Cannot remove flash memory

[Dotan Cohen]

On 29/11/06, Toby Dickenson <toby at tarind.com> wrote:
> Dotan Cohen wrote:
>
> > I've always heard that one should never pull out a USB stick when the
> > led is lit or flashing. Does anybody else have a second opinion?
>
> Which kde versions are you using? some recent hal/kde updates have caused
> problems for usb sticks:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/kdebase/+bug/70417
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/kdebase/+bug/72869
>
> > > At that point, the icon disappears, but the
> > > LED on the USB unit turns on, and never turns off. So I cannot remove
> > > the device.
>
> First check if the device is still mounted, using the mount command:
>
> $ mount
> /dev/hda8 on / type reiserfs (rw)
> proc on /proc type proc (rw)
> <many lines deleted>
> /dev/sda1 on /media/STICK type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,noatime,
> uid=1001,utf8,shortname=lower)
>
> You should be able to unmount it with the pumount command. If this fails, it
> will often give a better error message that kde. For example in this case I
> still had konqueror window open:
>
> $ pumount /media/STICK/
> umount: /media/STICK: device is busy
> umount: /media/STICK: device is busy
> Error: umount failed
>
> After unmounting there is still no guarantee that all the data has been
> written. Particularly if you have a slow memory stick. Try the
> command 'sync'. This will only return when all outstanding data has been
> written.
>
> If anything seems to be going wrong then check /var/log/syslog for kernel
> error messages.
>
> I hope this helps.
>

Sorry for the late reply, I was moving house. I still cannot unmount
that USB stick:

dotancohen at ubuntu:~$ sync
dotancohen at ubuntu:~$ mount
/dev/hda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/hda9 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hdb1 on /home/dotancohen/music type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda5 on /home/dotancohen/pictures type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda6 on /home/dotancohen/video1 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /home/dotancohen/video2 type ext3 (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /media/usbdisk type vfat
(rw,nosuid,nodev,quiet,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=077,iocharset=utf8)
dotancohen at ubuntu:~$ pumount /dev/sda1
umount: /media/usbdisk: device is busy
umount: /media/usbdisk: device is busy
Error: umount failed
dotancohen at ubuntu:~$ sudo umount /dev/sda1
umount: /media/usbdisk: device is busy
umount: /media/usbdisk: device is busy
dotancohen at ubuntu:~$ eject /dev/sda1
umount: /media/usbdisk: device is busy
umount: /media/usbdisk: device is busy
Error: umount failed
eject: unmount of `/media/usbdisk' failed
dotancohen at ubuntu:~$

The light stay lit, solid. This is the access light, not the "I'm
connected" light, which this model (Sandisk Cruzer Micro 2GB) does not
have. Note that I even removed the U3 garbage from it, no improvment.

Dotan Cohen

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