fs vfat not supported by kernel
 

I am a little flustered on this one. I am trying to get my RH8 box to read a dos formatted floppy. I installed and configured kernel 2.6.9 with support for other file systems enabled. When I go into the ~linux-2.6.9/fs directory, I see a vfat folder. I edited my /etc/fstab file to read the floppy as vfat, but when I try to mount the disk, I get an fs vfat not supported by kernel error. Did I miss something?

Hi
try auto intead of vfat....
Cheers!

Thanks for the help, but when I changed the /etc/fstab option back to auto, the "mount -t vfat /dev/floppy /mnt/floppy" command still tells me vfat is not supported. I tried substituting vfat with auto in the command but was told to specify the type. I tried fat16 and fat32 for giggles, but get the not supported error. Any other suggestions?

you'll have to recompile your kernel to support those filesystems or try loading modules if they are compiled as modules

put auto in four fstab and try the command:
mount /dev/floppy
cheers!

I am not sure what you mean by putting auto in four fstab. I tried recompiling the kernel and selected other under file systems. Shouldn't that force the modules to load? What do I look for when I do lsmod? Thanks for the help.

It probably means fourth column in /etc/fstab, line with floppy description.

Quote:

I tried recompiling the kernel and selected other under file systems. Shouldn't that force the modules to load?

Compiling alone no. Mount attempt - yes.

Quote:

What do I look for when I do lsmod? Thanks for the help.

If the filesystems are compiled as modules, they should be on the lsmod list.

oops... that was a mistake, sorry...

put auto in your fstab (instead of vfat) and try the command:
mount /dev/floppy

Cheers!

I tried auto in the fourth column of fstab. Mount /dev/floppy tells me it can't find /dev/floppy in fstab. Mount /mnt/floppy tells me I must specify a file system. I will keep looking though...

Maybe it is ' mount /dev/fd0 '. It needs to match the fstab file.
Post your /ets/fstab file.

Brian1

I took a closer look at my kernel configuration. VFAT support was listed as a loadable module as opposed to built in. I will correct and if that does not work, will post the fstab. Thanks again.

Brian1, from 'man mount':

(iii) Normally, only the superuser can mount file systems. However,
when fstab contains the user option on a line, then anybody can mount the corresponding system.
Thus, given a line
/dev/cdrom /cd iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide
any user can mount the iso9660 file system found on his CDROM using the command
mount /dev/cdrom
or
mount /cd


but any way, of course, is a good idea to post your fstab.

I tried /dev/fd0 with no luck. I was logged on as root, so it should not be a rights issue. Here is the fstab posting. Pretty generic.

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0

ok, give me the output of
mount /mnt/floppy
(make sure you have not changed your fstab since you posted it)

Cheers!

Output of mount /mnt/floppy is : mount: you must specify the filesystem type I have not changed the fstab since posting.