Mailing List Archive: unable to mount vfat partition

unable to mount vfat partition

Oct 20, 2004, 12:11 PM

Post #1 of 9 (1507 views)

I recently installed gentoo-x86_64 on my athlon64 based laptop. I
compiled my own custom kernel-2.6.8-r4 gentoo kernel. I initially
compiled the msdos, fat, vfat and ntfs drivers into the kernel. But for
some reason I wasn't able to mount my windows FAT32 partition. mount
kept returning the following message:

# mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/cdrom
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda4,
or too many mounted file systems

I am able to mount my NTFS partition which happens to be /dev/hda1. I
then recompiled my kernel and included the above file-system drivers are
modules, but still get the same error when trying to mount the VFAT
partition. Here's what my lsmod says:

# lsmod
Module Size Used by
ntfs 84328 0
vfat 11776 0
msdos 7808 0
fat 41280 2 vfat,msdos
nvidia 5289876 14
psmouse 22604 0

I have run scandisk in Windows on the FAT32 partition to make sure there
weren't any real filesystem problems and scandisk did not find anything
wrong with that partition. Has anybody else encountered a similar
problem ? Any suggestions as to why this is failing ?

srinivas

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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

heinz.sporn at sporn-it

Oct 20, 2004, 10:23 PM

Post #2 of 9 (1510 views)

Permalink

I'd first check what fdisk /dev/hda comes up with. Be sure that
/dev/hda4 is really the right partition and not the wrapper for a
Windoze-style extended partition. Example:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 261 2096451 6 FAT16
/dev/hda2 262 9750 76220392+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda4 9751 10011 2096482+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda5 262 9750 76220361 7 HPFS/NTFS

In the above case the real NTFS partition would be /dev/hda5 and not
/dev/hda2.

Srinivas V. schrieb:
> I recently installed gentoo-x86_64 on my athlon64 based laptop. I
> compiled my own custom kernel-2.6.8-r4 gentoo kernel. I initially
> compiled the msdos, fat, vfat and ntfs drivers into the kernel. But for
> some reason I wasn't able to mount my windows FAT32 partition. mount
> kept returning the following message:
>
> # mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/cdrom
> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda4,
> or too many mounted file systems
>
> I am able to mount my NTFS partition which happens to be /dev/hda1. I
> then recompiled my kernel and included the above file-system drivers are
> modules, but still get the same error when trying to mount the VFAT
> partition. Here's what my lsmod says:
>
> # lsmod
> Module Size Used by
> ntfs 84328 0
> vfat 11776 0
> msdos 7808 0
> fat 41280 2 vfat,msdos
> nvidia 5289876 14
> psmouse 22604 0
>
> I have run scandisk in Windows on the FAT32 partition to make sure there
> weren't any real filesystem problems and scandisk did not find anything
> wrong with that partition. Has anybody else encountered a similar
> problem ? Any suggestions as to why this is failing ?
>
> srinivas
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>
>

--
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Heinz Sporn

SPORN it-freelancing

Mobile: ++43 (0)699 / 127 827 07
Email: heinz.sporn@sporn-it.com
heinz.sporn@utanet.at
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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

srinivasv at fastmail

Oct 21, 2004, 1:23 PM

Post #3 of 9 (1508 views)

Permalink

Hi

Thanks for replying. I haven't created any extended partitions. This is
what my fdisk reports:

$ fdisk -l /dev/hda
Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2611 20972826 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 2612 3916 10482412+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 3917 3981 522112+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 3982 7296 26627737+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

I think I was able to mount the hda4 partition with the genkernel that I
had initially used after the install. But I later switched to my custom
kernel and tho everything is compiled in, I'm unable to mount the vfat
partition.

srinivas

>I'd first check what fdisk /dev/hda comes up with. Be sure that
/dev/hda4 is really the right partition and not the wrapper for a
Windoze-style >extended partition. Example:
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
>/dev/hda1 * 1 261 2096451 6 FAT16
>/dev/hda2 262 9750 76220392+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
>/dev/hda4 9751 10011 2096482+ 83 Linux
>/dev/hda5 262 9750 76220361 7 HPFS/NTFS
>
>In the above case the real NTFS partition would be /dev/hda5 and not
/dev/hda2.

Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

heinz.sporn at sporn-it

Oct 21, 2004, 10:00 PM

Post #4 of 9 (1511 views)

Permalink

Your partition layout seems OK to me. Is /dev/hda4 by any chance
compressed? Because that wouldn't be supported by vfat.

Next thing I'd try is to re-compile the kernel with built-in VFAT and
NTFS support (no modules whatsoever). Which kernel are we talking here
anyway?

