<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8"> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.28.3"> </HEAD> <BODY TEXT="#000000" BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> On Mon, 2011-02-07 at 18:28 +0000, John MM wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> Hi, I have an Acer Aspire One, and I am running Ubuntu 10.10. Since upgrading to this version, I am getting the same problem, I cant use USB sticks and I cant plug in my external dvd rewriter. It gives an error 'unable to mount usb stick, not authorised'. It seems to be a Ubuntu problem, and so far I havent been able to find a fix for it. I want to do a fresh install, but I cant because it wont accept both. </BLOCKQUOTE> This bug seems to have been around for a while, I vaguely remember encountering it a few versions ago - there's a discussion of it here: <A HREF="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/518533">https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/518533</A> - I could still mount them manually on the commandline, I think it's Nautilus causing the problem. Some people suggest the only way to fix it is a clean re-install. It sounds like your system might need reinstalling anyway. If you're reinstalling from USB, you only need the BIOS to recognise the stick, not Ubuntu, so this shouldn't be a problem if you can get someone to create an installation stick for you or burn a CD for your external USB CD drive? I'd probably put 10.04 on it as 10.10 doesn't have long to run. Paula </BODY> </HTML>