Mounting/Recognizing ext2 CF card

[TomJones]

Hi,
I am having trouble getting my ext2 formatted CF card recognized by my iliad. I am a real newbie to linux and so far its going pretty rough.

a) I downloaded the developer's package from IDs-This is working since I was able to use FBReader before reformatting my card.
b) I booted my computer with Knoppix and reformatted my 8G Transcend 133X card with QTParted to ext2
c) I am using Ext2 IFS version 1.11 in Windows to move files onto the card.
d) I can open files from the card in both Windows and Linux but the card appears blank on the iliad
e) I tried making a script in notepad++ and saved as a unix .sh file. I know nothing about making scripts but based on other threads on this forum I tried one file that consisted only of a single line:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/cf -t ext2

f) I moved this file to the internal memory of the iliad. I then clicked on it in the iliad. The screen refreshed after a second as if it had executed but when I navigate back to the CF card it still appears empty.

Should a script consisting only of this single line function and should you only have to try to open this file from the internal memory of the iliad for it to work?

Thanks,
Tom

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by TomJones

Hi,
I am having trouble getting my ext2 formatted CF card recognized by my iliad. I am a real newbie to linux and so far its going pretty rough.

Is there a reason you're not formatting the CF card as FAT32, which is what the iLiad supports? I'm not sure what benefit there is to formatting the card as ext2.

It sounds like you're on the right track with mounting using the -t option. I'd run it under a mrxvt shell to see if it spits back an error message that your script isn't capturing.

[Adam B.]

It might be a conflict with the fstab.

If you change /etc/fstab

/dev/hda1            /mnt/cf              vfat       defaults,iocharset=utf8,sync,dirsync  0 0

to

/dev/hda1            /mnt/cf              ext2       defaults,iocharset=utf8,sync,dirsync  0 0

It should mount and be viewable automatically.

Edit:

Or change your script to:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/cf -t ext2

sda1 is the USB port.

[Adam B.]

I also wanted to say how impressed I am that a "Linux newbie" was able to get as far as you have without asking for help.

It just goes to show how far a little bit of research and problem solving can get you. Great work.

[axel77]

I have also ext2 formated CF, because FAT32 has troublesome file size limits especially for the 4GB wikipedia file.

Yes I needed to edit /etc/fstab as well.

I really don't know why the default filesystem for CF/MMC isn't set to 'auto' on the iLiad.

[TomJones]

Hi, Thanks to everyone for the feedback and encouragement. I tried switching the script to point to the CF instead of USB(oops) but still no luck.

I guess my problem is that i don't really know how to get into the real directory structure of the iliad to be able to edit fstab. Connecting by USB(either in Windows or Knoppix) I only see the internal memory of the iliad (books, notes,...). Is there a way to reach the real "insides"of the iliad through the usb connection or is this where I need to connect the iliad to the computer through my router and try stuff like ssh to be able to modify things.

Like axel mentioned, the real reason I am working with the ext2 format is to try to get wikipedia onto the iliad-which seems like it should be well worth the effort.

Thanks for the help and great applications.

Cheers,
Tom

[Adam B.]

You'll have to use SSH to view the internal memory.

1. Install the Dropbear package
2. Type ifconfig into mrxvt to find your IP address
3. Download Putty and ssh into the iLiad
4. Try your mount script to see what the output is
5. type "vi /etc/fstab" to modify your fstab to the changes noted above
6. type ":q" to exit without saving or ":wq" to save your changes (you may want to download vim for windows to get used to moving around)

[TomJones]

Hi,
Thanks! Got a alot of work today but will try giving it a go on Friday. Thanks for your help and all the great ports.
Tom

[Shaggy]

Doing this for wikipedia makes sense, I hadn't thought of that.

I would follow Adam's suggestion of modifying the /etc/fstab, but change it to "auto" instead of "ext2" as axel77 mentioned. Setting it to auto would mean that it will figure out what filesystem type is on the card when you insert it, so that you could use both ext2 and vfat (FAT32) cards without having to edit the file every time you wanted to switch back and forth.

[TomJones]

Thanks for the step by step instructions. I have a fully functioning 4GB wikipedia on my iliad now- its great! Followed your instructions plus following advice from the offline wikipedia thread I changed the permissions for the files on the card so that python would run correctly.

After mounting the card with the script I navigated into the /media/cf/ directory and did a chmod 777 * to make sure all the files could be executed. Probably there is a much better/safer way to modify the permissions but it worked for me.

I tried modifying fstab to ext2 and auto. The ext2 change enabled the script to work but the fstab change alone (without running the script) did not enable me to see the card even after rebooting or taking out-putting back in the card. The fstab change to auto didn't work for me even with the script.

Now all I do is run the script each time I boot the iliad and its all good.

Thanks again!

[Dabon]

Hi There,
I have been trying to install the offline Wikipedia on a Mini USB 4GB Data traveler (Kingston), and so far I cannot get to have wikipedia working. I was pretty much able to do all the necessary steps, but I think that I am stuck to the "chmod 777" steps. After several unsuccessful attempt, i have used the Xshell to change the permission on my file: "/mnt/usb/Wikipedia".
However, from the error text file that I have just discovered, it seems that there is still a permission issue...
Would you be kind as to give me the "baby steps" to follow to have the permission granted so that I will finally be able to use the full wikipedia?

Thank you very much for your help.

Dabon.

[BrentBaccala]

I just want to add that I created an ext2fs on CF using mke2fs on the Iliad, and couldn't get it to work at first because mke2fs defaulted to 256 byte inodes (the standard value for 2.6 kernels). But Iliad's 2.4 kernel can only handle 128 byte inodes. The command I needed was:

mke2fs -I 128 /dev/hda1

Compiling mke2fs (in the e2fsprogs distribution) with the standard Iliad development kit wasn't difficult, but I'm attaching the executable in case it helps somebody else.