Srinivas V. schrieb:
> Hi
>
> Thanks for replying. I haven't created any extended partitions. This is
> what my fdisk reports:
>
> $ fdisk -l /dev/hda
> Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hda1 * 1 2611 20972826 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/hda2 2612 3916 10482412+ 83 Linux
> /dev/hda3 3917 3981 522112+ 82 Linux swap
> /dev/hda4 3982 7296 26627737+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
>
> I think I was able to mount the hda4 partition with the genkernel that I
> had initially used after the install. But I later switched to my custom
> kernel and tho everything is compiled in, I'm unable to mount the vfat
> partition.
>
> srinivas
>
>
> >I'd first check what fdisk /dev/hda comes up with. Be sure that
> /dev/hda4 is really the right partition and not the wrapper for a
> Windoze-style >extended partition. Example:
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> >/dev/hda1 * 1 261 2096451 6 FAT16
> >/dev/hda2 262 9750 76220392+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> >/dev/hda4 9751 10011 2096482+ 83 Linux
> >/dev/hda5 262 9750 76220361 7 HPFS/NTFS
> >
> >In the above case the real NTFS partition would be /dev/hda5 and not
> /dev/hda2.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message-ID: <417747D3.8090703@sporn-it.com>
> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:23:31 +0200
> From: Heinz Sporn <heinz.sporn@sporn-it.com>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] unable to mount vfat partition
>
> <div class="moz-text-flowed" style="font-family: -moz-fixed">I'd first check what fdisk /dev/hda comes up with. Be sure that
> /dev/hda4 is really the right partition and not the wrapper for a
> Windoze-style extended partition. Example:
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hda1 * 1 261 2096451 6 FAT16
> /dev/hda2 262 9750 76220392+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hda4 9751 10011 2096482+ 83 Linux
> /dev/hda5 262 9750 76220361 7 HPFS/NTFS
>
> In the above case the real NTFS partition would be /dev/hda5 and not
> /dev/hda2.
>
> Srinivas V. schrieb:
>
>>I recently installed gentoo-x86_64 on my athlon64 based laptop. I
>>compiled my own custom kernel-2.6.8-r4 gentoo kernel. I initially
>>compiled the msdos, fat, vfat and ntfs drivers into the kernel. But for
>>some reason I wasn't able to mount my windows FAT32 partition. mount
>>kept returning the following message:
>>
>># mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/cdrom
>>mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda4,
>> or too many mounted file systems
>>
>>I am able to mount my NTFS partition which happens to be /dev/hda1. I
>>then recompiled my kernel and included the above file-system drivers are
>>modules, but still get the same error when trying to mount the VFAT
>>partition. Here's what my lsmod says:
>>
>># lsmod
>>Module Size Used by
>>ntfs 84328 0
>>vfat 11776 0
>>msdos 7808 0
>>fat 41280 2 vfat,msdos
>>nvidia 5289876 14
>>psmouse 22604 0
>>
>>I have run scandisk in Windows on the FAT32 partition to make sure there
>>weren't any real filesystem problems and scandisk did not find anything
>>wrong with that partition. Has anybody else encountered a similar
>>problem ? Any suggestions as to why this is failing ?
>>
>> srinivas
>>
>>--
>>gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Heinz Sporn

SPORN it-freelancing

Mobile: ++43 (0)699 / 127 827 07
Email: heinz.sporn@sporn-it.com
heinz.sporn@utanet.at
Snail: Steyrer Str. 20
A-4540 Bad Hall
Austria / Europe

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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

srinivasv at fastmail

Oct 22, 2004, 12:01 AM

Post #5 of 9 (1513 views)

Permalink

>Your partition layout seems OK to me. Is /dev/hda4 by any chance
compressed? Because that wouldn't be supported by vfat.

Nope, I don't run anything fancy on that partition because I keep data
that I want to share between windows and Linux on it. I even turn off
the Windows "System Restore" feature on that drive. I have been able to
access it when I was running Mandrake, Suse and even with the genkernel
I think. I haven't touched anything else on that drive for a while
(except the SP2 update)

>Next thing I'd try is to re-compile the kernel with built-in VFAT and
NTFS support (no modules whatsoever). Which kernel are we talking here
>anyway?

I tried it again (kernel-2.6.8-gentoo-r4), but no luck. I also specified
codepage and iocharset values to use in the mount, but no luck. I'm
starting to wonder if there's a bug in the vfat/fat code. I googled for
it, but didn't find anything obvious. Unfortunately I don't have much
experience chasing down bugs in the kernel; so will have to see.

