with an Nvidia MCP61 controller and the USB works perfectly. However, everything I have seen still leads me to believe that it is a kernel issue.

Mac71,
Thanks for the lspci. I'm kinda trying to make a list of controllers that don't work correctly. That was my issue when I purchased the motherboard with the currently sporadically working USB. I couldn't find any information about specific controllers or chipsets, other than "If you have an AMD chipset, the board should work fine." Well, my board is proving that theory wrong.

My solution, on the machine with the ATI controller, was to install a PCI USB controller. It is of Belkin manufacture and now USB on that computer works flawlessly.

irksomekitty,
Unfortunately, I don't know of a website with the technical information you are looking for. I've learned what I know over the years of messing with computers. From Commodore 64's and Tandy TRS-80's to the present. I will attempt to answer any questions you have as best I can, though I have only recently returned to Linux, so I'm not a Linux expert, by any means.

As for your USB problem: Let's tackle it systematically:
Step 1 - From terminal, type lspci. This will give you a list of all pci buses and devices on your computer, and will include your USB controller. Please include the entire printout of lspci, or at least the USB lines in your next post. Knowing the manufacturer and model, it will be possible to search and see if other people running Ubuntu in particular, or Linux in general, are having problems with this USB chipset.
Step 2 - Uninstall digiKam and forget about imaging programs for a bit. First we need to get your USB running reliably. Once USB works properly, you should be able to use any imaging program you want to.
Step 3 - Shut down your computer and plug in your digital camera, and any other USB devices you have, then reboot the computer. From terminal, type lsusb and post the result here. This will show a list of all USB devices currently connected to the computer.
Step 4 - If any USB devices automounted (you will know this if they show up on your desktop) right click on them and select Unmount, then shut the computer down.
Step 5 - With the computer turned off, unplug all USB devices, then restart the computer. Plug in your camera, then type lsusb from terminal and post the result.

This should give enough information to figure out the next steps.

I did just locate a couple of web sites that may give you some of the information you want. http://www.howstuffworks.com/usb.htm howstuffworks is a pretty cool web site that has all kinds of information about, you guessed it, how stuff works. http://www.linux-usb.org/ has a ton of USB information. Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

I know this is frustrating, and it doesn't help that you have to wait hours or days for a reply, but hang in there and we should be able to get your problem solved.

edit - I just re-read your hardinfo from your first post and see that you have an intel 82801 EB/ER USB controller. I find this interesting, because mac71 also has an intel 82801 USB controller.

[irksomekitty]

Thank you, kgriff. I'm not in a huge rush, and I don't mind waiting for help; this is not exactly a life-or-death situation. I shall follow the steps you outlined, and check out the links you kindly provided when I'm not drowsy and bewildered.

Irksomekitty out. I'll work on this tomorrow, and keep you posted.

[cdtech]

From my experiances this is a race condition between hal and dbus which happens when the two initscripts are started concurrently by upstart.

This should not happen because hal initscript requires dbus for starting but instead happens when upstart concurrency is enabled because the scripts have been symlinked with the same number (12).

The solution is to install hal initscript with S13.

Try this and see if this corrects the problem:

sudo mv /etc/rc2.d/S12hal /etc/rc2.d/S13hal

Hope this helps.....