Having trouble running ROMs from USB using automount

mitu

Does manually mounting the disk works ?

2fst4u

I'm not sure how I can do that if the commands the documentation say to use don't show the disk? When I use df it doesn't show.

mitu

@2fst4u dfonly shows the mounted filesystems, it doesn't show all disk devices. If your disk is not mounted, then it will not show up in df's output.

2fst4u

Right, what command should I be looking to use then? What can I use to see the device before it has been mounted?

mitu

@2fst4u You can query the device with fdisk, to see the available partitions

fdisk -l /dev/sda

then mount the corresponding partition under a temporary mountpoint

sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/

The name of the device should apper in the log, immediately after you plug in the drive:

dmesg | tail -n 20

2fst4u

Ok cool, that seems to have worked and it's telling me there are some issues:

pi@retropie:~ $ dmesg | tail -n 20
[ 4220.659452] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4220.793028] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x07 driverbyte=0x00
[ 4220.793080] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x28 28 00 00 00 08 38 00 00 08 00
[ 4220.793099] print_req_error: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2104
[ 4220.793124] Buffer I/O error on dev sda1, logical block 7, async page read
[ 4220.919442] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4221.053501] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x07 driverbyte=0x00
[ 4221.053548] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x28 28 00 00 07 4e b2 00 00 01 00
[ 4221.053572] print_req_error: I/O error, dev sda, sector 478898
[ 4221.159458] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4221.429444] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4221.699504] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4221.969453] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4222.239450] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4222.509590] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 4222.643061] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#0 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x07 driverbyte=0x00
[ 4222.643113] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#0 CDB: opcode=0x28 28 00 00 07 4e b2 00 00 01 00
[ 4222.643132] print_req_error: I/O error, dev sda, sector 478898
[ 4222.643315] FAT-fs (sda1): Directory bread(block 476850) failed
[ 4222.643793] FAT-fs (sda1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.

Could this be the reason it doesn't want to mount it automatically?

mitu

@2fst4u Looks like the hub/usb disk connection is reset

[ 4222.509590] usb 1-1.7.4: reset high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg

You could try a check of the filesystem (on your PC) and see if it produces anything.

Efriim

@2fst4u A lot of external hard drives the 10-pin usb port is easily damaged, and will make faulty connections unless carefully situated. Which is awful engineering.

2fst4u

Ah what an absolute prick of a thing! @mitu thank you for all your help so far, you've been great. I think you hit the nail on the head, @Efriim! I removed the hub from the equation and now it's working properly! How bloody annoying.

I went to all the effort to use an externally powered hub and it ended up being the problem haha. Thankfully the power supply seems to be able to power both the zero and the HDD directly through the USB port just fine so now it's working as expected.

Tl;dr - if you have this problem check the hub isn't causing it!

mitu

@2fst4u To be fair, this is the most common problem when dealing with a Pi Zero - the hub. Glad you got it working.