SOLVED locked pendrive with live iso on it. Can't delete.

[Member mizpa]

I downloaded an older antiX-base and loaded it onto a USB stick – I want to remove it and load the newest antiX-full. Every time I check what’s on the USB stick the contents are locked. I can’t remove the old download and put in a new one. I have even tried to load a new version onto the same stick, but I’m told I can’t!

“Faileed to add a new shortcut”
The path “antiX-17.3(.1) ~~” does not refer to a directory

Any ideas what I’m doing wrong and/or what I done wrong in the past? I’ve always been able to put an iso. onto a USB stick by dragging and dropping AFAICR, but for some reason now I am stopped!

The same thing happens when I try to load a different distro onto a different USB stick for another computer! The stick just don’t want to take it, I’m locked out! Do I need to change ownership or something via CLI? – If so, what commands do I need to use?

Any ideas or advice?

TIA
mizpa

• This topic was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by mizpa.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by rokytnji. Reason: Changed title to be more relevant in search
• This topic was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by rokytnji.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Unlock switch on usb stick set to on? Which means locked.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Member mizpa]

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So how do I unlock it? it’s a Lexar 128G stick. Is there a way via a menu item/app or by CLI to change that switch to let me delete the old ISO and add the new one? I’ll need the CLI command if that’s the way to do it, becuz I’m very, very rusty on the CLI after all these years.
Thanks,
Mizpa

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by mizpa.

[Anonymous]

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roky, might have been suggesting to check the physical lock slider (present on some pendrives, and on a much-used device may drift away from firmly ON or OFF position)

Do you know the command “lsusb”? Howabout “blkid”?
$ man lsusb
Those commands will enable you to assess whether linux is even seeing/recognizing the storage device.

“The same thing happens when I try to load a different distro onto a different USB stick for another computer”
To assist troubleshooting further, we would really need to hear more details about what, exactly, you “tried”.

[Member mizpa]

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From what I see, there’s no physical switch on this USB stick.
Tried both commands;

$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 005: ID 05dc:a838 Lexar Media, Inc. 

I got this from man blkid;

It is recommended to use lsblk(8) command to get information about block devices rather
than blkid. lsblk(8) provides more information, better control on output formatting and
it does not require root permissions to get actual information.

When device is specified, tokens from only this device are displayed. It is possible to
specify multiple device arguments on the command line. If none is given, all devices
which appear in /proc/partitions are shown, if they are recognized.

Note that blkid reads information directly from devices and for non-root users it returns
cached unverified information. It is better to use lsblk –fs to get a user-friendly
overview of filesystems and devices. lsblk(8) is also easy to use in scripts. blkid is
mostly designed for system services and to test libblkid functionality.

$ blkid
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="New Volume" UUID="8E1C641A1C63FC19" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6973279e-01"

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   1 119.2G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   1   1.2G  0 part /media/mizpa/antiXlive

I like that second command (lsblk) because it tells me more than the gobbledygook that is in the blkid – the blkid probably tells you more, but I’m pretty much a computer illiterate now that I’ve forgotten most of what I once knew, so all of that other stuff meant nothing to me as far as which was my Lexar until I used the lsblk. Thanks for steering me to the man pages – another command I had forgotten about! Little by little some of this stuff is coming back – I prefer Linux to M$ but when a distro keeps on working and I have no problems, I tend to forget what I once knew! This way, using a familiar distro and having access to the forum, if I have a similar problem in the future, I can always go back-search my threads to find answers. That’s how i used to do it, but the forums I went to are gone, so now it’s like starting over again!
Thanks again for the help!

[Anonymous]

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sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
Does the above command report “the package ntfs-3g is already installed”?
If not already installed, absence of that package (antiX and what other O/S you tried) probably leaves the system to be unable to mount the ntfs -formatted drive.

Also, FYI, running the command apropos ntfs
will display a list of commands + manpages related to managing ntfs

[Member mizpa]

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$ sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
ntfs-3g is already the newest version (1:2016.2.22AR.1+dfsg-1).

This is the latest ntfs. (Thanks for the commands), but how will this information help to remove the locked files (the locked antiX-Live files) from the USB stick? Sorry, but I thought ntfs was an M$ file system, and that Linux was dealing with ext-3 or -4 file systems. I’m cornfused???
Thanks, mizpa

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Ok. No switch on side of usb drive.

So what I did in your situation > yes been there ,done that.

I open gparted with another live session or installed version.
Plug in pen drive before boot because I let spacefm use automount.
If ya don’t have automount like I do. That is fine. Gparted should still see it.

Unnmount it in GParted.

Pick Device> Make a New Partition table.
For pen drives > I pick msdos
Hit apply.
Afterwards. You can format the pendrive click on , partition>new> then fat32 or ext2 is what I like to use on my linux only pendrives. Not NTFS.

Hopefully. No errors like a reboot is necessary for the pen drive to be edited during the gparted process. Yep. I got that also.
Another problem may be the pen drive automounts during the editing process in gparted .
Happens to me sometimes.
So I turn spacefm automount and try again after a reboot.

I don’t run live persist pen drives and just mostly installed systems when I need to fix something like that is happening to you.
Good luck.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Member mizpa]

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gparted did it! thanks rocky!

I don’t know why, but it doesn’t allo0w me to edit the first post to put <resolved> in the title ???

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