I have just completed a new install on a new computer, and finally got oit working OK.
I want to transfer all my old files to the new machine. I have a separate hard drive enclosure which plugs into a USB port. The old HDD is installed in the enclosure and plugged in. But it does not appear in Dolphin. The light on it is flashing but nothing else seems to be happening. Could this just be a slow connection or do I need to do something else.
There is a huge distance between connecting an USB mass-storage device to a system and using it by an end-users desktop application.
Start a terminal emulator (e.g. konsole) and use
dmesg -w
It will show you some logging and then stop, waiting for something.
Connect the USB and see what dmesg reports. That could be errors. In any case it must display somewhere that it sees mass-storage.
BTW, if on the device is (eventual one or more partitions with) a Linux file system, it could be that you must mount it as root.
With the device connected, you could also use (as root)
lsblk -f
With my previous computer I just had to plug in the USB and it was recognised by the file manager. I don’t remember having to do anything for this to happen. Running Opensuse Tumbleweed.
Yes, normally it will also show a pop-up telling the user “in the seat” that something has become available.
You already reported that these things do not happen. I try to help you in finding out why. But when you do not post what I asked for, the next step becomes difficult.
So at least, with the device connected (as root):
lsblk -f
Sorry I didn’t realise you wanted me to post the output.
dmesg after plugging in the USB showed:
7549.443236] usb 2-1.7: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
7549.551638] usb 2-1.7: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=161f, bcdDevice= 1.00
7549.551642] usb 2-1.7: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
mike@localhost:~> lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 vfat BCB1-27EC 66.6M 31% /boot/efi
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs EE42B3E642B3B1A7
└─sda4 ext4 80f46e8d-cac5-4d2d-aed3-f6acbdb4541b 39.5G 12% /
sdb
├─sdb1 ntfs C6EAB53DEAB52B17 50.6G 0% /run/media/mike/
└─sdb2 ext4 3ffecb36-c41e-482b-b60d-c0c57dd4b702 386.6G 0% /home
sr0
mike@localhost:~>
Thanks. I have to go out now, be back later.
Well, when you want help … 
From the dmesg output, I doubt if the device is recognised as being a mass-storage device.
From the fdisk output, I assume that sda and sdb are both disks you have normally attached, one with the ext4 root file system and the other with the ext4 /home file system.
When that assumption is correct, the extra device is not visible there, which confirms what dmesg says (or better does not say).
When I do a similar USB mass-storage connection, I get:
[29844.543462] usb 1-5: new high-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
[29844.694696] usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=0ea0, idProduct=1001, bcdDevice= 2.00
[29844.694701] usb 1-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[29844.694704] usb 1-5: Product: Flash Disk
[29844.694707] usb 1-5: Manufacturer: USB
[29844.696362] usb-storage 1-5:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[29844.696668] scsi host7: usb-storage 1-5:1.0
[29845.716784] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access NOR Flash Disk 2.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[29845.717344] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[29846.788468] ready
The message Mass Storage device detected is crucial.When that fails all the mechanisms to create device files, etc. are not triggered.
Maybe we can get some more information with
lsusb
mike@localhost:~> lsusb
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 13fd:161f Initio Corporation
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1b3f:2247 Generalplus Technology Inc.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:c31c Logitech, Inc. Keyboard K120
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 1c4f:0003 SiGma Micro HID controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
mike@localhost:~>
Thanks. Hm, I think the first line is him (or her?). 13fd:161f. Initio Corporation.
I am a bit at loss here, the more because you say on other system it was recognised as mass torage. Was that also on openSUSE 15.2?
Did you try several other USB plugins? It could be that USB version is different.
The HDD is the one that was in the previous computer, and was running Tumbleweed. It worked perfectly well. I just removed it and installed it into the enclosure then plugged it in.
I have also just tried other USB sticks - two are recognised and show in Dolphin, a third doesn’t. The one that doesn’t is the USB device which is bootable as an installation source. The HDD is also a bootable device as this is the old HDD from the previous computer; is this maybe why it isn’t recognised? A HDD which I had in the enclosure before was also a bootable device but this was recognised by Tumbleweed. I am a bit confused.
I am having to close just now, I can check again in the morning. Thanks for your help so far.
Thus, you never had this combination of enclosure with this disk working until now. Thus no prove that you did that inserting in the enclosure correct I am afraid. A lot of uncertainties here.
