Anybody got the right mkdosfs/mkfs.vfat parameters (Linux)?

[uOpt]

I have a 80 GB video ipod that ran rockbox fine, using a FAT32 partition. I got a filesystem corruption after I installed rockbox 3.0 (may or may not be related) and I have reformatted the data partition.

However, it doesn't work, I can't seem to create a FAT32 filesystem from Linux that Rockbox can see. I tried a variety of parameters and every time I get "Can't load rockbox.ipod".

One thing I noticed is that I can't use the default sector size "512", otherwise mount fails with " kernel: FAT: logical sector size too small for device (logical sector size = 512). When I use -S 2048 Linux can mount but the bootloader doesn't find rockbox.ipod.

When I originally installed Rockbox I had a freshly initialized iPod from iTunes (wiped out, then connected to iTunes and it created the partition table and filesystem). I don't have access to that Windoze installation right now and I think there should be a way to create the right kind of FAT32 from Linux, right?

My gut feeling is that Windoze somehow manages to make a 512 bytes sector filesystem that is usable and that Linux' mkfs.vfat somehow screws this up.

[LambdaCalculus]

You can use the partition file table from the 80GB video to help get the filesystem up:

http://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/ipod/mbr-video80gb-2048.bin

Instructions are here if you need to know how to apply the table.

[uOpt]

Same result as with my old partition table, which was almost the same modulo a couple sectors (but same types).

I don't think I have a partition table problem. What fails to work here is the FAT32 filesystem itself.

[gevaerts]

You might try using mformat instead of mkfs.vfat. That has been known to fix this issue

[uOpt]

Yepp, that did it. This makes it work:

mformat -S 4 x:

$ cat ~/.mtoolsrc
drive x:
  file="/dev/sdi2"

[yapper]

The wiki page LambdaCalculus referenced mentions this issue

Note - there is a problem with mkfs.vfat on disks over 30GB in size. We recommend mtools format utility instead.

[uOpt]

Oops. Sorry.

Now, there's a problem left, and that is that after mount my 80 GB mformat made FAT32 filesystem is seen like this:
~(pls)23% df -h /mnt/ipod
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdi2             298G   22G  276G   8% /mnt/ipod

I think my party might not yet be over. Rockbox works, but I figure this will probably blow up as I put more data on this.

[GodEater]

Right, I want to see :

dmesg output from when you connect your ipod via usb.

Output from fdisk -l

Then we'll see what's what.

[gevaerts]

mformat -S 4 x:

The wiki has mformat instructions, and they are different from this... I think you also need -M 2048 at least