[PATCH] liveusb script doesn't work with big (eg. 8GB) USB drives - mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file system

Bug #240055 reported by Mantas Kriaučiūnas
10
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
liveusb
Fix Committed
Undecided
probono

Bug Description

It seems liveusb python script shouldn't use FAT16 when formating USB drive - because of using -F16 parameter with mkfs.vfat it doesn't work with big (eg. 8GB) USB drives - I get these errors when runing liveusb in terminal:

root@baltix:/home/ubuntu# liveusb
Disabled GNOME automount
Starting to work
index 0
Do you want to install Ubuntu on
SanDisk Cruzer Contour (/dev/sdb)?

It currently currently contains 1 partition(s)
which will be deleted.
 -
Are you sure you want to erase
SanDisk Cruzer Contour (/dev/sdb)?
Starting work on SanDisk Cruzer Contour (/dev/sdb) 7815 MB
Dependency check to be implemented (FIXME)
[dbus.String(u'/media/disk-3')]
Unmounted all partitions on /dev/sdb
Partitioned/dev/sdb
[dbus.String(u'')]
mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
WARNING: Not enough clusters for a 16 bit FAT! The filesystem will be
misinterpreted as having a 12 bit FAT without mount option "fat=16".
mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file system
Could not format /dev/sdb1

I've fixed this problem simply by replacing 'command = ["/sbin/mkfs.vfat", "-F", "16", .....' with 'command = ["/sbin/mkfs.vfat", "-F", "32",..."......' in file usbdevice.py

I'm attaching a patch, which fixes this problem.

Revision history for this message
Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas) wrote :
Revision history for this message
jimmy smith (timmy-lea) wrote :

I can confirm this -- great application but useless with most modern keysticks over 2GB (?)

The error message I get is:

WARNING: Not enough clusters for a 16 bit FAT! The filesystem will be misinterpreted as having a 12 bit FAT without mount option "fat=16".
mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file system
Could not format /dev/sdb1

Revision history for this message
jimmy smith (timmy-lea) wrote :

I should point out that my USB key stick is a 8Gbit model.

Revision history for this message
Hugh Parker (hcp) wrote :

Thanks, Mantas. That fix worked for me, too.

Revision history for this message
probono (probono) wrote :

Should be fixed in 0.0.9

Changed in liveusb:
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
S. Christoffer Eliesen (sce) wrote :

Bug still exists in 0.0.9 ( http://ppa.launchpad.net/probono/ubuntu/pool/main/l/liveusb/liveusb_0.0.9_all.deb ), patch fixes it for me (8gb kingston datatravler).

probono (probono)
Changed in liveusb:
assignee: nobody → probono
status: Fix Committed → In Progress
probono (probono)
Changed in liveusb:
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
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