Mtdblock3 Won't Mount!

[Luke-Jr2]

I'm having problems getting to my home partition--
1. at boot, I need to Ctrl-C, or it will never finish
2. after this, /home is unmounted
3. I don't notice any problems in dmesg
4. mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock3 /home <-- hangs and uses 100% CPU as a zombie (unkillable) process

Any ideas?

[Miami_Bob]

I'm having problems getting to my home partition--
1. at boot, I need to Ctrl-C, or it will never finish
2. after this, /home is unmounted
3. I don't notice any problems in dmesg
4. mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock3 /home <-- hangs and uses 100% CPU as a zombie (unkillable) process

Any ideas?
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Details, friend, details! Which Zaurus? Which OS?

1. at boot, I need to Ctrl-C, or it will never finish

Boot how? Have you tried a D+B to command line & then attempted to mount mtdblock3?

You need to be very specific in order to get useful help.

[Luke-Jr2]

I'm having problems getting to my home partition--
1. at boot, I need to Ctrl-C, or it will never finish
2. after this, /home is unmounted
3. I don't notice any problems in dmesg
4. mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock3 /home <-- hangs and uses 100% CPU as a zombie (unkillable) process

Any ideas?
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Details, friend, details! Which Zaurus? Which OS?

SL-C760 running my fork of OpenZaurus.

1. at boot, I need to Ctrl-C, or it will never finish

Boot how?

Booting... starting the daemons and such.

Have you tried a D+B to command line & then attempted to mount mtdblock3?

What's D+B? I can try mounting mtdblock3 after it boots (using Ctrl-C), but as I said... it uses 100% CPU and hangs.

I've restored a NAND image to make the Z usable again, but I still have the jffs2 image of mtdblock3 I'd like to recover data from. Attempting to do the whole loopback/mtdram stuff causes both my x86 server and x86_64 desktop (both running Gentoo) to freeze up.

[Miami_Bob]

SL-C760 running my fork of OpenZaurus.

S'OK. OZ I am only a little familiar with. But perhaps it will help get some one else to add their info also.

Booting... starting the daemons and such.

Well, there ARE a couple of different ways to boot (G). I don't *think* that CTRL-C stops the regular Sharp ROM's boot process. But then I may be wrong since I've never tried it. But one of the other ways to boot is by holding the D+B keys, more of which below.

What's D+B? I can try mounting mtdblock3 after it boots (using Ctrl-C), but as I said... it uses 100% CPU and hangs.

I assume that you know the D+M boot since you mention restoring an NAND below. D+B is similar except that you hold the D+B keys and get a clean command line log in. From that, I have been able to mount /dev/mtdblock2 & /dev/mtdblock3 without any special tricks.

When booted D+B, my C860 auto mounts the CF card so copying data to external storage is not a problem, BTW.

I've restored a NAND image to make the Z usable again, but I still have the jffs2 image of mtdblock3 I'd like to recover data from. Attempting to do the whole loopback/mtdram stuff causes both my x86 server and x86_64 desktop (both running Gentoo) to freeze up.

Did you save an NAND of the system with the mtdblock3 that you want to recover? If yes, then I suggest first trying to restore that NAND, then, if the restore works, immediately booting with D+B & then try mounting the /dev/mtdblock3 from there.

I wouldn't try mounting it in it's "usual" place. Make a scrap subdirectory under /mnt then mount it to that subdir. This is what has always worked for me.

I have been able to extract SL5500 ROMs & C860 NANDs then mount them under Knoppix but haven't tried to directly mount the mtdblock3 as yet, so have no direct hands on experience to share there. If you didn't save an NAND or if the above fails, then I can try mounting a mtdblock3 and see what happens.

OK? Tag - *you're* "it" again (G).

BTW - "mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock3 /home" MIGHT be part of the problem. My notes just show using "mount /dev/mtdblock3 /mnt/03" (after having made the /mnt/03 subdir, of course).

[koen]

BTW - "mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock3 /home" MIGHT be part of the problem. My notes just show using "mount /dev/mtdblock3 /mnt/03" (after having made the /mnt/03 subdir, of course).
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Why would specifying the filesystem cause problems? It should actually cause less problems since the kernel doesn't have to guess what fstype it is.

[Miami_Bob]

Why would specifying the filesystem cause problems? It should actually cause less problems since the kernel doesn't have to guess what fstype it is.

I keep finding that a whole LOT of things involving the Zaurii don't make logical sense. But they DO work in practice. I have half a dozen CF cards that cause a major media change glitch on suspend - resume with my C860s. One San Disk 512 Mb has the problem; a more or less identical San Disk 512 does NOT cause the glitch. Don't ask me *why*, but the behavior is repeatable every time.

Maybe the kernel can tell something about the fstype that isn't obvious to casual observation. Or maybe not. But, when all else fails - check the unlikely, IMHO.

I *know* that a simple "mount /dev/mtdblock /mnt/foobar" works on *my* machines; every time (G).

YMMV.

[Luke-Jr2]

I have an image of /dev/mtdblock3, not a NAND... The contents aren't valuable enough that I'd take the time to put it back on the Z for recovery, just if I can somehow extract it on my desktop system...

[Stubear]

You want to do something like this

Code: [Select]

modprobe mtdram total_size=65536
modprobe mtdblock
dd if=initrd.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0
mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt/floppy
replace initrd.bin with the name of the file image you created. If you don't have mtdblock and mtdram compiled kernel available, then you can od it on the zaurus, you might need to create another looop device but.

Stu

[Miami_Bob]

Stu is the individual from whom I learned most of the things that I know in this particular area. If he says it - bank on it (G).

[Luke-Jr2]

You want to do something like this

Code: [Select]

modprobe mtdram total_size=65536
modprobe mtdblock
dd if=initrd.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0
mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock0 /mnt/floppy
replace initrd.bin with the name of the file image you created. If you don't have mtdblock and mtdram compiled kernel available, then you can od it on the zaurus, you might need to create another looop device but.

That's what I tried. It froze/crashed both systems (x86_64 and x86).