I'm running CentOS v4 with kernel version 2.6.9-42.0.3.plus.c4. I tried to mount my usb thumb drive, which is formatted vfat so I can use it on Windows and Linux, and I get:

mount: fs type vfat not supported by kernel

OK, no big deal, I just need to load the module:
insmod vfat
and I get:
insmod: can't read 'vfat': No such file or directory

I go to look in the libs/kernel and there is no vfat.o. I've never heard of this. I thought that module was pretty much standard on pre-built kernels. I'd really prefer not to have to build an entire kernel just to get this one module included. Is there some other way I can get it? I know that there are rpms for some filesystem modules like xfs. Is there some way to get an rpm or source for the vfat module?

It is actually vfat.ko. To see if it is there goto ' cd /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/fs '. There should be a directory called vfat where the vfat.ko module is located. I would have to say odd for no vfat as well. Normally it is not needed to be loaded over all. In /etc/filesystems list many filesystems that the automount features can use to mount with. Should be a line called vfat in it.

Just to see what the system is seeing plug in the device, wait a few seconds, then run this command as root to see the filesystem ID. ' /sbin/fdisk -l '. Post output.

Brian

No, I definitely do not have a vfat.ko, however, /etc/filesystems does have an entry for vfat.




Disk /dev/sdb: 1039 MB, 1039663104 bytes
256 heads, 32 sectors/track, 247 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8192 * 512 = 4194304 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 248 1015280 4 FAT16 <32M
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(249, 255, 32) logical=(247, 223, 32)

You should use modprobe, not insmod, insmod doesn't handle dependencies (and doesn't search for the module, so you need the full filename).

/etc/filesystems has nothing to do with the kernel. /proc/filesystems lists the filesystems currently available, however a filesystem won't show up if it is a module that hasn't been loaded.

If /proc/filesystems doesn't list vfat and modprobe vfat doesn't work, then you will need to compile the module.

The source is part of the kernel, you can't get it seperately. You may or may not need to compile a whole kernel. As long as you have the source for your current kernel (and the .config file), you can add vfat support and 'make modules'. However, you must use the same version of gcc as the kernel was compiled with, so this won't work if you have upgraded gcc (though you probably haven't, even if you install a new gcc, it's unwise to remove the version the base software was compiled with). Your distro should supply the .config file they used along with the source, if not, you'll need to compile the whole thing.