Yes, it can be done. Yes it's a very good idea. Yes it was a real death march to make it happen.

All the sharp's come with mke2fs so no one posts it for download.

http://www.wearablegroup.org/software/ramdisk/

From that page you can dl a ext2 image file. You can then dd that onto your cf, extract the needed mke2fs...

Or you can grab it from this posting 'cause I believe in saving everyone trouble. :xmas:

The iLiad already comes with fdisk.

Procedure, copied and pasted from my actual session. Details of getting mke2fs onto the iLiad are left to the reader.

By the way, I highly recommend using a CF card not an MMC card. My testing has shown CF cards to be faster than MMC on the iLiad.

root@ereader:/sbin# umount /dev/hda1
root@ereader:/sbin# fdisk /dev/hda

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 512 MB, 512999424 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 994 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 993 500440+ b Win95 FAT32

Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 512 MB, 512999424 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 994 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-994, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-994, default 994):
Using default value 994

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 512 MB, 512999424 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 994 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 994 500944+ 83 Linux

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

root@ereader:/sbin# mke2fs /dev/hda1
mke2fs 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
125488 inodes, 500944 blocks
25047 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
62 block groups
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
2024 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
8193, 24577, 40961, 57345, 73729, 204801, 221185, 401409

Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
root@ereader:/sbin# mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /mnt/cf
root@ereader:/sbin# df
Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/tffsa2 3040 2368 672 78% /old-root
/dev/tffsa2 73045 59781 13264 82% /
/dev/tffsa5 28973 22942 4535 83% /mnt/protected
/dev/tffsa6 131180 122852 8328 94% /mnt/free
/dev/tffsa7 888 155 688 18% /mnt/settings
/dev/mmc1 246912 227744 19168 92% /media/card
/dev/hda1 485106 13 460046 0% /media/cf

If you want your spiffy new card to automount you'll need to edit /etc/fstab

/dev/hda1 /mnt/cf ext2 defaults

And if you break your ext2 fs you'll want this tool

Yes, it can be done. Yes it's a very good idea. Yes it was a real death march to make it happen.


I'm guessing that this is for those poor people who can't just pop their cf
card into a desktop linux box and mkfs there?

Or is there something else I'm missing here?

I'm guessing that this is for those poor people who can't just pop their cf
card into a desktop linux box and mkfs there?

Not so unusual. My current leaned account is a Solaris one, and at house I only use subnotebooks.

Besides it's cooler to have made it using your iLiad. :D

Besides it's cooler to have made it using your iLiad. :D

I agree 100% :cool: