Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
On 10.08.19 21:51, Hendrik Boom wrote: > So I want to find out what's in /dev/sda4 on my hard drive. The > computer has *never* had Windows on it. So I try to mount it, and am > told: > > april:/farhome/hendrik# mount /dev/sda4 /test > NTFS signature is missing. > Failed to mount '/dev/sda4': Invalid argument > The device '/dev/sda4' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. > Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a > partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way > around? > april:/farhome/hendrik# > > Why would it try for and NTFS file system on a Linux machine? To move from speculation to analysis requires information. One way to read the filesystem type of an unmounted filesystem is with blkid, e.g.: $ blkid /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb1: LABEL="fred" UUID="7713e1b5-1bdf-41d1-9aa9" TYPE="ext2" As you have not specified an fstype in the mount command, it'll normally use the blkid libraries to discover the fstype in just this way, so let's see what it finds. Erik ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
Could it be exfat? I sometimes see NTFS messages appear in syslog when I try to mount exfat drives using pmount. > On 11 Aug 2019, at 11:51, Hendrik Boom wrote: > > So I want to find out what's in /dev/sda4 on my hard drive. The > computer has *never* had Windows on it. So I try to mount it, and am > told: > > april:/farhome/hendrik# mount /dev/sda4 /test > NTFS signature is missing. > Failed to mount '/dev/sda4': Invalid argument > The device '/dev/sda4' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. > Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a > partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way > around? > april:/farhome/hendrik# > > Why would it try for and NTFS file system on a Linux machine? > > -- hendrik > > ___ > Dng mailing list > Dng@lists.dyne.org > https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
> Why would it try for and NTFS file system on a Linux machine? The way I understand it is that without a filesystem type, mount will try all (disk-based) filesystem drivers that you have currently loaded. And the ntfs driver generates some debug output when it fails. So nothing to worry about. It does make sense - sensibly enough the kernel has no other[1] facility to work out what filesystem is really on a given partition - it has to invoke the filesystem driver to find out. regards marc [1] partition ids, etc may provide a clue but consider the case of your magic new filesystem that you have just written a kernel driver for... ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
Hey, On dg., ag. 11 2019, Hendrik Boom wrote: So I want to find out what's in /dev/sda4 on my hard drive. The computer has *never* had Windows on it. So I try to mount it, and am told: april:/farhome/hendrik# mount /dev/sda4 /test NTFS signature is missing. Failed to mount '/dev/sda4': Invalid argument The device '/dev/sda4' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. Just adding two things to what marc wrote: partition number 4 (sda4) is very often used as the extended partition in DOS partition tables. Regardless of its type, you should check the partition table; it will have the type byte set for each partition which says which use it's supposed to have, though it can actually not match the partition contents. I recall gparted and IIRC parted show this quite nicely. man parted was useful (at the very least the help command was). If it is an extended partition, then it's not supposed to be mountable, but you should check the 5th partition instead. Another fun thing that will work even if you are not using a DOS partition table is: just hexdump it! dd if=/dev/sda4 bs=1M count=1 | hd | less File systems usually have some kind of readable ASCII information at the beginning and amongst others an NTFS partition will be obvious there. -- Evilham ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 02:13:48PM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote: > On 10.08.19 21:51, Hendrik Boom wrote: > > So I want to find out what's in /dev/sda4 on my hard drive. The > > computer has *never* had Windows on it. So I try to mount it, and am > > told: > > > > april:/farhome/hendrik# mount /dev/sda4 /test > > NTFS signature is missing. > > Failed to mount '/dev/sda4': Invalid argument > > The device '/dev/sda4' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. > > Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a > > partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way > > around? > > april:/farhome/hendrik# > > > > Why would it try for and NTFS file system on a Linux machine? > > To move from speculation to analysis requires information. One way to > read the filesystem type of an unmounted filesystem is with blkid, e.g.: > > $ blkid /dev/sdb1 > /dev/sdb1: LABEL="fred" UUID="7713e1b5-1bdf-41d1-9aa9" TYPE="ext2" > > As you have not specified an fstype in the mount command, it'll normally > use the blkid libraries to discover the fstype in just this way, so > let's see what it finds. april:/farhome/hendrik# blkid /dev/sda4 /dev/sda4: PARTLABEL="Linux filesystem" PARTUUID="14fdecea-4672-4d03-9660-868f3fd630ec" april:/farhome/hendrik# And if it doesn't mention type, should I presume that it's likely a partition that does not have a file system installed? Or at least not one the current Linux system can handle? -- hendrik ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 08:18:54AM -0400, Hendrik Boom wrote: > On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 02:13:48PM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote: > > On 10.08.19 21:51, Hendrik Boom wrote: > > > So I want to find out what's in /dev/sda4 on my hard drive. The > > > computer has *never* had Windows on it. So I try to mount it, and am > > > told: > > > > > > april:/farhome/hendrik# mount /dev/sda4 /test > > > NTFS signature is missing. > > > Failed to mount '/dev/sda4': Invalid argument > > > The device '/dev/sda4' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS. > > > Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a > > > partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way > > > around? > > > april:/farhome/hendrik# > > > > > > Why would it try for and NTFS file system on a Linux machine? > > > > To move from speculation to analysis requires information. One way to > > read the filesystem type of an unmounted filesystem is with blkid, e.g.: > > > > $ blkid /dev/sdb1 > > /dev/sdb1: LABEL="fred" UUID="7713e1b5-1bdf-41d1-9aa9" TYPE="ext2" > > > > As you have not specified an fstype in the mount command, it'll normally > > use the blkid libraries to discover the fstype in just this way, so > > let's see what it finds. > > april:/farhome/hendrik# blkid /dev/sda4 > /dev/sda4: PARTLABEL="Linux filesystem" > PARTUUID="14fdecea-4672-4d03-9660-868f3fd630ec" > april:/farhome/hendrik# > > And if it doesn't mention type, should I presume that it's likely a > partition that does not have a file system installed? Or at > least not one the current Linux system can handle? That may be true. You can also check with “wipefs” tool (don't worry, without -a it won't wipe anything): wipefs --no-act /dev/sda4 Wipefs has a big database of various filesystem metadata, it detects almost anything. -- Tomasz TorczOnly gods can safely risk perfection, xmpp: zdzich...@chrome.pl it's a dangerous thing for a man. -- Alia ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
Re: [DNG] why does mount expect NTFS?
On 11.08.19 08:18, Hendrik Boom wrote: > On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 02:13:48PM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote: > > $ blkid /dev/sdb1 > > /dev/sdb1: LABEL="fred" UUID="7713e1b5-1bdf-41d1-9aa9" TYPE="ext2" > > > > As you have not specified an fstype in the mount command, it'll normally > > use the blkid libraries to discover the fstype in just this way, so > > let's see what it finds. > > april:/farhome/hendrik# blkid /dev/sda4 > /dev/sda4: PARTLABEL="Linux filesystem" > PARTUUID="14fdecea-4672-4d03-9660-868f3fd630ec" > april:/farhome/hendrik# > > And if it doesn't mention type, should I presume that it's likely a > partition that does not have a file system installed? Or at > least not one the current Linux system can handle? That seems a fairly safe bet. I don't have a partition here that hasn't had mkfs run on it, to confirm, but you'd expect some sort of "unrecognised filesystem" error if there's something alien there. You could try an explicit probe: $ blkid -p -n ntfs,vfat,ext3,ext4 /dev/sdb1 That gives more information if there's a hit, else silent return. But it looks like you're about ready to run mkfs on it, as there's no sign of life there. (At least a form you can communicate with. :-) Erik ___ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
