Is my Pi use the USB Dirve or not?

Help and Support Raspberry Pi
1

Last night I just installed the OSMC RC2 on my Raspberry Pi B+. I read the “Help” here so I want use an USB drive to boost the performance a little bit. I imaged a 4GB SD card and put it in and a 16GB USB drive on the Pi. I also plugged in a wireless keyboard/mouse dongle in the other USB port. Then I power it up. It took quite a while finished the installation and rebooted. It seems all works fine.

This morning I SSHed into the Pi and looked how the Pi use the 16GB USB Drive. But I found out that the USB drive is not even mounted:

osmc@osmc:~$ mount -l
/dev/mmcblk0p2 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,stripe=1024,data=ordered)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=177320k,nr_inodes=44330,mode=755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,mode=755)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,release_agent=/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=21,pgrp=1,timeout=300,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /boot type vfat (rw,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
rpc_pipefs on /run/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw,relatime)
sysfs on /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=36316k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)

fdisk shows the USB is sda:

osmc@osmc:~$ fdisk -l

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3.8 GiB, 4014997504 bytes, 7841792 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000b7709

Device         Boot  Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1        2048  499711  497664  243M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2      501760 7841791 7340032  3.5G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sda: 15 GiB, 16148070400 bytes, 31539200 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0009dac6

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1        2048 31539199 31537152  15G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

So how can I make the Raspberry Pi use the USB drive? What extra steps need to do beside follow this instruction:

???

1 Like
2

There are two options you have to make use of a USB stick - you can either do a USB install where the whole operating system except the bootloader is installed on the USB stick, or you can just do an SD install and connect a formatted USB stick which will automatically be mounted under /media, for media storage.

To do a USB install you must choose the USB install option when running the installer on your PC/Mac, and make sure that you have the USB stick (and no other USB drives) plugged into the Pi the first time you boot the SD card in the Pi - at that time the USB stick will be formatted and the operating system and root partition will be set up on the USB stick. (/boot will remain on the SD card)

If you just do a normal SD install and connect a USB stick later on for media storage you’ll need to manually format it if it’s not already formatted.

If it’s not automounting it’s probably not formatted - try running dmesg and see if you see the drive being detected.

3

you can increase the power to a Pi B + usb port also in the case of a power issue (in Pi 2 this is standard but not before)

you can edit /boot/config.txt. :

safe_mode_gpio=4

After a reboot this will become :

max_usb_current=1

This is what i used on a B + to mount a 1 Tb ext usb drive,

4

To answer OPs question, you are not currently on a USB install

S

5

Thank you for all the helps. So I confused when I read the help instructions. What I should do is:
Use the installer, image the SD card, but when ask for type select “USB install”

I just start over again and now it mount the / with the USB stick. :smile:

6

I’m not surprised users are struggling as the instructions aren’t that clear.

I am about to make a How To guide for people wanting to install OSMC on Raspberry Pi for SD card install and also for those who want a USB install.

As this is open source is the wiki and support articles open to all to update/improve on the OSMC site as I am noticing quite a few things that aren’t as clear as they could be for users.

This probably reads like a moan but honestly, I am a day 1 r pi owner and have been using RaspBMC since the beginning and I can’t say enough good things about it. Thanks again!

7

Yes, and we are working on a way to make the Wiki easier to edit

Sam

1 Like