How to Prepare to Use USB Mass Storage Devices Without vold Running

You can use USB mass storage devices without the volume management (vold) running. Stop vold by issuing the following command:

# /etc/init.d/volmgt stop

Or, use the following procedure to keep vold running, but do not register the USB mass storage devices with vold.

1. Become superuser.

2. Remove volume manager registration of USB mass storage devices by commenting the following line in the /etc/vold.conf file, like this:

   # use rmdisk drive /dev/rdsk/c*s2 dev_rmdisk.so rmdisk%d

   
   

3. After this line is commented, restart vold.

   # /etc/init.d/volmgt start

   
   

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   Caution - If you comment out this line and other SCSI or ATAPI Zip, Peerless or other removable devices are in the system, vold registration for these devices would be disabled as well.

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   For more information, see vold.conf(4).

How to Display USB Device Information (prtconf)

Use the prtconf command to display information about USB devices.

On a SPARC system, the prtconf output should look similar to the following:

$ prtconf
        usb, instance #0
                 hub, instance #2
                     device, instance #8
                         interface (driver not attached)
                     printer (driver not attached)
                     mouse, instance #14
                     device, instance #9
                         keyboard, instance #15
                         mouse, instance #16
                     storage, instance #7
                         disk (driver not attached)
                     communications, instance #10
                         modem (driver not attached)
                         data (driver not attached)
                 storage, instance #0
                     disk (driver not attached)
                 storage, instance #1
                     disk (driver not attached)

On an x86 system, the PCI card number, made up of the vendor ID and device ID, is displayed instead of usb in the prtconf output. For example, pci1022,7460, instance #0, is displayed instead of usb, instance #0.

You can use the prtconf command's -D option to display additional driver information. This information can be used to tell which ports and devices are being driven by the USBA 1.0 framework, as displayed in the following example:

$ prtconf -D
.
.
.
SUNW,Sun-Blade-1500
.
.
.
1 pci, instance #0 (driver name: pcisch) 
           isa, instance #0 (driver name: ebus)
.
.
.
2 usb, instance #0 (driver name: ohci)
           usb, instance #1 (driver name: ohci)
.
.
.
3 pci, instance #0 (driver name: pci_pci)
4 usb, instance #0 (driver name: usba10_ohci)
            usb, instance #1 (driver name: usba10_ohci)
            usb, instance #0 (driver name: usba10_ehci)
                storage, instance #9 (driver name: usba10_scsa2usb)
                    disk, instance #9 (driver name: usb_sd)
            firewire, instance #0 (driver name: hci1394)
.
.
.

In the output above, note the following configuration characteristics:

• PCI card ports are distinguished by the number of hierarchical pci nodes in the output above their usb nodes.

  PCI card ports (4) fall under two hierarchical pci nodes 1 and 3 because they are driven through both the motherboard and the PCI card. Onboard ports (2) fall under a single PCI node (1) because they are one hardware architectural layer closer to the main system bus.

• The name of a driver associated with a device node indicates which framework is directing the device and the port to which the device is attached. The drivers for all USB instances of (4) begin with usba10, indicating that the USBA 1.0 framework is managing those ports and the devices attached to them. Only those ports can support USB 2.0 devices at high speed.

How to Format a USB Mass Storage Device Without vold Running

USB mass storage devices, as all others used by the Solaris operating system, must be formatted and contain a file system before they can be used. USB mass storage devices, including diskettes, support both PCFS and UFS file systems. Be sure the disk is formatted before putting either a PCFS or UFS file system on it.

1. See How to Prepare to Use USB Mass Storage Devices Without vold Running for information on disabling vold.

2. (Optional) Add the USB diskette device to your system.

   For information on hot-plugging USB devices, see:

   • Using USB Audio Devices (Task Map)

   • Hot-Plugging USB Devices With the cfgadm Command (Task Map)

3. (Optional) Identify the diskette device.

   For example:

   # cd /dev/rdsk # devfsadm -C # ls -l c*0 | grep usb lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 55 Mar 5 10:35 c2t0d0s0 -> ../../devices/pci@1f,0/usb@c,3/storage@3/disk@0,0:a,raw

   
   

   In this example, the diskette device is c2t0d0s0.

4. Insert a diskette into the diskette drive.

5. Format the diskette.

   % rmformat -Flong raw-device

   
   

   For example:

   % rmformat -Flong /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s0

   
   

6. Determine the file system type and select one of the following:

   1. Create a PCFS file system.

      # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=size raw-device

      
      

      Specify the -size option in 512-byte blocks.

      The following example shows how to create a PCFS file system on a 1.4 Mbyte diskette.

      # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=2880 /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0

      
      

      The following example shows how to create a UFS file system on a 100 Mbyte Zip drive.

      # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=204800 /dev/rdsk/c5t0d0s0

      
      

      This command can take several minutes to complete.

   2. Create a UFS file system.

      # newfs raw-device

      
      

      For example:

      # newfs /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0

      
      

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      Note - UFS file system overhead consumes a significant portion of space on a diskette, due to a diskette's limited storage capacity.

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