I have a USB disk drive (a real drive) and a 256MB flash drive. Consider this snippet from /var/log/messages, with comments inserted:
# First, I insert the flash "drive", followed by the Maxtor drive
Jan 20 07:32:25 mavis kernel: usb 1-5: new high speed USB device using address 13
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: scsi12 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: Vendor: LEXAR Model: JUMPDRIVE Rev: 1000
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: SCSI device sda: 506880 512-byte hdwr sectors (260 MB)
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: sda: Write Protect is off
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: sda: sda1
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi12, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis kernel: Attached scsi generic sg2 at scsi12, channel 0, id 0,lun 0, type 0
Jan 20 07:32:26 mavis scsi.agent[3435]: disk at /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.2/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.0/host12/12:0:0:0
Jan 20 07:32:27 mavis fstab-sync[3532]: added mount point /media/LEXAR_MEDIA for /dev/sda1
# O.K., flash drive gets /dev/sda
# Now, the Maxtor drive... (It contains a small vfat partition and a ~150GB ext3 part.)
Jan 20 07:32:49 mavis kernel: usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using address 14
Jan 20 07:32:49 mavis kernel: scsi13 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: Vendor: Maxtor Model: OneTouch Rev: 0201
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: SCSI device sdb: 320171008 512-byte hdwr sectors (163928 MB)
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: sdb: sdb1 sdb2
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi13, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis scsi.agent[3620]: disk at /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.2/usb1/1-3/1-3:1.0/host13/13:0:0:0
Jan 20 07:32:50 mavis kernel: Attached scsi generic sg3 at scsi13, channel 0, id 0,lun 0, type 0
Jan 20 07:32:51 mavis fstab-sync[3722]: added mount point /media/NO_NAME for /dev/sdb1
Jan 20 07:32:51 mavis fstab-sync[3726]: added mount point /media/OTOT for /dev/sdb2
# So, the drive is /dev/sdb. sdb1 is the vfat partition and sdb2 is the ext3 partition. That's fine --
# If only it was repeatable...
# Now I pull both devices
Jan 20 07:34:39 mavis kernel: usb 1-5: USB disconnect, address 13
Jan 20 07:34:39 mavis fstab-sync[3895]: removed mount point /media/LEXAR_MEDIA for /dev/sda1
Jan 20 07:34:50 mavis kernel: usb 1-3: USB disconnect, address 14
Jan 20 07:34:50 mavis fstab-sync[3994]: removed mount point /media/OTOT for /dev/sdb2
Jan 20 07:34:50 mavis fstab-sync[3998]: removed mount point /media/NO_NAME for /dev/sdb1
# Then re-insert, but in reverse order:
Jan 20 07:35:01 mavis kernel: usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using address 15
Jan 20 07:35:02 mavis kernel: scsi14 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: Vendor: Maxtor Model: OneTouch Rev: 0201
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: SCSI device sda: 320171008 512-byte hdwr sectors (163928 MB)
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis scsi.agent[4123]: disk at /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.2/usb1/1-3/1-3:1.0/host14/14:0:0:0
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: sda: sda1 sda2
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi14, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 20 07:35:04 mavis kernel: Attached scsi generic sg2 at scsi14, channel 0, id 0,lun 0, type 0
Jan 20 07:35:05 mavis fstab-sync[4225]: added mount point /media/NO_NAME for /dev/sda1
Jan 20 07:35:05 mavis fstab-sync[4229]: added mount point /media/OTOT for /dev/sda2
# The hard drive is now /dev/sda
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: usb 1-6: new high speed USB device using address 16
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: scsi15 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: Vendor: LEXAR Model: JUMPDRIVE Rev: 1000
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: SCSI device sdb: 506880 512-byte hdwr sectors (260 MB)
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: sdb: Write Protect is off
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: sdb: sdb1
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sdb at scsi15, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis kernel: Attached scsi generic sg3 at scsi15, channel 0, id 0,lun 0, type 0
Jan 20 07:35:22 mavis scsi.agent[4307]: disk at /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.2/usb1/1-6/1-6:1.0/host15/15:0:0:0
Jan 20 07:35:23 mavis fstab-sync[4405]: added mount point /media/LEXAR_MEDIA for /dev/sdb1
# And the flash drive is /dev/sdb
This doesn't really matter when I manually mount the drive(s) from a terminal 'cause it all gets worked out with /etc/fstab:
[rj@mavis ~]$ mount /media/LEX*
[rj@mavis ~]$ mount
/dev/hdb2 on / type ext3 (rw)
<snip>
/dev/sdb1 on /media/LEXAR_MEDIA type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,sync,noatime,user=rj)
[rj@mavis ~]$
...but it sure plays hell with trying to use device icons on the KDE desktop because apparently a snapshot of the fstab is taken when the desktop device is created and that's that.
Perhaps someone else has already fought this battle and won?
