One of the nice things with Ubuntu is that all your USB flash drives and USB devices just work. They auto mount and a nice little window pops up that lets you browse around with no fuss.

Or, at least they're supposed to.

I found recently that USB mounting has stopped working with the latest updates from Ubuntu. After checking out some forum posts and finding nothing to help me, I decided to do a little poking around. The problem seems to be related to the newest kernels and I was able to fix the problem by reverting back to the 25 patch kernel.

The problem is that you need the 25 patch kernel or earlier installed. If you don't have it, I don't know how you can get it.

Here's how to set the 25 patch kernel to the default:

Open up a terminal (or Konsole or whatever) and type:

cd /boot/grub/
sudo gedit menu.lst

If sudo gedit menu.lst doesn't work, do sudo kwrite menu.lst.

Now search for vmlinuz-2.6.15-25-386. If you don't find this in there, you might be out of luck. You might be able to get the kernel, but it won't be from Ubuntu and you may need to compile the thing yourself. If you have an earlier version of the kernel, something that says 24 or 23 where this one is 25, you should be able to use that.

Now, you need to the index to this entry. There are a number of title entries above the kernel you want and you need to count how many are above the entry for Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-25-386 For example, I have two entries above mine, the Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386 and Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386 (recovery mode). So my index would be 2.

Now go to the top of this file and put that index in the line:

default 2

Make sure there isn't a # before the default. Save this file.

I don't know if this next step is needed or not, but it won't hurt anything.

Edit your /etc/modules file and add the line:

usb-storage

Save that file and restart your computer. You should be able to plug in your USB drives and have them mount automatically. Hazzah!

I know for a fact that the latest kernel from Ubuntu doesn't work with our USB ports but I don't know if it's an Ubuntu problem or a Linux kernel problem. I'm willing to blame it on the kernel, because Ubuntu wouldn't diss us like that. That's not how they roll.

Got any other Averatec laptop and Ubuntu problems. Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: This might have been fixed in the latest Linux Kernel update, kernel 2.6.15-27-386. Try it and see.