Hi all
I have downloaded and burned Ophcrack LiveCD 1.1.4 (The ophcrack LiveCD contains a full linux system (SLAX), ophcrack for linux and rainbow tables for alphanumerical passwords (http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/)). The main problem I would like to overcome is the fact that I can't mount any usb-stick out there.

I tried various things like:

bash-3.1# mkdir /mnt/usb
bash-3.1# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

... didn't work

bash-3.1# mkdir /mnt/usb
bash-3.1# mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb

and many other things... The problem is that it answers

mount: /dev/sda1 is not a block device

Actually there is no kind of "sda" or "sdb" and so on. So I had a look at the /dev/ directory and read every single device. I only came across to /dev/usbdev1.1 - /dev/usbdev5.1 but the result is always the same. I looked for the Ophcrack FAQ, Forum, Help, OpenDiscussion... I looked around the web, but didn't find any help.

If someone is able to explain me what I should try or so please post
Many Thanks to All

Regards
occasus

Maybe the usb file system is not fat? If it's ntfs then Linux can't read it

Linux won't mount an ntfs partition with "mount -t vfat ...", but it might work with "-t ntfs" or "-t auto". I don't regularly use Linux, so I don't know how whether ntfs support is integrated in common distros (but I think probably so). I've heard that support is good for reading ntfs, but writing to ntfs may be dodgy. I don't expect reliability until Microsoft publishes an NTFS spec (i.e. some time after hell freezes over). In any case, wouldn't it be unusual to format a USB drive for NTFS?

As for mounting a USB drive, it *should* be easy. First, are you running the mount command as root (with su or sudo)? If that's not the problem, you can use lsmod to make sure you have the required kernel modules loaded (usb-uhci, usb-core, usb-storage). I'd try lsusb first, though. With the USB drive plugged in, lsusb should print some info including a description of your drive including brand name. Then try checking dmesg for lines containing "SCSI" - I don't know why but apparently that's where usb drives show up in Linux. You should see a line that includes a device name like sda, sdb, etc. Look for partition devices /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc. (or /dev/sdb1 ...). If they don't exist, you can try to use MAKEDEV. Last, it is possible the drive is not formatted or unreadably by Linux for other reasons. If so, you can try partitioning and formatting it using Linux.

That's about all the help I can offer.

Or maybe you need a coupla kernel modules - specifically scsi disk support and usb mass storage support. Although I'd be surprised if they are not included in the default kernel... worth a look though.

What happens when you type 'fdisk -l' with no other options?

you probably want to join some channel on freenode for easier help.

However lets take a quick look at what needs to be in order for usb to work.

first point is that there are two types of interface UHCI and EHCI
lspci |grep -i hci
should tell you what your system uses, to be safe make sure they are both enabled in kernel or loaded the modules.

that should make your kernel understand USB.

now there is the question of the device file
namely the stuff in /dev

there are several possibilities that the devices nodes are created, udev, devfs,static
this affects how they are created, and what names are assigned. the easy way to see what device node it is associated to

dmesg -c
plug in usb
dmesg

read the last few lines, it should say something about sda , sdb, ..
for example if your have an scsi hd your harddrive will be sda.

if you don't get this far, the problem is with your kernel/udev stuff.

then comes the mounting. Depending on what fs is on the usb it depends a bit.
if the filesystem is known (and enabled) mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb will work.
if the usb stick was formatted with ntfs (for some anal reason). you need ntfs support either the inkernel one, ore with fuse.

Wow thank you all for the answers... So here some more specifications:
fdisk -l only shows the /dev/hda1 * ...
The FileSystem of both usb-sticks is FAT.
Yes I am running all commands as root (when it finishes to boot) I am already root so I don't need su neither sudo.
lsusb tells me exactly what follows:

Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Unfortunately I don't know how to use this information.
dmesg ... too much info also about usb, not understandable.
dmesg | grep "SCSI" ... the output is as follows:

SCSI subsystem initialized
qlogicfas: no cards where found, please specify I/O address and IRQ using iobase= and irq= optionsEmulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI driver 8.1.1
Failed initialization of WD-7000 SCSI card!
ipr: IBM Power RAID SCSI Device Driver version: 2.1.2 (February 8, 2006)
I20 SCSI Peripheral OSM v1.3.16
... Also this doesn't help me a lot as I don't understand that much, yet.
Using lsmod it doesn't show any of this: "usb-uhci", "usb-core", "usb-storage". :'-(
makedev is not a valid command and just to add some info the LiveCD I have got is based on a Slax LiveCD v.5.1.7 ... Tried everything always with the stick plugged in, once in one hub once in the other... Thank you a lot for your effort perhaps the solution to this is near

-----[BEGIN EDIT]
lspci | grep -i pci ... doesn't give me the needed information, only
... PCI bridge: (Manufacturer)
... CardBus bridge: (Manufacturer)
and concerning
dmesg -c ... big/long output
plug in usb ... done
dmesg ... output exactly as follows
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: Unlink after no-IRQ? Controller is probably using wrong IRQ.
-----[END EDIT]

Learning never enough

Best Regards

Using lsmod it doesn't show any of this: "usb-uhci", "usb-core", "usb-storage". :'-(
makedev is not a valid command and just to add some info the LiveCD I have got is based on a Slax LiveCD v.5.1.7 ...

At a minimum, you need to load usb drivers into the kernel. Don't ask me how - I don't use Linux. This is typical of the sort of problems I used to encounter when I tried to run Linux (mostly device incompatibility, and library conflicts). But that was a long time ago in tech time. Linux should be stable and usable these days. If it were my system, I'd ask why USB support isn't automagically part of the kernel: Did I screw up something, or did I choose the wrong distro?

MAKEDEV (not makedev) is a script for creating the special device files in /dev. You probably won't need it. I think it is present in most Unix-like operating systems, and it is included in Linux documentation. I find it mildly interesting that there seems to be no MAKEDEV fo OS X, though I remember using it under Mach the (not so micro) microkernel O/S that underlies OS X.