Rusty debian squeeze install no drives and weird root account behaviour.

Hi guys,

I just installed a debian squeeze KDE-based LiveDVD snapshot from debian.org to my harddrive and it's kinda rusty out-of-the-box.

I can't mount my other partitions. When I try, I get:

org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.volume.PermissionDenied : refusing to mount device /dev/
sda2 for uid=1000

I found out, that I should check that: usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks.policy
has "auth_admin" set to "yes" like so <allow_active>yes</allow_active> under <defaults> and it already does.

I also tried chmod'ing and chown'ing my way around the drive-issue, no luck.

To add insult to injury, when I try to start Kate or KWrite as kdesudo to work on things, it also gives me a graphical root prompt where it then denies my password like it's wrong.

I have already upgraded the install to the latest possible pr. my sources.list file

Hope you can help.

Thx

Can you post the full terminal output to show that you did it as root?

I haven't done the kde-live snapshot like you (usually net-install the base and pick packages, or run tasksel), but things should be relatively the same. Debian by default allows a root user (and I've avoided sudo all my life :p ), so maybe open a terminal, type su, enter pass, verify # over $ at the end of the terminal string, and try your commands then. Should look like:

Code:

---

trilarian@Debian-Server ~ $ su
Password:
Debian-Server /home/trilarian #

---

If they fail again, copy and paste the output or screenshot like saikee mentioned. Once it works, can try to figure out why the method you want to use (kdesudo) is giving you issues.

Your comment is very good:)

Ok, this issue is not over yet. I have now installed the latest Mint-debian, stayed with the Gnome desktop and done a full update of the system, but the USB drive behaviour is still really weird. The Maxtor 750 GB USB disk shows up as a desktop icon blinking a few milliseconds a few times and then vaporizes permanently and my Android-based smartphone won't mount by USB cable either and this used to work just fine too. My Maxtor drive also won't spin down.

How do I get around this???

I think it will help if you concentrate to solve one problem at a time.

Say for the 750 Maxtor USB hard disk. Can you try it on other operating system? If there is a hardware fault and the disk cannot be read/write properly the operating system could abandon the attempt. There is also a possibility the update isn't perfect and there are bug in the installed Linux.

When you mount a partition have you tried to mount it as root manually with a terminal? The server grade version of Debian could have additional security to prevent users to mount partitions one doesn't owned.

Saikee:

Thx for replying. I can mount it just fine with a range of liveCD's including the Mint LMDE liveCD itself. I have tested the drive for errors too, none reported. There's nothing to mount according to linux. no sdb drive found, doesn't show up in Parted either. It's like the system got blind to the device as soon as LMDE got installed to my sda partiton. Weird thing is, on rare occasions at boot, the drive shows up and then vaporizes again after a short while of non-usage, but stays spinning. I have tried chown on it too.

Are you saying the USB drive works perfectly with the Linux if boot up from a Live CD but could not be found or detected once the same Linux has been installed permanently in your internal hard drive?

Have you tried to see the USB device reported in the hardware level by command

Code:

---

sudo fdisk -l

---

If the disk isn't found there then at the hardware level the Bios has not got its information to pass onto the kernel.

Yup, that's what I'm saying.

The command gives me:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120033041920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234439535 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6d399d50

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 39843840 77817855 18987008 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 63 39843839 19921888+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 190466640 234436544 21984952+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 77818860 190466639 56323890 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

If the Linux doesn't detect a hard disk there is no way you can instruct any cure.

Assuming you have proved both the power supply and signal connections are satisfactory you should therefore proceed to test

If the USB hard disk healthy and can be mounted, read and written by another operating system?

If the answer is positive then you may need to update or reinstall the Linux.