karl.sigler | # 1 | 2011-11-23, 18:36 | Report

This has been killing me. I have a 2GB microsd card that I've formatted ext3 under GParted. It shows up fine under two separate Linux VMs and under my Mac (using extFuse).

When I put it in the N900 it, of course, shows unsupported card format (the default is FAT). When I try to manually mount the partition using:

I get "Invalid Command". When I fsck the card (from the N900) it comes back with a superblock corrupt error.

O.K. so I format the card on the N900 itself using:

And this completes fine. It even mounts correctly and lets me create files via touch (again all on the N900). BUT when I remove the card and connect it to my linux system to move files it can't find the device.

Loading it up under GParted the device is there, but shows as unallocated space. Running fsck on the dev under GParted gives me the same superblock corruption error I saw previous.

I can still connect it back to the N900, mount it fine and even see the files I created.

Anyone have any idea what might make this happen?? I have no data on the card I need to save. I simply want to be able to mount it on my laptop and the N900 to move files around.

Other info. Same problem if it's ext2. FAT and VFAT don't help me because I need to set permissions on files on the card.

szopin | # 2 | 2011-11-23, 18:42 | Report

sudo mount...
possibly?

karl.sigler | # 3 | 2011-11-23, 18:44 | Report

Thanks for the response! I'm using rootsh, so I've already run sudo gainroot.

Also the error wasn't "Invalid Command". It was "Invalid Argument".

szopin | # 4 | 2011-11-23, 18:58 | Report

without '-t ext3' works for me

reinob | # 5 | 2011-11-23, 19:14 | Report

@karl.sigler,

Could you try formatting the card again from Linux (gparted or otherwise), and then on your N900 do (as root)

# sfdisk -l /dev/mmcblk1

and post the results?

karl.sigler | # 6 | 2011-11-23, 19:19 | Report

OK. So I fixed it. I had to recreate the entire partition on the N900 using sfdisk.

then format:

now the partition shows up on all systems. Still very odd that it didn't like the partition made from GParted, but I'll put it down to not sacrificing the correct colored chicken as part of the ritual. (Black! not white!)

Thanks everyone!

wnd | # 7 | 2011-11-24, 09:12 | Report

I haven't had any real-life issues with partitions created by any sane applications, but I've seen sfdisk reporting issues with partitions created by other applications. I don't really know why, but I suppose it has something to do with cylinder/block/foo boundaries. Perhaps GParted isn't that pedantic about those, and maybe N900's hardware or kernel is. Also, if you're still willing to invertigate, I'd suggest you'd run the command reinob suggested (for GParted generated partition table) -- just add switch "-V".

# sfdisk -lV /dev/mmcblk1

demolition | # 8 | 2011-11-24, 09:39 | Report

As an aside, when using rootsh the commands are not preceded by sudo once the "sudo gainroot" command has been issued.

sulu | # 9 | 2011-11-24, 09:40 | Report

I've noticed that Gparted doesn't always get the partition boundaries right. Therefore I don't use it. I create partitions with cfdisk and format them with mkfs. This way I formatted a microsdhc with ext2 card on my laptop which works fine in my N900.