Running Mdk9.1.
Entry for my USB thumbdrive in /etc/fstab says:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/thumb vfat user,noauto,umask=0 0 0
This works fine for my regular thumbdrive.

However, I just bought a thumbdrive/MP3 player.
When I try to mount it, 'mount' says:
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
or too many mounted file systems

The instruction that came with it say:
"If you need to format the drive, format it into FAT only.
Do not format the product with FAT32 of NTFS."

I tried replacing 'vfat' with 'fat' in /etc/fstab
Now 'mount says:
mount: fs type fat not supported by kernel

Next, I tried 'auto'
'mount' says:
/dev/sda1: Input/output error
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified

Could someone point me in the right direction?

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On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 19:49:37 -0700, Bill Pfeifer wrote:

> I tried replacing 'vfat' with 'fat' in /etc/fstab
> Now 'mount says:
> mount: fs type fat not supported by kernel

Recompile the kernel to support fat?

Not sure if the "supplied" kernel via installation supports fat or not.
VFAT yes.

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Gordon wrote:

> On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 19:49:37 -0700, Bill Pfeifer wrote:
> 
>
> Recompile the kernel to support fat?
>
> Not sure if the "supplied" kernel via installation supports fat or not.
> VFAT yes.

If it will read a floppy - is that FAT support?

--
faeychild

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Bill Pfeifer <billpfeifer@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Running Mdk9.1.
>Entry for my USB thumbdrive in /etc/fstab says:
>/dev/sda1 /mnt/thumb vfat user,noauto,umask=0 0 0
>This works fine for my regular thumbdrive.

>However, I just bought a thumbdrive/MP3 player.
>When I try to mount it, 'mount' says:
>mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
>        or too many mounted file systems

That looks like the player doesn't conform to the standard USB
mass-storage spec. That's quite likely for a player because it will
require control-functions in addition to the mass-storage. Do the
installation instructions for WinXP require that a driver be installed?
Devices that conform to the standard spec will work in XP without a
special driver.

>The instruction that came with it say:
>"If you need to format the drive, format it into FAT only.
>Do not format the product with FAT32 of NTFS."
>
>I tried replacing 'vfat' with 'fat' in /etc/fstab
>Now 'mount says:
>mount: fs type fat not supported by kernel

Nah. vfat is what you want for FAT drives. This doesn't look like a
filesystem-type problem. It looks like you need a special USB driver, so
check the manufacturer's website, but you might well be out of luck.

--
Dave Farrance

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vfat is not FAT, as it is explained here (vfat seems related to win 95)

http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/BOOT/IFS.HTM

Each File System is described in detail in a separate section.

FAT File System
The FAT File system is used by DOS and is supported by all the other
operating systems. It is simple, reliable, and uses little storage.

VFAT
VFAT is an alternate use of the FAT file system available in Windows 95 and
Windows NT 3.5. It allows files to have longer names than the "8.3"
convention adopted by DOS. VFAT stores extra information in the directory
that older DOS and OS/2 systems can ignore.


laurent

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"Laurent Herve" <laurent.herve23@libertysurf.fr> wrote:

>vfat is not FAT, as it is explained here (vfat seems related to win 95)
> http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/BOOT/IFS.HTM
> ...
>VFAT is an alternate use of the FAT file system available in Windows 95 ...

Yes, vfat handles long filenames in the same way that Win95 and all
later editions of Windows handle the FAT filesystem, so as I said, vfat
is now the appropriate driver for FAT filesystems. It's certainly the
appropriate driver for USB FAT drives.

--
Dave Farrance

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Bill Pfeifer wrote:

> Running Mdk9.1.
> Entry for my USB thumbdrive in /etc/fstab says:
> /dev/sda1 /mnt/thumb vfat user,noauto,umask=0 0 0
> This works fine for my regular thumbdrive.
>
> However, I just bought a thumbdrive/MP3 player.
> When I try to mount it, 'mount' says:
> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda1,
> or_too_many_mounted_file_systems

One test you could do is this: get hold of a knoppix cd and
boot your computer with it; see if you can mount your mp3
player from knoppix. If you can, at least you will know
that the problem is with mandrake. (I've had problems
with a creative nomad mp3 player with mandrake, but it
works fine in knoppix and gentoo -- the mandrake kernel
or kernel modules are messed up somehow. However, my
errors are different than yours; in my case, no /dev/sda1
is created when I plug in the nomad.)

--
... there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth
doing as simply messing about with Linux ...
(apologies to Kenneth Graeme)

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faeychild regaled us with the following:

> Gordon wrote:
> 
>
> If it will read a floppy - is that FAT support?
>

Depends on the format of the floppy you are mounting...

- --
Skorpion [skorpion at suespammers dot org]
"Don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
stupidity."

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[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Skorpion wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> faeychild regaled us with the following:
> 
>
> Depends on the format of the floppy you are mounting...
>


True! I was assuming the ability to mount a standard, off the shelf, floppy
which is preformatted fat.


--
faeychild

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

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faeychild regaled us with the following:

>
>
> True! I was assuming the ability to mount a standard, off the shelf,
> floppy which is preformatted fat.
>
>

Are they?

I haven't bought a new floppy disk in so long... I don't remember.

I know there are at least 3 kinds of FAT16:
FAT16 for less than 32M
FAT16 for more than 32M
FAT16 used by Win9x
(and some others...)

Don't remember which is the "standard" format for store-bought floppies...
likely either the first or third choice...

- --
Skorpion [skorpion at suespammers dot org]
"Don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by
stupidity."

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