PDA

View Full Version : mk-image on fat32 - 4GB file size limit?



dahveed3
04-12-2008, 03:59 PM
Hey,

Still getting my feet wet on this using the persistent image on an 8GB USB flash drive thing. I think I destroyed the initial Sandisk Cruiser 8GB stick I did this with and successfully got it exchanged for another one. All I know is that after fooling around with it for a few days I could no longer format, zero it out, make partitions, copy anything to what the file manager showed as existing partitions, it was just apparently unusable.

Having seen the script fail anytime I tried making the image greater than the 4GB Fat32 limit I made it 3.6GB or so and that had worked.

In my stupidity or just to see how much space it would take to do so, I tried upgrading Knoppix with a full-upgrade using aptitude (keep-all first). Wow! That thing got nearly the whole hundreds of packages upgraded before finally farting out with only a bit left, telling that there just wasn't any disk space to proceed further.

Well, of course I won't do that again! I have Debian installed so use that mostly and am just seeing about making a portable system using Knoppix 5.3.1 DVD and a persistent USB image. First time was play time but I now want to do it right!

What I don't understand was why deleting that filled 3.6 GB knoppix.img file never got it deleted. using dd to zero out the drive reported it zeroed out but the image file still remained on the stick. QTParted could not do any operations (formatting, deleting the partition, anything). I even tried booting into Vista with it, where I had originally used the Sandisk software to uninstall the q3 software from it. Vista mounted it but could not open the drive in Explorer and its Disk Management could not open if I had the drive attached. I just exchanged the drive for a new one and have now uninstalled the q3 software, and so have a fresh start hoping that I do not destroy this one.

Not sure how that drive got messed up, but I'm thinking how I could make the persistent image larger than 4GB. I do not intend to upgrade the entire DVD system, so won't need that kind of space, but I do have lots of mp3's (about 18GB) and I might decide to keep a few GB of those on the persistent image, plus perhaps a few packages of additional software and some upgrades at times. So I'd like to use most of the drive.

Would deleting the partition, creating a new one, and formatting it as ext2 or ext3 enable Knoppix to create a larger than 4GB persistent knoppix.img file? I suppose I could use qtparted for this? Not sure whether I'll choose to do that or not. I might just do a 3899 (max fat32 size, right?) persistent knoppix.img and simply copy some mp3's over to the rest of the partition and play them from there.

I don't trust fooling around too much with repartitioning and formatting because of my experience with the first drive. I had thought that partition manipulation was going to be about the same as on a real hard drive, where I've never really had a problem with that. But these flash drives appear to be quite sensitive. It would be nice to just leave it alone and use the Fat32 it comes with, but I am still pondering using ext2 or 3 for a larger knoppix.img IF that is possible and relatively safe to do.

WallyWallWhackr
04-21-2008, 03:16 AM
File size limit for FAT32 FS is 2GB.

You need an NTFS partition. 8)

Harry Kuhman
04-21-2008, 04:46 AM
File size limit for FAT32 FS is 2GB.

You need an NTFS partition. 8)
File size limit for FAT32 is 4 gig - 1 byte, but one still can't use FAT for holding the current DVD ISO image.

WallyWallWhackr
04-21-2008, 06:17 AM
File size limit for FAT32 FS is 2GB.

You need an NTFS partition. 8)
File size limit for FAT32 is 4 gig - 1 byte, but one still can't use FAT for holding the current DVD ISO image.

Actually, FAT32 is 4GB MINUS 2 bytes. FAT is 2GB NTFS max file size is equal to volume size. I do not remember why I thought it was only 2GB. Probably a file write failure in the past.

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

dahveed3
04-22-2008, 04:51 AM
Well all right! Replies! :)

Thanks.

Now that I finally finished torrenting down all the Mandriva Spring stuff (Powerpack, Free, One, and the assorted versions of each) and seeding them back as many days as I had the patience for, I got out of my installed Debian and have had some time to fool around with this. Yeah, I use Debian but that doesn't mean I don't support a bunch of distros. All in a good cause.

Hmm, Iceweasel is spell-check underlining every word I type here in Knoppix 5.3.1. Guess I need to check the fonts or something in Iceweasel's preferences. Maybe it thinks I want German or something.

Anyway, I created the knoppix.img at a 3880MB size on my new 8GB Sandisk Cruiser USB Flash drive and it's doing its thing properly. I've rebooted and it has the same software I installed and all the drivers and settings.

I read somewhere about a max FAT32 knoppix.img file being 3889MB so I figured 3880 was safe. I have no idea whether I need to keep right click Properties uncheck read only for it to write whatever it is it's writing but I'm playing it safe and doing that every time I login to KDE.

The second reboot after activating the image resulted in cdrom, dvd recorder and dvd drive icons to appear on the desktop. The only dvd I have inserted is the Knoppix dvd so I have no idea what that's all about. They're labeled cdrom, hdd, and hdc. The hdc houses my Knoppix dvd. No cd or dvd is in my second drive (hdd). Are those supposed to be on the desktop? They weren't appearing until I started using the knoppix.img persistant file.

These underlines and fonts are both driving me crazy so that's all I'll type for now. I'll be sure not to go nuts upgrading the software. I just added the codecs and a few things. Its' pretty nice!

georgew
07-21-2008, 02:58 PM
Hey there!

After just about destroying my 8g flash drive (I didn't know that was possible)
I have decided to ask about general instructions on getting the DVD version of
Knoppix installed on a 8g USB flash drive.

I tried to follow the instructions I could find, but they were all for the cd version
of Knoppix... so they didn't work on several levels.

If someone could give me an overview of the procedure, I would be happy
to write a step-by-step procedure...

I know I could figure it out for myself, but I thought that using a community
provided procedure would be a more conservative use of my time. I've been
administering unix servers for 21 years, so I don't need a huge amount of help,
but I am new to Knoppix.

Of course I'm trying to produce an 8g USB "swiss army knife" that houses knoppix,
as well as my own library of files... My files all fit in a 1g folder with room to spare,
so presumably an 8g USB drive will hold all of Knoppix, all of my own tools, and have
room to spare...

I did manage to build a boot floppy with usb dvd drivers, so I have a floppy/usb-dvd
bootable solution.... Which is good for the older systems that can't boot from a
USB stick anyway... but the USB solution is the one I really want to get going.
I'm in a time crunch, so asking for a process overview from people that have done it
is preferable to figuring it out the hard way... After I am done I will contribute my
documented process to the community.


George