iLiad Making an ext2 cf card

[scotty1024]

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.

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

[scotty1024]

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

/dev/hda1 /mnt/cf ext2 defaults

[scotty1024]

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

[design256]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

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?

[arivero]

Originally Posted by design256

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.

[scotty1024]

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

[design256]

Originally Posted by scotty1024

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

I agree 100%