Could it be the hdd needs additional power supply in the external enclosure?
There is a separate power supply to the enclosure.
I have been doing some trials this morning with different set-ups. this may get a bit confusing.
I have two desktop units, the old one I have been using for some time, and the new one I am trying to setup now, call them C1 and C2. I have two HDD for C1 an old one with openSUSE 12.3 and the newer one with Tumbleweed. Both have Windows partitions in addition to Linux, call them H1 and H2. The new one has an SSD and a HDD and Leap 15.2 installed, also with a Windows partition. I also have 4 USB devices, a 2Gb stick, a 16Gb stick (both used for file transfer). a 16Gb stick with the install image for Leap 15.2, and the HDD enclosure. Call them A to D.
I have tried to use all combinations usng Dolphin file manager:
C1/H1 can see and open A and B but not C and D
C1/H2 can see A, B, C and D
C2 can see and open A, B, not C and D with H1 installed but not D with H2.
For some time I have been using the Tumbleweed installation and the enclosure with the H1 in as a repository of old files. This has been working well. Now I am updating my computer I firstly need to transfer my files to the new one and then to keep the H1 drive for old files.
I hope this makes sense. I am wondering if installing Tumbleweed might help as this seems to have been working before. I didn’t install Tumbleweed this time as I felt that I don’t need a cutting edge distro which has continual updates. I would be interested to hear your comments.
I tried to internalize all combinations ;). Indeed strange that some combinations do not work.
Am I correct that your original report was about the combination: computer C2 (with openSUSE 15.2) and container D with disk H2? Please confirm.
Computer C1 booted with openSUSE 12.3 (H1) can not access the container (D), but I have no idea what then is in there. In any case, this combination does not tell us very much.
Computer C1 booted with Tumbleweed (from H2) can access the container (D), but as H2 is used for the system, it can not be in the container at the same time. Thus again that does not tell us much about the usability of container D with disk H2.
My conclusion, we still have not seen a working combination with H2 inside D. Do you agree with that?
When that is the case, we still might have a hardware problem in the combination.
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BTW I asked to use different USB connections on the system. Did you try that? And, the other way around, are all tests done so far using the same USB connection? For testing you must, when possible, change only one variable per test.
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Please note that you apparently did all tests by looking at what Dolphin shows the end-user. While I understand that it was the end-user that oriiginally complained, you as system manager should make your tests on the system level. Eliminate as much layers as possible, and certainly the whole desktop layer with all it’s translations into bells and whistles.
Am I correct that your original report was about the combination: computer C2 (with openSUSE 15.2) and container D with disk H2? Please confirm.
Correct. Perhaps to clarify, my original intention was/is to transfer my previous work files and config files to the new computer.so that I can continue using applications, such as email,etc., with all my existing data. The enclosure would be using H1 which has historic files most of which I don’t use but I would like to retain access in case of need.
I have just found another plug-in drive, a WD My Passport 500Gb, which is recognised by both C1/H2 and C2 so may be the answer to transfer files over. I’m not sure if there may be user ID issues as my old ID was 1001, the new ID is 1000 and the WD drive is 501, other USB drives appear to be user root.
My conclusion, we still have not seen a working combination with H2 inside D. Do you agree with that?
When that is the case, we still might have a hardware problem in the combination.
Yes. This may not be a problem if I can transfer the files another way.
BTW I asked to use different USB connections on the system. Did you try that? And, the other way around, are all tests done so far using the same USB connection? For testing you must, when possible, change only one variable per test.
I have tried different USB ports but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I am using 1 or 2 of 4 ports on the front of the casing.
OK, The main issue is solved (but the container/disk combination is suspect).
For the UIDs.
To begin with “USB drives” are not root or so. In Linux files have ownership by user:group and to that belong permissions. Does not matter on what Linux file system they are (let alone on which partition, and even more not per device and the way how to connect, USB or PCI or what, as even less to do with it).
I do not know if you still need H2 in it’s old capacity. When not, then my advice would be to use root, cd to the mount point and change the UID and GID on all the files to those of the new owner. Then the new owner will have no problems copying them. That is one way to do it.
When the old files have the same GID as the new owner, then probably most, if not all, file will be readable by the new user and thus can be copied without problem.