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Software

  lsusb      List USB connected to system

  usbview    GUI to display what the kernel thinks of USB devices and system


Watch usb events (plug/unplug)

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Reformat a USB drive...

  VFat
    This is actually very fast as it only initialised the file system but does
    not clear the disk of old data.

      mkfs.vfat -v -n Ant_USB_4 /dev/sdb1

  NTFS
    If you needed to save files larger than 4Gb with windows access
    But does not seem to be usable under MacOSX

      mkfs.ntfs -v -L Ant_USB_8 /dev/sdb1

    Fast Method (no zeroing of all data blocks, no bad sector check)
      mkfs.ntfs -v -f -L Ant_USB_8 /dev/sdc1

  Ext3/4
      mkfs.ext3 -L Ant_USB_8 /dev/sdb1
      mkfs.ext4 -L Ant_USB_8 /dev/sdb1
      e2label /dev/sdb1  Ant_USB_8


After changes get it to 'auto-mount' by asking kernel to re-read partitions
using...

       partprobe


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Rename a USB partition...
See  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RenameUSBDrive

You need to be root to do this.

For a VFAT partition  (not case sensitive!)...
  #using dosfstools package  -- does not work!
  #  dosfslabel /dev/sdb1
  #  dosfslabel /dev/sdb1  MyLabel

  From mtools package
    Check current label
      mlabel -i /dev/sdb1 -s ::
    Set its Label
      mlabel -i /dev/sdb1  ::MyLabel

For NTFS use ntfsprogs

  Check Label
    ntfslabel /dev/sdb1
  Set Label
    ntfslabel /dev/sdb1 MyLabel

For Ext2/3 use e2label

  Check Label
    e2label /dev/sdb1
  Set Label
    e2label /dev/sdb1 MyLabel

Now unmount, remove and repluging the USB and it will have a new label.
Or use

    partprobe

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Fix problems...

   dosfsck  /dev/sdc1
     -a      automatically fix
     -atv    find bad sectors on disk (verbosely)

   ntfsfix /dev/sdb1

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Bootable Fedora USB flash Disk
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB

Get the ISO image wanted

  sudo dnf install mediawriter
  sudo mediawriter

Have it download a ISO, or install a ISO from local media

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Raw "direct write" ISO to USB

Unmount usb
  dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=8M status=progress oflag=direct

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Bootable Linux USB flash Disk

Take the usb pen drive, and use fdisk to
wipe and recreate the DOS partition table, with bootable partition.

Get latest UNetbootin
  http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Clear USB

  fdisk -l
  fdisk /dev/sdc
    o
    n p <return> <return> <return>
    a
    w

Create partition (unetbootin wants to mount it!)
  mkfs.vfat -v -n Ant_White_2 /dev/sdc1

Mount
  mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/t

Run unetbootin to convert a ISO image to a image on USB
  QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native unetbootin &

Unmount and done.
  umount /mnt/t
 
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Windows Boot Disk, Hirens Boot CD
# (a free alternate Ghost)
# 
# Download Hirens BootCD zip, and unpack it
#   Copy Ghost Files to CD/GHOST sub-directory
# 
# Start wine explorer
#    HOME=/root wine explorer
# 
#    Launch  Build-ISO.cmd
# 
# Now use the unetbootin ISO to USB (above) to put image created
# (same dir) onto USB stick
# 

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Login using a USB key...

* Install the pam_USB package

  rpm -Uvh http://solid.bounceme.net/pub_files/packages/fedora/4/i386/RPMS.solid/pam_usb-0.3.2-1.fc4.solid.i386.rpm

* Create a private/public key pair for a user (as root)

  usbadm keygen <mountpoint of USB> <username> 2048

This will work with all programs that use PAM.
Their config files are in the folder /etc/pam.d

From then you can now add lines to the pam system.

* Open /etc/pam.d/(login|gdm|kde|su|sudo)

* Insert this after the first line (If you want the USB to be optional)

     auth       sufficient   pam_usb.so !check_device

* To make the USB compulsary, change it to this line

     auth       required   pam_usb.so !check_device

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