# [solved]Cannot mount fat32...kernel configuration fault.

## dE_logics

Problem and Solution - 

If you cannot mount a fat32 file system as user and doing so as root cause awkward behavior like file names not exceeding 8 characters, it has to do with the file system>Native language support section.

Here you have to check NLS ISO 8859-1  (Latin 1; Western European Languages) to solve the problem...it is a necessity.

Original question - 

--------------------------------------

On my new tweaked kernel, I cannot mount fat32 filesystems as user from xfce - 

```
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde1,        missing codepage or helper program, or other error        In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try        dmesg | tail  or so  
```

I have FUSE enabled.

So...what could I have been missing?

Also I would like to know if removing kcore (from the kernel configuration) is ok or not...cause I don't know it's utility.

PS - I can mount fat32 as user using my old kernel.Last edited by dE_logics on Sat Dec 05, 2009 6:58 am; edited 2 times in total

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## qubix

in what way exactly are you trying to mount it?

please post relevant fstab lines.

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## dE_logics

It's not listed in fstab...it's actually a card in a card reader.

With my old kernel it works fine.

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## d2_racing

Hi, if you try to mount it, can you post this actually :

```

# fdisk -l

```

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## Jaglover

What is this FUSE business you mentioned? Are you saying you did not enable fat32 in kernel and are using an userspace driver?

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## dE_logics

 *Jaglover wrote:*   

> What is this FUSE business you mentioned? Are you saying you did not enable fat32 in kernel and are using an userspace driver?

 

I've enabled both.

[quote=d2_racing]Hi, if you try to mount it, can you post this actually : [/quote]

Wait...I'm booting to my new kernel.

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## dE_logics

Posting relevant.

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdb: 4016 MB, 4016046080 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 488 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x000d9e48

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/sdb1   *           1         488     3919828+   b  W95 FAT32

blkid - 

/dev/sdb1: UUID="3946-CB24" TYPE="vfat"

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## d2_racing

Hi, can you try that :

```

# mkdir /mnt/test

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/test

```

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## dE_logics

 *d2_racing wrote:*   

> Hi, can you try that :
> 
> ```
> 
> # mkdir /mnt/test
> ...

 

Yes, it does get mounted but I can't do it from xfce.

Another point...my ROM is not getting detected with the new kernel.

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## dE_logics

Ok, that ROM problem got solved.

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## d2_racing

How did you install XFCE ?

I suggest that you install xfce-base/xfce4-meta

Because you need at least this :

xfce-extra/xfce4-mount-plugin

Also, your user need to be in the plugdev group.

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## dE_logics

Emerging xfce-extra/xfce4-mount-plugin.

Adding myself in plugdev group.

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## dE_logics

No, none of them worked...I was already in the plugdev group.

It has to do with the kernel most likely, I can mount the file system when using using the old kernel.

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## dE_logics

Crap...this is the third time I'm changing this.

I cannot mount my DVD writer as a user, however I can do so as root.

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## dE_logics

Can someone tell what what's minimalist kernel required?...cause I think I'm missing something in the kernel configuration which's very basic.

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## Speccy

 *dE_logics wrote:*   

> Crap...this is the third time I'm changing this.
> 
> I cannot mount my DVD writer as a user, however I can do so as root.

 

Check /etc/fstab

```

/dev/sr0   /mnt/cdrom   auto            noauto,user  0 0

```

This way, a user can mount it.

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## dE_logics

This absolutely does not have to do with fstab.

Ok, with fstab you can do it (however I think it won't be a good idea cause the device is disconnected most of the time) but I would like to fix the kernel with this cause if I use my old kernel all these problem gets sorted out...so there is something wrong with the kernel configuration.

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## dE_logics

Looks like I'm on my own...

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## Jaglover

OK, back to square one. Works with old kernel, does not work with new one. The obvious question, what's the difference between two? I usually open two terminals, one for old kernel menuconfig and the other for new kernel. How did you complete this task?

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## krinn

as jaglover suggest:

1 old kernel working

2 new kernel doesn't

-> so kernel issue

2a works when doing mount by hand

2b doesn't when automounting by xcfe

so 2a proof we could get ride of lack of FS support...

and 2b we could blame xcfe tools but as it work with old kernel, it still the new kernel and xcfe

So i would dig for kernel tools to speak with others tools, as lack of inotify/dnotify or kernel automounter fs... in kernel or something that as similar use (i mean provide a way for kernel to tell someone else something is happening) i would say hal also as it is tied to kernel.

check AUTOFS4_FS AUTO_FS DNOTIFY INOTIFY INOTIFY_USER this are the ones i think of, but i suppose some others options might exist (kernel is so full of options)

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## dE_logics

 *Jaglover wrote:*   

> OK, back to square one. Works with old kernel, does not work with new one. The obvious question, what's the difference between two? I usually open two terminals, one for old kernel menuconfig and the other for new kernel. How did you complete this task?

