Hello!

I am running Slackware Linux 11.0. I need to format a partition with vfat filesystem. I googled a little and found out that the command I need to issue is:

mkfs.vfat -c -F 32 /dev/hda2

Unfortunately mkfs.vfat does not come with Slackware 11.0.Could you please tell me where I can download it from or possibly if there is some alternative way to do that?

Thank you very much for your attention.

Regards,
Martin

Hi

The command you are looking for is
Samac

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You have to use mkdosfs:

mkdosfs -F 32 /dev/hdxx

Don't know what the -c is doing but it should be usable with mkdosfs too


I'm not sure but I thnik mkfs.vfat is just a link to mkdosfs and slackware just doesn't have the link. Is that correct?

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I don't know whether mkdosfs is a symlink to mkfs.vfat, but mkdosfs worked! Thank you very much

I get the impression from the Wiki and by the fact that Microsoft has recently patented both FAT32 and VFAT (to the consternation of embedded device manufacturers) that the two are distinct. I get the impression that vfat has the distinguishing feature that it allows long filenames.

Alas the mkdosfs file system does not discuss the issue; I get the impression that the long filenames are an add-on to an otherwise standard FAT system, thus DOS users can delete a FAT file and all will work fine in the DOS world until Win comes along, knows about long filenames, and then gets confused because theer is a long filename still stored but the corresponding file has been deleted.

So.. does mkdosfs's FAT32 support long filenames (i.e. it's VFAT) or not (i.e. it's plain FAT32)?

Best Wishes, Max

I don't know much about vfat vs fat32, but I was able to format a USB key just now using:
I then copied a file with a long filename from an ext3 partition across to it then plugged the USB key into a box running Win XP Pro. I was able to use dir /x to see the long and short filenames - I was also able to create new files with long filenames. So yes, mkdosfs does support long filenames.

Hope that helps...

As far as I know, the fat32 created with msdosfs (I think it is symlinked to mkfs.msdos) supports long names. If this implies this is vfat, or not, I don't know. Maybe this change can be made to any fat32 filesystem by just mounting and using it as vfat??? I don't know.

Normally msdosfs, like on floppies, is FAT12; regular FAT filesystems under 32MB are FAT 16 and over 32MB are FAT32(vfat). FAT12 and FAT16 can't handle long file names or case well.
The numbers refer to the number of bits available to represent the filename and inode in the allocation table. FAT32 can reach 2 terabyte size. FAT16 can only reach 2GB (IIRC). But if you use FAT16 for large partitions you will consume lots of space with the allocation table.
For using hard disk FAT partitions under Linux, FAT32 is always best as it alows you to name files as you are used to and saves space.

Thanks for posting this tidbit on how to deal with a vfat!

- Perry

Ditto
Trying to create a partition that OpenBSD, FreeBSD, XP and Linux can read (oggs)

Here are many misunderstandings.

VFAT is an add-on feature. A newly formatted FAT* volume has no files (except the volume label, if present) on it, thus it's meaningless to talk about *V*FAT or long name support. When an FAT* volume is mounted as vfat, it supports long names (short names are also stored).

FAT32 consumes much space for its File Allocation Table (FAT). It's rarely used in small volumes. FAT16 wastes much space on large disks because it's cluster size (the minimun allocation unit) is much larger than FAT32's. So on large volumes, don't use FAT16 unless you store only large files.

mkfs.vfat is just a hardlink to mkdosfs on other distros. Slackware doesn't make the links, thus the reason why there is no mkfs.vfat. An amendment to the SlackBuild would stop these kinds of posts.

( cd $PKG/sbin
ln mkdosfs mkfs.vfat
ln mkdosfs mkfs.msdos
ln dosfsck fsck.msdos
ln dosfsck fsck.vfat )

( cd $PKG/usr/man/man8
ln -sf mkdosfs.8.gz mkfs.msdos.8.gz
ln -sf mkdosfs.8.gz mkfs.vfat.8.gz
ln -sf dosfsck.8.gz fsck.vfat.8.gz )

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