Linux Lite Forums

Software - Support => Other => Topic started by: XtraKargo on September 24, 2022, 10:00:15 AM

Title: Swapped the PC and having issues mounting external drives.
Post by: XtraKargo on September 24, 2022, 10:00:15 AM
Good morning.


I was hoping someone may know an answer to this.  I have ran LL on a Thinkpad now for around 5 years. I had issues with the previous laptop from water damage, and then purchased the exact same model used, and swapped RAM and the SSD.  All the other programs are running as it should, and if it is updates or software on the SSD it works fine.


When connecting a USB or SD card to the system I cannot mount them.  It states I am not authorized.  I am not a Linux Savvy person, but I am Google Savvy, and so far my Google Fu has not found me the correct answers.  Before nuking the entire image and starting over I thought I would reach out to the forums. 


Thanks for looking, and any advice is appreciated. 
Title: Re: Swapped the PC and having issues mounting external drives.
Post by: Şerban S. on September 25, 2022, 12:11:45 AM
[...]When connecting a USB or SD card to the system I cannot mount them.  It states I am not authorized.  [...

Hi! :)

Mounting or unmounting media, generally requires administrative rights.

This is how it looks like if I use "mount /dev/some-partition":

Code: [Select]
mount /dev/sda6
mount: /video: must be superuser to use mount.

However, given the fact that you changed "the owner", this might have led to some hardware inconsistencies, since the previous laptop, "the owner" of the changed pieces (RAM, SSD) had different IDs (Mainboard, BIOS).
Please provide more detailed information, for us to be able to narrow the search.

1. Open a Terminal.
2. Copy the following code, then paste it into the Terminal, with the appropriate changes, if necessary (the real name of the boot partition, on your drive), then hit "Enter":

Code: [Select]
sudo mount /dev/sda1
This will require your login password.
If everything is OK, you should receive some message.
Should be something like:

Code: [Select]
mount: / already mounted.
Here, "/" means usually "/dev/sda1", except for UEFI machines, where it means the bootloader partition (EFI, Boot), which is easy to recognize, since it has some 512 MB and is FAT32 formatted.

This is what I get if I try to mount something already mounted:

Code: [Select]
sudo mount /dev/sda6
[sudo] password for serban:
mount: /video: /dev/sda6 already mounted on /video.

Unfortunately, this is the standard situation.
There is still something we are out of any other solution than reinstall:

The ports (USB, the card reader) in the OLD laptop, had specific IDs (hardware unique codes) that have been stored somewhere on the SSD during setup time. That means that changing the hardware, also triggered the inconsistencies that led to this behaviour. What that means is that your current laptop has different IDs for the same pieces of hardware and your Linux Lite setup has different values stored for them, because you simply switched the SSD from a laptop to another. That is what leads to the behaviour you described.
In this case, the only way out is a clean install.
The problem here, will be the /home directory:
If you have many custom settings (five years is a long time!), reinstalling Linux Lite, will erase all those, since the installation will recreate the /home directory.
What that means is: all the custom settings for DE (that is: XFCE), for your browser, for Thunderbird, etc. (all other settings) will be lost.
The solution for this, is to create a /home partition and it is a little more complicated, bacause you need to save the contents of the /home directory on a separate drive, then restore it on the new /home partition. This is a fairly more complex task than it looks, but it's doable, if you have the knowledge and the required experience to do it.
Otherwise, all you can do is a clean install. And if so, maybe you'll consider using a /home partition, instead of a directory.
If this is the case, reply to this post with your current situation and we'll see what needs to be done.

Best regards! :)