How to format USB Memorystick with ext3?

[ronnys]

Hi!
I try to format a USB Memorystick with ext3.
The problem is the memorystick become write-protected. How do i make it Read-Write-able?

I use Partitioner to format the stick.

OpenSUSE 13.1 64bits
KDE

[hcvv]

The fact that it is a memory stick is not realy important.

But we lack a lot of information. Yo only tell us your conslusions, but not the facts. Thus when you say "the memorystick become write-protected", pleas tell us why you think that the stick is write protected.

There are mainly two things that make somethin write protected:

• a whole file system (all files on it) can be made write protected by mounting it read-only. The mout system will tell you if that is the case witth your file system.
• the user/group of the process trying to write and the ownership/group combined with the access bits of the file do not match in such a way that the prcess can write to it. Simply, when to files are not yours and do not give you write access, you can not write on them. And that starts of course with the directory that is the mount point of the file system.

When you want help with the interpretation of what is the case here, post the output of

mount | grep <the-mount-point

ls -l <the-mount-point>

to begin witth. And of course replave <the-mount-point> with the real path to the mount-point.

[hcvv]

I reread your post.

Is it possible that you mean that during the partitioning process there is an error that say that the sticky can not be written to?

Allways tell what you are doing. "I use Partitinoner" is not very clear. I would use Yast > System > Partitioner but there are many more. And when you have an error, either copy/paste it, or copy it by typing, or, when it is very large, show a screenshot.

[john_hudson]

In order to format a USB stick with ext3, you may have to delete the existing partitions. Trying to format a partition which is already formatted may result in a write protected error.

BTW why ext3? ext2 is better for a USB stick because it does not have the repeated writes that the journaling of ext3 creates.

[Fraser_Bell]

BTW why ext3? ext2 is better for a USB stick because it does not have the repeated writes that the journaling of ext3 creates.

Precisely the question I was about to ask, "why ext3?". I also suggest ext2.

[ronnys]

I thing the whole memory-stick is completely messed up. It want mount at all and now it doesn't show up in Partitioner.
The only thing that manage to detect the memory-stick, its the kernel

user@linux-8db7:~> dmesg | grep Kingston
[12282.739589] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[12285.242736] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[12657.641508] scsi 6:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC     uSD/M2 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[18008.312216] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[18010.679341] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[18383.178511] scsi 7:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC     uSD/M2 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[18605.948043] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[18608.315013] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[18608.579223] scsi 8:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC     uSD/M2 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[19395.452893] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[19397.819901] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[19398.084084] scsi 9:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC     uSD/M2 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[19442.074467] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[19444.435104] scsi 10:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[19444.699603] scsi 10:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC     uSD/M2 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[20676.796581] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[20679.164702] scsi 11:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[21974.279188] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[21976.647068] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[21976.911211] scsi 12:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC     uSD/M2 1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[84147.118037] usb 3-1.1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[84149.477234] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DTCRC            1000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS

But there is no mount-point

@linux-8db7:~> df
Filesystem     1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb2       20889188  13416916   6388112  68% /
devtmpfs         4049240        24   4049216   1% /dev
tmpfs            4062976        88   4062888   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs            4062976      1208   4061768   1% /run
tmpfs            4062976         0   4062976   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs            4062976      1208   4061768   1% /var/lock
tmpfs            4062976      1208   4061768   1% /var/run
/dev/sda2      455859552 222445800 210234336  52% /home

So i guess i have to find another memorystick :-(

RS

The fact that it is a memory stick is not realy important.

But we lack a lot of information. Yo only tell us your conslusions, but not the facts. Thus when you say "the memorystick become write-protected", pleas tell us why you think that the stick is write protected.

There are mainly two things that make somethin write protected:

• a whole file system (all files on it) can be made write protected by mounting it read-only. The mout system will tell you if that is the case witth your file system.
• the user/group of the process trying to write and the ownership/group combined with the access bits of the file do not match in such a way that the prcess can write to it. Simply, when to files are not yours and do not give you write access, you can not write on them. And that starts of course with the directory that is the mount point of the file system.

When you want help with the interpretation of what is the case here, post the output of

mount | grep <the-mount-point

ls -l <the-mount-point>

to begin witth. And of course replave <the-mount-point> with the real path to the mount-point.

[ronnys]

Sorry my bad!
The "stick" was formated as FAT32. I use Partitioner to first remove old FAT32-partition, click Next and Finish to execute the task. Then i run Partitioner again and create ext3 partition. It create and format it without error.
Now when i plug it in, it is not detected and mounted. I guess its completely messed up. :-(

RS

In order to format a USB stick with ext3, you may have to delete the existing partitions. Trying to format a partition which is already formatted may result in a write protected error.

BTW why ext3? ext2 is better for a USB stick because it does not have the repeated writes that the journaling of ext3 creates.

[deano_ferrari]

Plug in the device and do (as root)

fdisk -l

Chances are that the device will be reported. If you want to format it, you don't want to have it mounted.

Assuming it's reported as /dev/sdb1, it can be unmounted with

umount /dev/sdb1

You could scrub it with a low-level write like this

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1

then format with

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1

[ronnys]

Hi! Thanks! It works, almost!

There is something very strange. I did the commands and created ext2-partition. Then when i plug it in, it mount and i opened in Dolphin. I wanted to copy some files in, but the memory-stic was only write-able for a minute, then again its bacl to write-protected.
I copy as root and now it works, so i look at det right-settings and yes it says only owner(root) kan write and all others can only read. I change this to wrx on other users.
Unmount the memorystick and plug it out and then in again.
Now it doesn't mount at all and fdisk -l don't show the memorystick. I i replug the stick several times, it mount again. The same happens again. Write-able for å short time and then back to write-protected.

There is eighter å problem(bug) in OpenSUSE or there is something wrong with the memory-stick.

RS

Plug in the device and do (as root)

fdisk -l

Chances are that the device will be reported. If you want to format it, you don't want to have it mounted.

Assuming it's reported as /dev/sdb1, it can be unmounted with

umount /dev/sdb1

You could scrub it with a low-level write like this

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1

then format with

mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1

[hcvv]

You are only telling stories and do not show us what any of the commands we offered you do.

Where is fdisk -l? where is mount? where is ls -l of the mount-point?

Most people here realy have problems in helping without the information they asked for.

And doing things as root because they do not function otherwise is of course not very clever. One should find out and understand why something does not function and then act accordingly. Just forcing things to be done as root is almost as bad as doing everything as root.