Heinz, danke für Ihre Geduld (i hope babelfish did a good job ;-p)

srinivas

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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

srinivasv at fastmail

Oct 22, 2004, 12:08 AM

Post #6 of 9 (1511 views)

Permalink

I think I found the reason that mount kept failing on my vfat partition.
I checked the kernel logs and found the following messages (logged with
metalog):

Oct 22 06:45:27 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU frequency
changed.
Oct 22 06:45:30 [kernel] NTFS volume version 3.1.
Oct 22 06:45:47 [kernel] warning: many lost ticks.
Oct 22 06:45:56 [kernel] FAT: codepage cp437 not found
Oct 22 06:49:27 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU frequency
changed.
- Last output repeated 3 times -
Oct 22 06:57:47 [kernel] warning: many lost ticks.
Oct 22 07:00:07 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU frequency
changed.
Oct 22 07:02:04 [kernel] FAT: codepage cp437 not found
Oct 22 07:03:07 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU frequency
changed.

So the kernel can't find cp437 (codepage 437) ? I'm not sure how to fix
this, but shall investigate further.

srinivas

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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

srinivasv at fastmail

Oct 22, 2004, 12:15 AM

Post #7 of 9 (1518 views)

Permalink

FYI, for other clueless ppl like me.

codepage437 can be found under "Filesystems->Native Language Support" or
something like that in the menuconfig program. I'm adding it to the kernel.

srinivas

Srinivas V. wrote:

> I think I found the reason that mount kept failing on my vfat
> partition. I checked the kernel logs and found the following messages
> (logged with metalog):
>
> Oct 22 06:45:27 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> frequency changed.
> Oct 22 06:45:30 [kernel] NTFS volume version 3.1.
> Oct 22 06:45:47 [kernel] warning: many lost ticks.
> Oct 22 06:45:56 [kernel] FAT: codepage cp437 not found
> Oct 22 06:49:27 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> frequency changed.
> - Last output repeated 3 times -
> Oct 22 06:57:47 [kernel] warning: many lost ticks.
> Oct 22 07:00:07 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> frequency changed.
> Oct 22 07:02:04 [kernel] FAT: codepage cp437 not found
> Oct 22 07:03:07 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> frequency changed.
>
> So the kernel can't find cp437 (codepage 437) ? I'm not sure how to
> fix this, but shall investigate further.
>
> srinivas
>

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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

jmhallmark at gmail

Oct 23, 2004, 12:24 AM

Post #8 of 9 (1510 views)

Permalink

And? How did that go?

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 07:15:28 +0000, Srinivas V. <srinivasv@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> FYI, for other clueless ppl like me.
>
> codepage437 can be found under "Filesystems->Native Language Support" or
> something like that in the menuconfig program. I'm adding it to the kernel.
>
> srinivas
>
>
>
> Srinivas V. wrote:
>
> > I think I found the reason that mount kept failing on my vfat
> > partition. I checked the kernel logs and found the following messages
> > (logged with metalog):
> >
> > Oct 22 06:45:27 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> > frequency changed.
> > Oct 22 06:45:30 [kernel] NTFS volume version 3.1.
> > Oct 22 06:45:47 [kernel] warning: many lost ticks.
> > Oct 22 06:45:56 [kernel] FAT: codepage cp437 not found
> > Oct 22 06:49:27 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> > frequency changed.
> > - Last output repeated 3 times -
> > Oct 22 06:57:47 [kernel] warning: many lost ticks.
> > Oct 22 07:00:07 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> > frequency changed.
> > Oct 22 07:02:04 [kernel] FAT: codepage cp437 not found
> > Oct 22 07:03:07 [kernel] Losing some ticks... checking if CPU
> > frequency changed.
> >
> > So the kernel can't find cp437 (codepage 437) ? I'm not sure how to
> > fix this, but shall investigate further.
> >
> > srinivas
> >
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: unable to mount vfat partition [ In reply to ]

srinivasv at fastmail

Oct 24, 2004, 9:04 AM

Post #9 of 9 (1536 views)

Permalink

>And? How did that go?

Finally got it to work :-).

I had to include codepage437 and iso8559-1 in the kernel in order to be
able to mount the vfat partition. These can be found in the "Native
Language Support Section". I included a few other charsets like UTF-8 too.

srinivas

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 07:15:28 +0000, Srinivas V. <srinivasv@fastmail.fm>
wrote:

>> FYI, for other clueless ppl like me.
>>
>> codepage437 can be found under "Filesystems->Native Language Support" or
>> something like that in the menuconfig program. I'm adding it to the
kernel.
>>
>> srinivas
>>
>>
>>
>>

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