formatting USB stick

Guest

Connection to omega is via serial cable.
The 32GB USB stick is currently formated as ext4.
Running the following command:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb 

mke2fs 1.42.12 (29-Aug-2014)
/dev/sdb contains a ext4 file system
        created on Sun May  8 16:25:16 2016
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Creating filesystem with 7987680 4k blocks and 1998848 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 7e50d715-06ec-4363-bf8c-cd1bf69a4712
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

Review /dev/ directory:

The formated USB stick show sup as sdb.
bus                 mtd1ro              mtdblock3           sda1
console             mtd2                mtdblock4           sdb
cpu_dma_latency     mtd2ro              mtdblock5           shm
full                mtd3                network_latency     snd
i2c-0               mtd3ro              network_throughput  tty
kmsg                mtd4                null                ttyATH0
log                 mtd4ro              port                ttyS0
mem                 mtd5                ppp                 uinput
memory_bandwidth    mtd5ro              ptmx                urandom
mtd0                mtdblock0           pts                 watchdog
mtd0ro              mtdblock1           random              zero
mtd1                mtdblock2           sda

Upon running fdisk -l the following is displayed:

fdisk -l
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1               2        1878      983040  83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 32.7 GB, 32717537280 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 31201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

First question: How do I format sdb so it shows up as sdb and sdb1 in the /dev/ directory?
Secondly: Why is it reported the error of 'doesn't contain a valid partition table?' From experimentation sdb can be mounted and used via

mount /dev/sdb /mnt/sdb

huxflux

Add a partition to /dev/sdb .. then you'll get /dev/sdb1 .. and you can mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Did you try to mount /dev/sdb /mnt/sdb?

Guest

This post is deleted!

Guest

@huxflux how do I create the sdb1 partition?

huxflux

You could use fdisk. fdisk /dev/sdb

Guest

@huxflux Correct me if I am wrong, it has been established this formatting command is not available on the Omega.

Kit Bishop

@Guest fdisk is definitely available on the Omega though I haven't had need to use it myself.
If you don't have it on your Omega, do the following:

opkg update
opkg install fdisk

Guest

Was intrigued to hear the fdisk was capable of formatting USB stick so decided to try this first thing this morning.
Plugged in 34 GB stick and checked to see what it was seen as under /dev/ directory:

ls /dev
bus                 mtd1ro              mtdblock3           shm
console             mtd2                mtdblock4           snd
cpu_dma_latency     mtd2ro              mtdblock5           tty
full                mtd3                network_latency     ttyATH0
i2c-0               mtd3ro              network_throughput  ttyS0
kmsg                mtd4                null                uinput
log                 mtd4ro              port                urandom
mem                 mtd5                ppp                 watchdog
memory_bandwidth    mtd5ro              ptmx                zero
mtd0                mtdblock0           pts
mtd0ro              mtdblock1           random
mtd1                mtdblock2           sda

Then ran the fdisk /dev/sda as per @huxflux

fdisk /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 32.7 GB, 32717537280 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 31201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table

Was something incorrect with my understanding of the command or device ?

huxflux

Hehe, you need to read about fdisk on how to make new partitions

Guest

@huxflux would you be so kind as to show how this would be done. Reviewed the wrt steps and it was confusing as heck

huxflux

fdisk /dev/sdb
d <enter> - Delete every other partition you might have with multiple d <enter> - This 'd'eletes your partition(s)
n <enter> - Tell fdisk you want to add a 'n'ew partition
p <enter> - We'll add a 'p'rimary partition
<enter> x 3 - We want to use all space on the one partition we just added
t <enter> - In case it didn't choose linux partition 't'ype, lets make sure
83 <enter> - The code for linux partition type
w <enter> - 'w'rite the changes to your device

Now you have /dev/sdb1 .. then just run mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 and afterwards mount /dev/sdb1 <random directory> where <random directory> could be /mnt/usb

For fdisk, remember m for menu.. hope this works out for you!

Guest

@huxflux Thank you for taking the time to type the instructions here.

The very first thing I did was type in fdisk -m to duplicate the help you show. Here are the results from doing so:

root@Omega-xxxx:/# fdisk -m
fdisk: invalid option -- m
BusyBox v1.23.2 (2016-04-29 06:17:20 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: fdisk [-ul] [-C CYLINDERS] [-H HEADS] [-S SECTORS] [-b SSZ] DISK

Change partition table

        -u              Start and End are in sectors (instead of cylinders)
        -l              Show partition table for each DISK, then exit
        -b 2048         (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors
        -C CYLINDERS    Set number of cylinders/heads/sectors
        -H HEADS
        -S SECTORS

It appears the fdisk on the omega is a limited set of the full featured Linux brother?
Decided try some of the other options shown below:

root@Omega-xxxx:/# fdisk /dev/sdb -d
fdisk: invalid option -- d
BusyBox v1.23.2 (2016-04-29 06:17:20 UTC) multi-call binary.

Usage: fdisk [-ul] [-C CYLINDERS] [-H HEADS] [-S SECTORS] [-b SSZ] DISK

Change partition table

        -u              Start and End are in sectors (instead of cylinders)
        -l              Show partition table for each DISK, then exit
        -b 2048         (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors
        -C CYLINDERS    Set number of cylinders/heads/sectors
        -H HEADS
        -S SECTORS

Am I over complicating this or is the fdisk on the omega a different subset of the linux version?

Again thank you for your input.

huxflux

Ah, you're right, seems like it's a stripped down version of fdisk. You could try opkg list | grep -i fdisk and try one of those and see if they're closer to the normal version of fdisk. Remember to opkg update first.. if you haven't done already