Using an Externally-connected USB Memory Stick

How to use an External USB Memory Stick (or Drive)

Check Baseline Configuration

First see what is installed on the USB bus before beginning.

pi@firewalla:~$ lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Next check what storage (block) devices are installed.

pi@firewalla:~$ lsblk -o NAME,TRAN

NAME         TRAN
mmcblk0
├─mmcblk0p1
├─mmcblk0p2
├─mmcblk0p3
├─mmcblk0p4
├─mmcblk0p5
├─mmcblk0p6
├─mmcblk0p7
├─mmcblk0p8
└─mmcblk0p9
mmcblk0boot0
mmcblk0boot1
zram0
zram1
zram2
zram3

Insert the USB Memory Stick

Insert the USB memory stick and run the same commands again looking for what has changed.

pi@firewalla:~$ lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0204:6025 Chipsbank Microelectronics Co., Ltd CBM2080 / CBM2090 Flash drive controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The USB memory stick has been recognized and can be seen on the new line.

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0204:6025 Chipsbank Microelectronics Co., Ltd CBM2080 / CBM2090 Flash drive controller

Identifying the block device of the USB memory stick

pi@firewalla:~$ lsblk -o NAME,TRAN

NAME         TRAN
sda          usb
└─sda1
mmcblk0
├─mmcblk0p1
├─mmcblk0p2
├─mmcblk0p3
├─mmcblk0p4
├─mmcblk0p5
├─mmcblk0p6
├─mmcblk0p7
├─mmcblk0p8
└─mmcblk0p9
mmcblk0boot0
mmcblk0boot1
zram0
zram1
zram2
zram3

The new entry in the lsblk results is where the USB memory stick is.

sda          usb
└─sda1

Create a mount point

This will be the folder where you access the content of the USB memory stick. Any name or location can be used.

pi@firewalla:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb-stick

Mount the USB memory stick

Associate the partition shown in lsblk to the mount point just created.

pi@firewalla:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb-stick/

Confirm that the USB drive is mounted.

pi@firewalla:~$ df

Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             4011396       0   4011396   0% /dev
tmpfs             808308   91560    716748  12% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p3   3546848 2843428    503536  85% /media/root-ro
tmpfs-root        204800  193276     11524  95% /media/root-rw
overlayroot       204800  193276     11524  95% /
tmpfs            4041540       0   4041540   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120       0      5120   0% /run/lock
tmpfs            4041540       0   4041540   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p4   3546848   14328   3332636   1% /var/lib/docker
/dev/mmcblk0p2    487634   78217    379721  18% /boot
/dev/mmcblk0p8   4062912   38492   3798324   2% /data
/dev/mmcblk0p7    999320  393640    536868  43% /log
/dev/mmcblk0p9    258095     242    257853   1% /boot/efi
/dev/mmcblk0p5   1998672  969612    907820  52% /media/home-ro
/dev/mmcblk0p6   1998672  985308    892124  53% /media/home-rw
overlay          1998672  985308    892124  53% /home
tmpfs              30720     348     30372   2% /bspool
tmpfs             808308       0    808308   0% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda1        1024736       0   1024736   0% /mnt/usb-stick

This line confirms the USB memory stick is properly setup.

/dev/sda1        1024736       0   1024736   0% /mnt/usb-stick

See what files are on it

pi@firewalla:~$ ls /mnt/usb-stick/ -la

total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 16384 Dec 31  1969 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root    60 Aug 28 10:12 ..

Removing the USB memory stick

It’s important to always make sure that any unwritten cached data is written to the USB memory stick. Use the sync command to syncrone chaed writes to persistent storage.

pi@firewalla:~$ sync

Then unmount the USB memory stick
pi@firewalla:~$ sudo umount /mnt/usb-stick

Confirm it’s unmounted and safe to remove.

pi@firewalla:~$ df

Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             4011396       0   4011396   0% /dev
tmpfs             808308   91560    716748  12% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p3   3546848 2843428    503536  85% /media/root-ro
tmpfs-root        204800  193276     11524  95% /media/root-rw
overlayroot       204800  193276     11524  95% /
tmpfs            4041540       0   4041540   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120       0      5120   0% /run/lock
tmpfs            4041540       0   4041540   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p4   3546848   14328   3332636   1% /var/lib/docker
/dev/mmcblk0p2    487634   78217    379721  18% /boot
/dev/mmcblk0p8   4062912   38564   3798252   2% /data
/dev/mmcblk0p7    999320  393808    536700  43% /log
/dev/mmcblk0p9    258095     242    257853   1% /boot/efi
/dev/mmcblk0p5   1998672  969612    907820  52% /media/home-ro
/dev/mmcblk0p6   1998672  985308    892124  53% /media/home-rw
overlay          1998672  985308    892124  53% /home
tmpfs              30720    1072     29648   4% /bspool
tmpfs             808308       0    808308   0% /run/user/1000nmounted

The USB memory stick is no longer listed.

Martins

August 28, 2020 15:10

Good Job Chris ! It's all I need ! Thank you !

Firewalla

August 28, 2020 17:46

@chris, you write some of the best tutorials here period! Better than some of our engineers! Just want to say, good job!! and thank you!

Chris Lezny

October 08, 2020 17:39

Is there a way to send the Logs to a cloud based file system to access?

The USB memory stick is great, but I would think this would be for a one time isolated event to capture the information. If you wanted this daily, this would be a laborious activity and if you missed the window, you would loose data.

The thought here is that there is a lot of information in the logs. After an investigation, you can safely 'ignore' certain logged items - Zoom meeting IPs, known connections to IPs (apple), etc. - This would allow you to just review new or unique events until the they can also be added to the 'ignore' list.

I can easily write something, if the data is external from the Firewalla system, but I need to export... even a "Save to CSV" from the web console would be great.

thanks!

Michael Bierman

September 23, 2023 21:39

Inspired by Chris, I turned this into a script that makes this a bit easier.

https://gist.github.com/mbierman/85c9672d212bdda09d9d4f5d27574d1f?fbclid=IwAR1vnxOTPCqmABo4kUGouGNo6u_6m_-wydXPrIESUF1K0F4hLVfLBWioLXc

PotatoHead

December 20, 2024 21:23

i get a permission denied for "/dev/sda1" check. what is the problem?

December 23, 2024 00:10

Hi @PotatoHead... What step did you get the error? Some steps require sudo.

Yoav freiberger

January 09, 2025 19:55

Hi,

Can this process be used to permanently expand Firewalla Gold storage and for this to be used for more storage needed for dockers? I'm the furthest thing from a Linux expert, but from this thread about Gold SE and adding SSD https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/15439100215059-Pimping-Firewalla-Gold-Plus?page=1#community_comment_37197456572819 and the use case here, I understand that this is a temporary addition for logs that does not survive reboots. Any help would be greatly appreciated on how to expand permanently Gold's useable storage for dockers.

April 02, 2025 18:18

You can make changes persist if you use the techniques here https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054056754-Customized-Scripting#cronjob But as always, be sure that you know what you are doing. :)