Partitioning a flash card
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== Install the necessary packages and create partitions == | == Install the necessary packages and create partitions == | ||
| - | '''Note:''' on the N800 and N810 the filesystem | + | '''Note:''' on the N800 and N810 the filesystem numbering can be a little confusing. |
| - | * The '''external''' card is mmcblk1 | + | * The '''external''' card device is /dev/mmcblk1 (mounted at /media/mmc1) |
| - | * The '''internal''' card is mmcblk0 | + | * The '''internal''' card device is /dev/mmcblk0 (mounted at /media/mmc2) |
| + | |||
| + | So if you plan to format the external media card you will need to replace mmcblk0p with mmcblk1p in the recipe below. | ||
First, you will need [[root access]]. | First, you will need [[root access]]. | ||
Revision as of 09:59, 5 December 2008
WARNING: Partitioning your flash card will delete all data of the card, so be sure to back up any important data to a computer or another flash card.
Note: As of 4-28-2008 Penguinbait has made a deb package that automates all of this for you. See http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19639 and http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20534
Install the necessary packages and create partitions
Note: on the N800 and N810 the filesystem numbering can be a little confusing.
- The external card device is /dev/mmcblk1 (mounted at /media/mmc1)
- The internal card device is /dev/mmcblk0 (mounted at /media/mmc2)
So if you plan to format the external media card you will need to replace mmcblk0p with mmcblk1p in the recipe below.
First, you will need root access.
In Xterm on your tablet, run:
apt-get install e2fsprogs umount /media/mmc1 umount /media/mmc2 sfdisk /dev/mmcblk0 /dev/mmcblk0p1:1,15000,6 /dev/mmcblk0p2:15001,, /dev/mmcblk0p3: /dev/mmcblk0p4:
This will create two partitions in a 1GB flash card: the first one is VFAT (that's what number 6 means), and the second one is LINUX_83. The size of the first one is almost 480MB (that's the meaning of the 15000), and the second one is sized till the end of the card (that's what ,, means). Partitions three and four are empty.
The arguments for sfdisk are:
- The device node to use for the partition
- The start cylinder on the card
- The end cylinder on the card (leave blank to have the partition go to the end of the disk)
- The filesystem type (complete list)
A cylinder is a 32KB block on a flash card, so 15,000 cylinders equates to 480,000KB (approx. 480MB).
Format the partitions
Once you have created the required partition table, you will need to initialise the filesystems.
Type as root:
mkdosfs /dev/mmcblk0p1 shutdown -r now
After it reboots, then open Xterm and, as root, run:
mke2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2 shutdown -r now
Mounting the partitions
The VFAT partition will be mounted by the system automagically at start-up. To mount the EXT2 partition we need to load the kernel modules, so open Xterm and, as root, type:
insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/mbcache.ko insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ext2.ko mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /media/mmc2