Nix Failing to format SD card

Its a different problem so i am creating a new thread. But i hooked my card reader up to the box booted Knoppix 5.1 and i attempt to format my card. Mke2fs -c -T ext3 -j -l mmc /dev/sdb1 ... It runs its thing. I then try to mount the card mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sb1 and lo and behold it fails tells me it doesn't know what file system it is. What am i doing wrong? i tried using cfdisk but i dont think it was working either... because any time i pick a nix file system i cant mount that either. Im quite confused this doesn't make any sense. Any suggestions?

Edit: i reloaded knoppix fired up cfdisk and it shows the card having no formating at all. So i told it to use 83 im pretty sure thats ext3 and it does... but still will not mount im so confused it should be this hard... im gonna test a differnt card reader.

I hate to double post but i think i MIGHT have figured it out.... I put the card in a windows system did a full fat32 format.... no quick format... Put it back into the nix system that reports it as a windows 95 fat system but with the bootable flag set. I used cfdisk to change it to a linux filesystem. then i took it put it back
into the windows system. Funny thing is windows loads it just fine and reports it as fat32. I rebooted the nix box... its a live cd then loaded the sd card back up and cfdisk reports it as a nix partition. Strange right? I dont know what it is now but im gonna try it and hope its nix and fixes my issue. any one care to share some light on why this is the case it would be appreciated.

This is a pure guess mate, but I suspect that your SD card isn't intended to be linux compatible?............at least not as it ships. It sounds as if it has some sort of header, hidden partition, or MBR?

A lot of these memory cards/sticks are intended for rather simplistic systems such as cameras, personal audio devices and the like, and to work straight out of the box. What you are trying to do is not the "normal use" for which they are originally sold.

Just a thought :)

I got my hands on another SD card this one 32mb instead of the 1gb. The second card was made by cannon. I did the exact same thing again... checked cfdisk that reported the card was not formated even though i had it mounted as vfat. I ran mke2fs and low and behold same problem. nihil may be right i just dont understand why. It doesnt make much sense. I mean its flash ram i. Its possible to change the file system on usb drives... so why not sd cards.

i wanted to format it as ext so i could creat symlinks... since i cant do that if i need to think from the sd card to a main system file... i copy the main system card to the sd card then link it back to the main file system. it seems to be working ok.

Hmmmm,

Firstly, let me warn you that I am no expert on this technology. I just use it for digital photography. Professionally, I only encounter it as a straightforward data recovery exercise when someone screws up with their digital camera :D

What you are trying to do seems to be pretty cutting edge to me?

I can understand your comment about USB drives, but remember, they are intended to be used as an extension of a computer. Flash memory cards are not.

If I rember correctly, "SD" means something like "Secure Data", and there is an inaccessible part of the card to support this.

Also, the default formats are FAT32 and FAT16. If you formatted one in 2FS and then put it into your digital camera (Canon make cameras?) it wouldn't work, so I guess there is something to try to stop you. If you circumvent this by whatever means, you still haven't changed the protected part of the card.

I am curious as to whether you might have tried any of the other flash card formats apart from SD?

As a way forwards, I am afraid that all I can suggest is that you:

1. Try a specialist Linux forum.
2. Contact a manufacturer of these cards. After all, you are suggesting another possible use for their product, which represents a new market to them?

Good luck! :)

Hmm... your problem seems to be quite obscure. A google search for formatting comes up with a lot of results, but none that I could see with your problem. You might want to try a different flash reader.

Quote:

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Canon make cameras?

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Of course they do! Actually, Canon and Nikon are considered the "big two" of professional and semi-professional photography. Here's a list of their current models with reviews http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/

Cheers,
cgkanchi

Its a simple issue really. Im working with a pda that doesnt have alot of space. 32mb of internal flash. So i got a 1gig SD card to expand it. I need some file system other then fat that supporst symlinks. Iv worked around the problem of linking to the sd card by coping any file i need to link to it to the card then then linking that file back to the main file system. Its just frustrating. I have tried two differnt cards and card readers.

Out of curiosity, what is the make and model of your PDA?

I am wondering if your problem might be more hardware than software?

:)

PDA is an H5455, Has integrated SD reader. The CF card goes in a pcmica holder and into the pcmcia sleeve that fits on the back. This also holds an SL-2511 EXT2 card. If its hardware then its spanning a no name cheap media card reader... a Sandisk card reader. An Ipaq PDA. I also seem to have the same problem with the CF card. In both readers. But i havent put nearly the amount of time into it as i have the sd card.