[SOLVED] How to change "volume label" of the USB drives?

kaz2100 · 10-26-2007, 04:14 PM

Hya,

Question is:
How to change "volume label" on the drives connected through USB? - USB memory stick, external hard drive (ext3), ...

Reason is:
Volume without label is recognized as generic name by udev. This is confusing every once in a while. So I want specific name to each USB stick, external drive...

I know how to set it, using mkfs. (for ext3 mkfs.ext3 -L labelName, for vfat mkfs.vfat -n volumeName) But doing so, drive is initialized.
I tried "mlabel" but does not work well.

For some reason, web search gives me only mlabel.

Is there any way to keep content and change "volume label" ?

I appreciate any suggestion.

Happy Penguins!

jschiwal · 10-26-2007, 05:40 PM

I use "mlabel" to do it. You probably need to edit /etc/mtools.conf to be able to assign a dos device name to the pen drive.

Here is an excerpt from a previous message I posted:

Quote:

Install the "mtools" package if you have it. This package supplies the "mlabel" package. Add the following line to
/etc/mtools.conf:
drive p: file="/dev/sdb1". The p: device name is arbitrary. The default config will cover your floppy drives, but adding such a line will probably be needed to assign a dos type device name to a linux device. The /etc/mtools.conf file is well commented with plenty of commented out examples.

Use the appropriate value for the device, either /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdb1 in your case.
Now you can use mlabel to relabel the drive like this:
mlabel p:label

Hendronicus · 10-26-2007, 08:44 PM

I'd use e2label, like this: e2label device newlabel

kaz2100 · 10-31-2007, 04:02 PM

Hya,

Thanks, both tricks do.

Also I found that tune2fs can change label.

Happy Penguins!

andrew.46 · 12-07-2008, 02:55 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

I use "mlabel" to do it. You probably need to edit /etc/mtools.conf to be able to assign a dos device name to the pen drive.

Thanks for giving me the solution to a problem I wrestled with for about 2 hours :-). I was trying to alter a FAT32 external HDD so of course only mlabel was suitable.

Andrew