Help To Install Oz Opie On Collie Options

[joewandy]

Following step (2) in http://wiki.openzaurus.org/Collie/TipsAndTricks to install cardfs, I tried to set ext2 filesystem on a Kingston 1 GB SD using fdisk and mke2fs . However it keeps on showing as FAT16 when checked from fdisk -l:

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Disk /dev/sda: 1004 MB, 1004535808 bytes
7 heads, 38 sectors/track, 7375 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 266 * 512 = 136192 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        7376      980864+   6  FAT16

I gave up on the idea, and try to delete the partition from fdisk and set it back to FAT using mkfs.msdos. This went successfully. However when I try to mount it afterwards, I got the following message:

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mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
missing codepage or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail  or so

Output from dmesg is:

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[17179900.952000] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[17179900.952000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.

While formatting the card from XP gave the following:

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C:\>format /FS:FAT F:
Insert new disk for drive F:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is RAW.
The new file system is FAT.
Verifying 957M
Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable.

Some questions:

1. Is the SD card truly unusable now, or there's still a way to repair it ?
2. Is there another alternative to installation of OZ Opie without using ext2 SD card? Otherwise, what is the right way to format the card as ext2 without messing it up like this?

Your advices are much appreciated. Thank you very much!

[STrRedWolf]

I think you're missing the partition info (these aren't floppies, they're like hard drives). In Linux, once again run fdisk /dev/sda -- and double check to see there's a FAT partition for it. If not, make one of type "6" and write it out.

Now mkdosfs /dev/sda1, and your card should be usable again for DOS systems.

For the Zaurus, however, I'd repartition the card for a Linux ext2 file system and install cardfs from there. I did that with my own collie.

[Greg2]

what is the right way to format the card as ext2 without messing it up like this?

Here's the instructions:
http://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Step-b...ing_for_newbies

[joewandy]

I had followed the instruction on the above post when first doing it, however I don't seem to be able to modify the partition table on the SD card. Is this just a peculiarity of this card (Kingston 1GB)? Even a simple thing like:

fdisk /dev/sda
> d (delete primary partition 1)
> v (verified primary partition 1 is deleted)
> w (write)

After quitting fdisk, the partition table still shows:

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Disk /dev/sda: 1004 MB, 1004535808 bytes
7 heads, 38 sectors/track, 7375 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 266 * 512 = 136192 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        7376      980864+   6  FAT16

Even after reboot, it still shows the same. And upon mkdosfs and mount, it still shows the same error in dmesg:

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[17180045.520000] FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
[17180045.520000] VFS: Can't find a valid FAT filesystem on dev sda1.

I've tried coredump's step in the altboot FAQ:

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# Zero out the media (dd if=/dev/zero of=$devicefile-of-SD-or-CF-card )
# Create a new ext2 filesystem (mkfs.ext2 -m0 $devicefile-of-SD-or-CF-card )

but still the same problem. Can anyone else advise ?

PS. I've managed to set up OZ by installing a loop-image from rootfs.tar.gz on another FAT16 SanDisk SD card but if possible, would like to recover the previous card.

[rolf]

PS. I've managed to set up OZ by installing a loop-image from rootfs.tar.gz on another FAT16 SanDisk SD card but if possible, would like to recover the previous card.

What is the advantage of cardfs with ext2 over a loop-mounted image? Why not stick with the loop-image?

Best of luck with your card.

[joewandy]

What is the advantage of cardfs with ext2 over a loop-mounted image? 

The only disadvantage of loop image I can think of is that resizing can be quite a problem. Apart from this, all the advantages seem to favour loop-mounted image.