Lab 9.3

thebiz

Hi!

I tried Lab 9.3 using Ubuntu 14.04 and CentOS 7 and encountered problems with the following commands and have given suggested workarounds:

1. sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/loop1p3 - workaround - sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/loop1p3.

:~$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/loop1p3

mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)

unable to get drive geometry, using default 255/63

2. sudo losetup -d imagefile - workaround - sudo losetup -d /dev/loop1.

Interestingly, the command - sudo losetup -l - gave me sufficient information to suggest a workaround (works in CentOS 7 but not Ubuntu 14.04).

coop

We knew about the losetup command pointing to the image file instead of the device node and was already fixed in the working copy to be uploaded very soon.

I don't know what the problem you had with mkfs.vfat command is, assuming
it is installed on your system. The above does not seem to be an error and I could
reproduce the steps just fine on my system on RHEL7

thebiz

Hi Jerry,
As I imagine a SysAdmin would I tried getting to the root cause of the problem/s:

On CentOS7:
:$ ls -ls /sbin/mkfs*
12 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 11504 jon 17 2014 /sbin/mkfs
208 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 209808 jon 9 2014 /sbin/mkfs.btrfs
32 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 32760 jon 17 2014 /sbin/mkfs.cramfs
96 -rwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 96240 jon 9 2014 /sbin/mkfs.ext2
96 -rwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 96240 jon 9 2014 /sbin/mkfs.ext3
96 -rwxr-xr-x. 4 root root 96240 jon 9 2014 /sbin/mkfs.ext4
36 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 32856 jon 17 2014 /sbin/mkfs.minix
340 -rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 347344 jon 10 2014 /sbin/mkfs.xfs

So can conclude mkfs.vfat is not installed on my CentOS7.
Remedied by sudo yum install dosfstools-3.0.20-9.el7.x86_64...

On Ubuntu 14.04:
:~$ ls -ls /sbin/mkfs*
12 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9668 feb 12 21:54 /sbin/mkfs
20 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 17916 feb 12 21:54 /sbin/mkfs.bfs
32 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 30300 feb 12 21:54 /sbin/mkfs.cramfs
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 feb 16 22:26 /sbin/mkfs.ext2 -> mke2fs
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 feb 16 22:26 /sbin/mkfs.ext3 -> mke2fs
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 feb 16 22:26 /sbin/mkfs.ext4 -> mke2fs
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 feb 16 22:26 /sbin/mkfs.ext4dev -> mke2fs
28 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 26712 mar 18 2014 /sbin/mkfs.fat
28 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 26220 feb 12 21:54 /sbin/mkfs.minix
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 apr 18 17:11 /sbin/mkfs.msdos -> mkfs.fat
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 apr 18 17:11 /sbin/mkfs.ntfs -> mkntfs
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 apr 18 17:11 /sbin/mkfs.vfat -> mkfs.fat

So can conclude that there is a softlink from mkfs.vfat to mkfs.fat on my Ubuntu 14.04.

Googling the message indicates that this is a known message:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/unable-to-get-drive-geometry-when-mkfs-vfat-784956/

...and...

http://www.certdepot.net/rhel7-use-vfat-ext4-xfs-file-systems/
seems to suggest that
"mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
unable to get drive geometry, using default 255/63"

...is not an error message.