automounting ext3 formated microSD card on boot - maemo.org

GI jack | # 1 | 2010-02-06, 05:46 | Report

the n900 has a slight problem. actually a few, one is the awful use of vfat, another is the auto generation of fstab on start up.
edit: ok, there ARE disktools, my bad

Don't forget the most obnoxious problem of all, traditional debian apps get installed in /usr where this is precious little drive space. While I've yet to be bold enough to mount /usr on the sd card, I have gotten the n900 to auto mount an ext3 formatted microsd card on boot. next I will try getting rieser support, because of reiser's high performance factor with small files, like the ones we will be working with.

In response to this thread, I figured it out, and its a tad easier than the last poster's method
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=42045

Step one: format the sd card, you need a usb sd card reader and a PC running linux. No spare machine for linux try knoppix, it runs off a CD.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Here are some links for linux newbs on formatting and mounting usb drives. sd card readers work the same way.
http://www.linuxconfig.org/Howto_mou...drive_in_Linux
http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Un...ive_ext3.shtml

just make sure you make an ext3 partition, or change anywhere you see me use ext3 with whatever fs you used.

step two: the good part.
make sure you have a good command line editor, I used nano-tiny, and have root access.

open /etc/event.d/rcS-late

There is a line that says

Code:

#generate fstab and mount /home

then there is auto generation code for fstab, comment that all of that out with a # symbol at the begging of each line.

Code:

rm -f $tmp_fstab

so now /etc/fstab is stable.

Still in /etc/event.d/rcS-late

you see

Code:

/bin/mount /home || echo "Failed to mount /home partition"

underneath put

Code:

/bin/mount /mmc

now save and quit.

now open up /etc/fstab. at the bottom add the line

Code:

/dev/blkmmc1p1 /mmc ext3 rw,noatime,errors=continue,commit=1,data=writeback 0 0

save and quit.

now turn off your phone, and unplug your sd card from your computer. put your sd card in your n900, and boot.

your microSD card is now mounted on /mmc, permanently with ext3.

if you want to use your microsd card in the GUI type the following

Code:

chown root:users /mmc
chmod 775 /mmc

Last edited by GI jack; 2010-02-06 at 06:35.

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to GI jack For This Useful Post:
emesem, jebba, vkv.raju

maacruz | # 2 | 2010-02-06, 11:18 | Report

No need to use a PC, you can repartition and format your card directly in your Nxx0

GI jack | # 3 | 2010-02-06, 22:59 | Report

Originally Posted by maacruz View Post

No need to use a PC, you can repartition and format your card directly in your Nxx0

I found out about the inclusion of sfdisk recently. I typed fdisk, didn't get a response, and assumed the worse, same with mkfs.

sfdisk and mkfst.ext3 work fine.

now, before I make a go at it myself, doesn't anyone know if there is native support for rieserfs, or if someone has done it already to save me some headaches figuring it out myself.

soeiro | # 4 | 2010-03-09, 01:38 | Report

Any news?

I've just formated my SD as ext3 (because the internal one uses this format and I want a POSIX compatible one). it is fine under linux, but the N900 says it is "corrupt". Isn't it supposed to be supported and automounted?

maacruz | # 5 | 2010-03-09, 16:00 | Report

AFAIK nobody has compiled the reiser's kernel modules and the user space utilities for maemo.

About mounting, at least in the N8x0, you have to previously insmod the kernel modules (mbcache.ko, jbd.ko and ext3.ko).

anakim | # 6 | 2010-06-15, 16:52 | Report

I´ve tried this and had to re-flash my device.
It simply stop booting. Doesn´t even show the "loading dots".
After the Nokia logo, it goes black.

wongdg | # 7 | 2010-08-20, 14:16 | Report

My take on automount ext3 SDHC

my firmware prior to this was RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.19-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

Step1:
install "Enhanced Linux kernel for power users - kernel 2.6.28.10" from your stable repo to get ext3 support

Step2:
stabilizing fstab
open /etc/event.d/rcS-late
commenting out starting from line

Code:

#generate fstab and mount /home

all the way to the end which line says

Code:

rm -f $tmp_fstab

now the /etc/fstab is stable

Code:

    # Generate fstab and mount /home
#    . /etc/default/mount-opts
#
#   fstab=/etc/fstab
#    tmp_fstab=/tmp/fstab
#
#    sfdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0 | /bin/busybox awk \
#    	-v home_opts="$home_opts" -v fat_opts="$fat_opts" \
#	-f /usr/lib/genfstab.awk > $tmp_fstab
#
#    cmp -s $tmp_fstab $fstab || cp $tmp_fstab $fstab
#    rm -f $tmp_fstab

Step3:
Still in /etc/event.d/rcS-late
after the line

Code:

mount_home && HOME_MOUNTED=1

add

Code:

/bin/mount /home/user/mntsdhc

Step4:
now open /etc/fstab, add at the bottom

Code:

/dev/blkmmc1p1 /home/user/mntsdhc ext3 rw,noatime,errors=continue,commit=1,data=writeback 0 0

Step5:
mkdir /home/user/mntsdhc
reboot n900

Step6:
if you want to use your microsd card in the GUI type the following

Code:

chown root:users /home/user/mntsdhc
chmod 775 /home/user/mntsdhc

Last edited by wongdg; 2010-08-20 at 14:23. Reason: try additional formatting