Partitioning a flash card

(Get root access)
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'''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
'''Note:''' This procedure has been tested on a Nokia 770 with ITOS 3.2006.49-2
'''Note:''' This procedure has been tested on a Nokia 770 with ITOS 3.2006.49-2

Revision as of 19:59, 1 July 2008

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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

Note: This procedure has been tested on a Nokia 770 with ITOS 3.2006.49-2

WARNING: WHEN PARTITIONING AND FORMATTING YOUR MMC CARD, ALL DATA WILL BE ERASED. YOU SHOULD CREATE A COPY ON YOUR DESKTOP PC IF THERE IS ANY VALUABLE DATA INSIDE.

Contents

Get root access

See root access.

Install the needed packages and create partitions

Note: on the N8X0 the filesystem mounted under /media/mmc1 is the external media card and the internal card is mounted under /media/mmc2. the device that is mounted under /media/mmc1 is /dev/mmcblk1 and not mmcblk0 that is mounted under /media/mmc2. If you plan to format the external media card replace mmcblk0p with mmcblk1p

In a console on your tablet, as root, run:

# apt-get install e2fsprogs
# umount /media/mmc1
# umount /media/mmc2 (for N800 or N810)
# sfdisk /dev/mmcblk0
/dev/mmcblk0p1:1,15000,6
/dev/mmcblk0p2:15001,,
/dev/mmcblk0p3:
/dev/mmcblk0p4:

This will create two partitions in a 1GB RS-MMC card: the first one is VFAT (that's what number 6 means); the second one is LINUX_83. The size of the first one is almost 480MB (that's the meaning of the 15000); the second one is sized till the end of the card (that's what ,, means). Partitions third and fourth are empty. You may calculate your partitions based in my description, or read more about SFDISK. (Actually 15000 means cylinders, being each one of 32KB. So that 15000 cylinder x 32 Kbytes/cylinder = 480Mbytes. This means that 30000 cylinder x 32 Kbytes/cylinder = 960Mbytes). I suggest you to copy my example and just modify it slightly.

It is supposed that without any previous knowledge you should be able to accomplish the whole procedure. Ask for help in case something goes wrong. I'll be happy to help you at the following e-mail address: sebastian.maemo{AT}gmail.com

Format the partitions

Type as root:

# mkdosfs /dev/mmcblk0p1
# shutdown -r now

After it reboots, then open an Xterm and type again as root:

# 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 you must open an Xterm and type as root:

# insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/current/ext2.ko
# mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /media/mmc2

N8X0 tablets require mbcache.ko to be loaded before ext2.ko. Find this module file in /mnt/initfs/lib/modules, and run insmod on it before running the two commands above.