Comment 9 for bug 49217

I suspect most users encountering this issue would be perfectly happy to have a manual process by which they would select the codepage, and not have it be default behaviour. The current state of the dosfsck tool is such that a user with a DBCS encoded FAT filesystem cannot install Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration solely from the install CD: they must first repartition their drive using a separate DBCS-aware tool. For those with only one disk and OEM-provided "restore" CDs that do not provide a safe partitioning tool, this requires additional arrangements, such as removal of the drive for installation in another system, or purchase of dedicated partition management software.

Additionally, users are currently instructed to provide a codepage parameter in /etc/fstab when automounting FAT partitions (issues with specification of the codepage for other means of mounting the drives are similar, but unrelated bugs), as otherwise the filenames may be garbage characters, and unsuitable for use.

On the other hand, adjusting dosfsck to work on the structure directly, and leave the filenames alone would also work, although it would be unable to detect issues that may cause the filesystem to be unusable in other operating systems due to invalid filenames (although the native filesystem checker could be expected to resolve this if it occurs).