fs vfat not supported by kernel

abk4523 · 05-04-2005, 08:58 AM

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?

bdox · 05-04-2005, 09:15 AM

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

abk4523 · 05-04-2005, 10:28 AM

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?

Boow · 05-04-2005, 10:35 AM

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

bdox · 05-04-2005, 10:59 AM

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

abk4523 · 05-04-2005, 02:27 PM

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.

Mara · 05-04-2005, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by abk4523
I am not sure what you mean by putting auto in four fstab.

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.

bdox · 05-04-2005, 06:09 PM

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

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

Cheers!

abk4523 · 05-04-2005, 06:38 PM

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...

Brian1 · 05-04-2005, 06:44 PM

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

Brian1

abk4523 · 05-04-2005, 06:47 PM

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.

bdox · 05-05-2005, 03:50 AM

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.

abk4523 · 05-05-2005, 08:25 AM

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

bdox · 05-05-2005, 12:32 PM

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

Cheers!

abk4523 · 05-05-2005, 01:34 PM

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