Hello Guys. This is my first time posting here. I work as a System Administrator but I ran into a problem that I cannot solve. Here is my problem:

I have a Dell Dual Processor Workstation running RedHat Linux kernel version 2.4.21-4.ELsmp. It uses GNOME by default. It has two SCSI HARD drives (/dev/sda and /dev/SDB). When I plug in my "Ours Technology, Inc. Transcend JetFlash 2.0 / Astone USB Drive" flash drive and run dmesg I get the following: (Note: I get the same problem for other flash drives)

hub.c: new USB device 00:1d.7-1, assigned address 7
scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Starting timer : 0 0
Vendor: Verbatim Model: USB Drive Rev: 2.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Starting timer : 0 0
Attached scsi removable disk sdc at scsi6, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sdc: 256000 512-byte hdwr sectors (131 MB)
sdc: Write Protect is off
sdc: sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 sdc4
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 7

Notice the "sdc: sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 sdc4" (it should be only sdc: sdc1) and "WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured". This is crazy. When I do cat /proc/partitions I get the following:

major minor #blocks name rio rmerge rsect ruse wio wmerge wsect wuse running use aveq

8 0 35566479 sda 138226 1254 1062590 542510 1065059 270988 10713427 7396627 0 995170 8247307
8 1 40131 sda1 983 60 2015 3290 0 0 0 0 0 510 3290
8 2 2626627 sda2 787 0 1563 2460 1 0 1 0 0 460 2460
8 3 104422 sda3 108 0 216 360 288 65 706 26770 0 20070 27130
8 4 1 sda4 27 0 52 100 0 0 0 0 0 100 100
8 5 30748378 sda5 129520 1092 1044866 506720 1064770 270923 10712720 7369857 0 991030 8184707
8 6 2040223 sda6 62 0 184 180 0 0 0 0 0 40 180
8 16 71687325 sdb 1924 7 6412 3880 6335 4107 83488 561960 0 14470 565840
8 17 34186288 sdb1 117 0 354 290 442 19 3664 6250 0 1860 6540
8 18 37495710 sdb2 500 0 3418 2090 5893 4088 79824 555710 0 13430 557800
8 32 128000 sdc 21 26 91 300210 0 0 0 0 0 300200 300210
8 33 272218546 sdc1 3 0 3 300180 0 0 0 0 0 300180 300180
8 34 269488144 sdc2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 35 699181456 sdc3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
8 36 10668 sdc4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Note that the flash drive works in all other computers and it is vfat formated. In other computers it shows up as /dev/sda1 (since they have no SCSI drives). It works on all Windows and Linux machines. I have all the required modules loaded on this computer. When I do lsusb -v I get the following:

Bus 005 Device 007: ID 0ea0:2168 Ours Technology, Inc. Transcend JetFlash 2.0 / Astone USB Drive
Language IDs: none (cannot get min. string descriptor; got len=-1, error=71:Protocol error)
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x0ea0 Ours Technology, Inc.
idProduct 0x2168 Transcend JetFlash 2.0 / Astone USB Drive
bcdDevice 2.00
iManufacturer 1
iProduct 2
iSerial 3
bNumConfigurations 1
cannot get config descriptor 0, Protocol error (71)
Language IDs: none (cannot get min. string descriptor; got len=-1, error=71:Protocol error)

When I do fdisk -l I get the following:

Disk /dev/sda: 36.4 GB, 36420075008 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4427 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5 40131 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 6 332 2626627+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/sda3 * 333 345 104422+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 346 4427 32788665 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 346 4173 30748378+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 4174 4427 2040223+ 82 Linux swap

Disk /dev/sdb: 73.4 GB, 73407820800 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8924 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 4256 34186288+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 4257 8924 37495710 83 Linux

When I try mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /mnt/usbstick I get this:

mount: /dev/sdc1 is not a valid block device

Here is also my /etc/fstab, /etc/mtab, and /proc/mounts:

# cat /etc/fstab
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /RootDisk2Part1 ext3 defaults 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /RootDisk2Part2 ext3 defaults 1 1

# cat /etc/mtab
/dev/sda5 / ext3 rw 0 0
none /proc proc rw 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda3 /boot ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /RootDisk2Part1 ext3 rw 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /RootDisk2Part2 ext3 rw 0 0

# cat /proc/mounts
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root / ext3 rw 0 0
/proc /proc proc rw 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
usbdevfs /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda3 /boot ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /RootDisk2Part1 ext3 rw 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/sdb2 /RootDisk2Part2 ext3 rw 0 0

I have never been this frustrated in my life. You might think it is not a big deal but the support for USB flash drives is vital for our organization. We burn many many CDs every day and waste a lot of money. Please help.

ThanksCould be that you've hit a bug/incompatibility with this kernel module with that iteration of the kernel? Are other USB devices generally working okay on this system?

If you've got a spare server to play with, it might be an idea to grab White Box Linux - a distro based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the commercial stuff removed, and try it with that. If USB storage is mission-critical and you can't get it working with your existing box, then perhaps you should consider moving over? I know that COULD be quite a large undertaking, but it may be worthwhile in the long run.

There is more Window experience on this site than Linux experience, and I know that a specific fix for your problem is way over my head. Possibly one of the other guys here has some more ideas, but we might be floundering, I'm afraid.