New versions of fdisk and e2fsprogs

[iamasmith]

I've read this thread over after bricking a 256M Sandisk SD card.  I think I did it by suspending the zaurus before the card had finished loading.

I keep getting an error 'Attempting to create a too large file system' regardless if I use mkfs.msdos or .vfat.  I think it may be how I'm trying to size the partition.  How would I go about formatting the card for 256M?  Using the defaults (1-976) doesn't work.  I've also tried inputting +255M (256 gives me an error).

I also get an additional message when first running fdisk
'Warning: invalid flac 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite).

Any suggestions would be helpful

(Sharp 3.1, fdisk v2.12a)

You get this warning with a blank partition table.

I would suggest that you try the following.

fdisk /dev/mmcda
o
n
p
1
<cr>
<cr>
t
6
w

That's (o=new partition table, n=new partition, 1=partition 1, p=primary partition, <cr> on first cylinder, <cr> on last cylinder,t=type, 6 (Fat 16), w=write (and quit)).

This should create a new partition table. Then try

mkdosfs /dev/mmcda1

Pop out the card and reinsert to try the automount.

[cavit8]

Hrmmm
Running Andy's series of commands, everything seemed to be going okay, until mkdosfs /dev/mmcda1 when I got the 'Attempting to create too large a file system error'.  Same error if I use mkfs.vfat.

Going back to fdisk immediately gave me an unable to open /dev/mmcda error until I popped the card out and back.

Doing Kopsis' dd command had no effect on the outcome. The error message of the partition table flag persists when starting fdisk.

Doing -p from the fdisk gives the following info:

Disk /dev/mccda: 255 MB, 255852544 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/tracks, 976 cylinders
Unites = cylinders of 512 * 512 262144 bytes

with no partitions showing (even after going through the above to make a partition 1)
So it looks like I'm failling to write the new partition information.

Any other tricks I can put this thing through?

Cheers

Cam

[kopsis]

The dd command is about the lowest level user space access you can get to the SD card. If it can't zero the partition table, there's no reason to expect that fdisk or any other app will work. It sounds to me like you've just managed to find a SD card that is incompatible with the Zaurus SD interface. From what I've seen on this board, that's not entirely uncommon (and is a problem that afflicts other non-Zaurus PDAs as well). There is no fix other than to exchange for a different make of card.

[cavit8]

Well, nuts....

This card has been working fine for over a year.  Mind you it's a SanDisk, so maybe this is just the inevitable happening.

I'll keep randomly poking it to see if I can come up with anything else.

Cam

[bgsfh]

These are noob questions.  I am runnning a SL-6000L with the stock sharp rom 1.12.  I installed the fdisk212ae2fsprogs135.ipk.  I modified the /home/root/.profile file to put /usr/sbin before /sbin on the path line.  But when I check to see which tool I am using with which, only the fdisk tool gives me the proper /usr/sbin path.  

Question 1.  The instructions refer to modifing the roots as well in parenthesies.  What are the paths and full names of the roots I need to modify?  

Question 2.  The instructions refer to modifing the path in qpe.sh.  What is the full path to the qpe.sh file?  

Thanks to anyone who can help me with this.

[bgsfh]

This is an update to my above post.  

I found the /root/.profile file.  I used the instructions here

As long as you aren't using a Cacko rom then you can do
CODE
mount -o rw,remount /

To remount the / filesystem read-write.

Make sure you do
CODE
mount -o ro,remount /

when you are finished or you could do something stupid like delete your copy of busybox by mistake.

If you are using a Cacko rom then you will have to learn how to make squashfs or cramfs (depending on cacko rom version) filesystems and create a new /boot/usr.bin - I don't recommend this unless you are ready to reflash your Zaurus if you don't do it correctly.

Stu

from this thread

https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=10086

to mount the file systme as read/write, and modified the path statement to put /usr/sbin before /sbin.  But when checking the path for the tools using which, I got the old /sbin tools.  So I renamed all of the undesired tools in /sbin after making the file system read/write again.  Checking the path for the tools installed with this ipk now gives me the proper path of /usr/sbin.  

A word of warning to anyone trying this.  Make sure to reset the filesystem to read-only after you do this.  It may save you from days of grief later on.  

Now, I realize this is a kluge.  I don't know much about unix/linux.  Is this a poor way to impliment these tools, or is it just as good as modifying the path variables in the .profile files, or is it better than modifying the path variables?  

And does anyone know the full path for the qpe.sh file/folder that is mentioned in the instructions provided by Andy?  

I would like to write a complete Howto for this package if I can get the answers to these questions.

[bgsfh]

delete of duplicate post

[iamasmith]

....
And does anyone know the full path for the qpe.sh file/folder that is mentioned in the instructions provided by Andy?   
...
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/opt/QtPalmtop/qpe.sh