[SOLVED] Error formatting USB stick in ext4 with mke2fs

wkhan69 · 11-12-2017, 05:25 PM

Hi. I am trying to format a USB stick in Debian 9 Stretch. I am using Gparted, and when I try to format, I get the following error:

Code:

GParted 0.25.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize

Libparted 3.2
Format /dev/sdd1 as ext4  00:05:24    ( ERROR )
         
calibrate /dev/sdd1  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
         
path: /dev/sdd1 (partition)
start: 8064
end: 30320639
size: 30312576 (14.45 GiB)
clear old file system signatures in /dev/sdd1  00:00:08    ( SUCCESS )
         
write 512.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 0  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
write 4.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 67108864  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
write 512.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 15519449088  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
write 4.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 15519973376  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
write 8.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 15520030720  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
flush operating system cache of /dev/sdd  00:00:08    ( SUCCESS )
set partition type on /dev/sdd1  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS )
         
new partition type: ext4
create new ext4 file system  00:05:15    ( ERROR )
         
mkfs.ext4 -F -L "" /dev/sdd1  00:05:15    ( ERROR )
         
Creating filesystem with 3789072 4k blocks and 948416 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 195a1d42-07f6-4dc9-9ee1-00609da33ed0
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (16384 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information:
mke2fs 1.43.4 (31-Jan-2017)

Warning, had trouble writing out superblocks.

So, the error occurs with this command:

Code:

mkfs.ext4 -F -L "" /dev/sdd1

I tried different USB sticks, and the result is the same. Interestingly enough, the same USB sticks format fine in ext 4 using partition magic running in windows 10.

I checked to see if there was a new version of mke2fs, but I am using the latest (1.43.4-2).

Any advice?

AwesomeMachine · 11-12-2017, 05:39 PM

I just recently made a bug report on mkfs.ext4 for this very reason. I ended up just using xfs for the time being.

wkhan69 · 11-12-2017, 06:48 PM

Hi all,

I think my problem is fixed: I have checked my version of e2fsprogs (mke2fs), and it is the latest (1.43.4-2) according to synaptic. However, when I went to the e2fsprogs website, they do have a more uptodate version (1.43.7), which they strongly urged to update. Anyway, I installed this version manually, and my problem went away!

So, there is a bug in version 1.43.4. ...version 1.43.7 hasn't made it to the latest stable for debian stretch yet, that's why it wasn't flagged for an update. I assume it will make it there eventually.

Will

wkhan69 · 02-11-2018, 08:37 PM

Hi all,
Just an update. It looks like the problem is not fixed. When I tried the above version (1.43.7) to format USB sticks that I afterwards inserted into a macbook pro (that has the pluggins to read ext4), the USB sticks could not be read. I formatted another USB stick in ext4 using a synology NAS, and it worked fine in my macbook pro. I tried updating e2fsprogs to 1.43.8 (which came out after my last post), and it didn't help. So, I'll keep waiting for some more advanced version and try it then.
Thanks,
Will