FC2 vfat mount problems after kernel compile

i have custom compiled the Fedora 2 Kernel using kernel source 2.6.8-1.521. now in the new kernel my FAT partitions are not mounting, it'll complain about "bad super block, on /dev/hdax or too many partitions mounted...bla bla".
in contrast when i boot into Fedora with pre-compiled kernel 2.6.8-1.610, it mounts FAT partitions with no problems at all, but of course it doesn't contain NTFS module.

i have checked /lib/modules/2.6.8-1.521custom directory, it does contain vfat.ko and fat.ko modules. but i see the difference between the two kernels' modules listing : here's the out put of the two /lib/modules directories:

my custom build kernel:
------------------------------
Pisces:~# ls -lR /mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.521custom |grep fat
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 72 Oct 17 17:15 fat
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 72 Oct 17 17:15 vfat
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.521custom/kernel/fs/fat:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39111 Oct 17 17:15 fat.ko
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.521custom/kernel/fs/vfat:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12744 Oct 17 17:15 vfat.ko


pre-built kernel:
-------------------
Pisces:~# ls -lR /mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/ |grep fat
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 72 Oct 18 03:57 fat
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 72 Oct 18 03:57 vfat
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/fs/fat:
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/fs/vfat:
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 96 Oct 14 09:57 fat
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 72 Oct 14 09:57 vfat
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/include/config/fat:
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/include/config/fat/default:
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/include/config/fat/fs:
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/include/config/vfat:
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/build/include/config/vfat/fs:
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 31 May 8 18:01 nonfatal.h
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 72 Oct 14 09:57 fat
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 72 Oct 14 09:57 vfat
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/kernel/fs/fat:
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 46948 Oct 13 03:00 fat.ko
/mnt/shr/lib/modules/2.6.8-1.610/kernel/fs/vfat:
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root 16712 Oct 13 03:00 vfat.ko


any idea what's going wrong? do i need to build into the kernel instead of module?

thanks.

Does lsmod show the fat and vfat modules are both loaded? What's with the /mnt/shr (I'm guessing you've mounted the root of the problem machine onto another)?

yes, lsmod shows both fat and vfat modules.

my fstab config for FAT partitons is :
/dev/hda1 /a/win vfat noatime,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda9 /a/docs vfat noatime,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda10 /a/shr vfat noatime,umask=0 0 0

i have tried this too also:
/dev/hda1 /a/win vfat user,users 0 0

see what you think.

anybody???

no one has a solution to this problem?

Sorry, this just seems strange, so I'm not sure where to begin. "fdisk -l /dev/hda" shows everything is as expected? I guess it's possible something went wrong during the kernel compile, but it seems unlikely - you could try a new kernel build (and try compiling the FS as internal rather than modules to take the module question out of the equation altogether). dmesg doesn't have anything odd to say about /dev/hda?

1. i already tried to put fat/vfat into the kernel instead of modules, but idn't wok either.

2. yes everything fine with the hard disk and partitions. ( i use Debian also, and i have no problem with mounting fat partitions).

3. no, dmesg doesn't have anything standing out regarding /dev/hda

yes, it is very strange for me too. i have been using Slack, Gentoo, Mandrake, RH8/9,Debian and i have no such problem with any one of them.

i have tried both the Fedor provided kernel source and pristines kernels (2.6.8 & 2.6.9) but with the same result. with custom kernel compile i don't get vfat and with Fedora provided kernel there is no NTFS module.

anybody got any idea? i still couldn't resolve the issue.

nobody??? strange!

still no-one??

where are the gurus, geekes and 3lit3s ???

can you output your whole fstab file? You have the folders /a/win /a/docs /a/shr created and empty, correct?

and have you tried this?
/dev/hda1 /a/win vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/hda9 /a/docs vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/hda10 /a/shr vfat defaults 0 0

i had the same problem. it turned out to be the following:

in kernel config -> filesystems -> native language support, you need to make sure you have your preferred language selected. If you're american or canadian then you'll want 437. it you're european you'll want 850. However, this isn't the end of it. return to the parent menu and select the dos/fat/nt filesystems menu. you then need to make sure that the default codepage for FAT is set to something sensible (ie choose either 437 or 850 for america or europe respectively).

then recompile, install and boot your new kernel. check that the native language modules are loaded (if not compiled statically) and then try and mount your FAT filesystem.

My problem was that being european i didn't have the american 437 module selected, whereas the kernel maintainers have set the default value described above to 437. Hence it failed to mount, giving the same error as you have had.

what the hell does the dmesg told you after the unsuccessful try?

if that question is directed at me, sorry i don't know. have you checked your kerenl config for the options i described?

Originally posted by reetep if that question is directed at me, sorry i don't know. have you checked your kerenl config for the options i described?

No, no, at the restless author of the thread... He wrote a lot of nothing!