 

Yes, I thought about that, but that will again bring me to square 1 where I have to merge the differences...I've tweaked my kernel now...I mean earlier the image size was 5.7 mb and now it reduced to 3.8 mb...the differences are humongous.

Diff filled my terminal buffer when comparing the 2.

 *krinn wrote:*   

> and 2b we could blame xcfe tools but as it work with old kernel, it still the new kernel and xcfe 

 

In the mean time, I'm doing --emptytree world to see if it solves the issues.

 *Quote:*   

> So i would dig for kernel tools to speak with others tools, as lack of inotify/dnotify or kernel automounter fs

 

I did enable them in suspicion but not simultaneously.

Speaking of dnotify...I don't think I enabled this.

Will try...

Thanks for the suggestion.

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## Jaglover

 *Quote:*   

> Yes, I thought about that, but that will again bring me to square 1 where I have to merge the differences...I've tweaked my kernel now...I mean earlier the image size was 5.7 mb and now it reduced to 3.8 mb...the differences are humongous.

 

 :Question:   I've no clue what that means.   :Rolling Eyes:  How exactly did you configure your new kernel? 

--

P. S. Mathematics and physics are honorable disciplines, for me they mean more than grammar. If you can start sentences with capital letter please don't rape those units. mb is millibit, one thousandth of a bit.

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## dE_logics

 *Jaglover wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   Yes, I thought about that, but that will again bring me to square 1 where I have to merge the differences...I've tweaked my kernel now...I mean earlier the image size was 5.7 mb and now it reduced to 3.8 mb...the differences are humongous. 
> 
>   I've no clue what that means.   How exactly did you configure your new kernel? 
> 
> --
> ...

 

That has to do more with physics; I'm too a scientific personnel.

I used my old configuration (the one which I made while installing Gentoo -- 2.6.30-r4) to make a new one in a different kernel (2.6.31-r6).

What did I do to configure - 

From menuconfig, I removed almost all logging features (including the one which gent generated virtually); this mean major tuning of the kernel hacking section...there's virtually nothing which's checked there.

Removed all unnecessary device drivers and kept the only ones which are in my system.

Only compiled those file systems which are common (including dosfs and ntfs).

Nothing is marked in cryptography

Point is I tweaked a lot, as a result I booted like...10-15 seconds faster, but with this bug.

So making a diff of the old configuration file and this new tweaked one fills the buffer of the terminal...forget debugging it using the results...it's unusable.

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## dE_logics

 *krinn wrote:*   

> as jaglover suggest:
> 
> 1 old kernel working
> 
> 2 new kernel doesn't
> ...

 

No it did not worked...I checked many more...actually I've tried lots of options.

So obviously has to be something which we do not expect...now what can that be?...something in the processor section?

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## dE_logics

Notice, this is a problem with xfce...I cant even mount using the root account.

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## dE_logics

I got more hints when I actually tried to write to the disk.

A file name cannot exceed 8 characters.

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## Corona688

Sounds like that's the old msdos FAT driver, not the vfat one.

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## dE_logics

I have DOS/FAT/NT filesystems as - 

<*> MSDOS fs support                                                                   │ │  

  │ │                <*> VFAT (Windows-95) fs support                                                       │ │  

  │ │                (437) Default codepage for FAT                                                         │ │  

  │ │                (iso8859-1) Default iocharset for FAT                                                  │ │  

  │ │                <*> NTFS file system support                                                           │ │  

  │ │                [ ]   NTFS debugging support                                                           │ │  

  │ │                [*]   NTFS write support

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## cach0rr0

 *dE_logics wrote:*   

>  *d2_racing wrote:*   Hi, can you try that :
> 
> ```
> 
> # mkdir /mnt/test
> ...

 

if you can mount it at all, outside of XFCE, it has nothing to do with your kernel, and is a problem specific to XFCE

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## dE_logics

 *cach0rr0 wrote:*   

>  *dE_logics wrote:*    *d2_racing wrote:*   Hi, can you try that :
> 
> ```
> 
> # mkdir /mnt/test
> ...

 

Actually I cant effectively do any operation on the mounted disk, as said - 

[quote"dE"]I got more hints when I actually tried to write to the disk.

A file name cannot exceed 8 characters.[/quote]

I can mount as user using the old kernel.

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## dE_logics

The problem was with the file system subsection itself.

I did not check 

```
NLS ISO 8859-1  (Latin 1; Western European Languages)
```

 in the Native language support section.

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