USB drive "is not a block device"

Question

I am running Artix Linux on a System76 Galago. When I plug in a USB device it appears as /dev/usb/003/00X.

Example lsusb output:

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 5986:9102 Acer, Inc BisonCam,NB Pro
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 05dc:a815 Lexar Media, Inc. JumpDrive V10
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp.
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

And having a lot of trouble mounting it.

sudo mount /dev/usb/003/002 = mount: /mnt: /dev/bus/usb/003/002 is not a block device.

sudo fdisk /dev/bus/usb/003/002 = fdisk: cannot open /ddev/bus/usb/003/002: Operation not permitted

sudo cfdisk /dev/bus/usb/003/002 /mnt = cfdisk: cannot open /dev/bus/usb/003/002: Inappropriate ioctl for device

sudo parted /dev/bus/usb/003/002 = ``` Error: The device /dev/bus/usb/003/002 is so small that it cannot possibly store a file system or partition table. Perhaps you selected the wrong device? Warning: Error fsyncing/closing /dev/bus/usb/003/002: Invalid argument

This is a flash drive that, to the best of my knowledge, has a FAT filesystem with backups.

Answer 1

Your /dev/bus/usb/003/002 is a representation of the USB interface. It's not a representation of the contents on that flash drive (if it is a flash drive). You cannot mount that.

Have a look at dmesg after you plugged your flash drive in. You should see something like

 [5424328.266872] usb 3-1.1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=1307, idProduct=0165
 [5424328.266879] usb 3-1.1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
 [5424328.266882] usb 3-1.1.3: Product: Intenso Business Line
 [5424328.266884] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: USBest Technology
 [5424328.266887] usb 3-1.1.3: SerialNumber: <redacted>
 [5424328.267303] usb-storage 3-1.1.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
 [5424328.267700] scsi host9: usb-storage 3-1.1.3:1.0
 [5424329.289320] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Intenso  Business         0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
 [5424329.293793] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg9 type 0
 [5424329.294650] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdh] 7897088 512-byte logical blocks: (4.04 GB/3.77 GiB)
 [5424329.295624] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off
 [5424329.295631] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
 [5424329.296650] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdh] Asking for cache data failed
 [5424329.296657] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
 [5424329.517187]  sdh: sdh1 sdh2
 [5424329.626818] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI removable disk

And in that case, /dev/sdh1 or /dev/sdh2 is the device you want to mount. (Yes, that flash drive has two partitions, because I needed two for it).

If you want to identify the partition by USB path, you can use the aliases in /dev/disk/by-path/. Or any other of the aliases in /dev/disk/by-*, if you want to identify it by volume label, or whatever.