Re: Can't access USB thumbdrives

On 6/6/26 01:46 PM, Chris Ramsden wrote:
> On Sat, 2026-06-06 at 16:37 -0400, Cindy Sue Causey wrote:
>> On Sat, 2026-06-06 at 20:38 +0100, Chris Ramsden wrote:
>>> Asus Zenbook
>>> Debian 13 Trixie
>>> Mate DE
>>>
>>> I have just noticed that this computer has stopped recognising USB
>>> thumbdrives.
>>>
>>> They are listed in lsusb, but do not appear in my file browser
>>> (caja),
>>> nor in df.
>>>
>>> The same machine sees the same USB thumbdrives when booted into
>>> windows, so it appears not to be faulty hardware.
>>>
>>> I can't say when this started happening; I haven't plugged in any
>>> USB
>>> thumbdrives for a few weeks.
>>>
>>
>> Hi.. This sounds familiar, like something I experienced with Thunar
>> ages ago. I can remember finally stumbling upon "Enable Volume
>> Management" in Thunar's settings. That option specifically references
>> removable drives, devices, and media.
>>
>> No clue what triggered mine to fail. Maybe settings became corrupted
>> during a new debootstrap install or suchly. A glitchy software update
>> could have been the culprit, too.
>>
>> Mine's currently unticked meaning I haven't had to enable that
>> feature
>> in a long time. Meanwhile, everything I plug in works as expected
>> these
>> days.
>>
>> My thought process in replying is that it might help to try a search
>> on
>> keywords like volume management, Debian, and one's personal choice of
>> file manager.
>>
>> Maybe it will help... Maybe.
>>
>> Cindy :)
>>
>> Afterthought: I tried my own suggested search. DuckDuckGo concluded
>> by
>> saying, "While you can use Caja for USB volume management, it might
>> not
>> handle automounting and other features as effectively as Dolphin or
>> other KDE-specific file managers."
>>
>> For what it's worth: Thunar used to be installable (and thus also
>> uninstallable) as a stand-alone package regardless of the desktop
>> environment (e.g. LXDE). Thunar could be used to test if it sees
>> what's
>> currently not appearing otherwise.
>>
>> "Enable Volume Management" setting can be found toward the bottom of:
>>
>> Edit > Preferences > Advanced (tab)
>>
>> In enabling my own just now, I see references to mount and auto-run.
>> THAT would be why mine is not enabled. I can't stand when that
>> happens
>> because I have so many various partitions attached in my setup.
>>
>> But, as I said previously, mine started working again after I messed
>> with that a few years ago. Either there was a timely software update
>> (possibly even as a fix to a reported bug) or ticking "Enable Volume
>> Management" on for a few minutes generated a config file of some sort
>> in my daily user's home directory.
>>
>> PPS DuckDuckGo did explicitly reference the Dolphin file manager in
>> case a user wants to stay as true to KDE applications as possible...
> Thanks Cindy, some useful ideas there, but I am doubtful that if it
> doesn't appear in df, it's not going to be accessible to higher lever
> tools.
>
> I'll try some other file managers.

Based on recent experience, df seems to be concerned only with mounted 
file systems.

So if your thumbdrive is not mounting df will not report it.

Bob