Re: [SD4L-user] Follow-up: SD4L problem -- Windows container won't mount

[Martinveg <mar...@gm...>]

Hi Ulrich,

On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 4:28 AM, Hans-Ulrich Juettner
<han...@t-...> wrote:
> Hi Martin,
>
> Martinveg wrote:
>> Hi, Hans-Ulrich,
>>
>> This is a follow-up to my previous message of yesterday:
>>
>> Today I tried again to mount the container, and when it wouldn't
>> mount, I followed your instructions again, doing the fsck -t vfat
>> /dev/scramdisk/vol01 command. And the result appeared to be exactly
>> the same as yesterday. This suggests to me that the command did not
>> change my container file at all -- indeed, the notation: "Leaving file
>> system unchanged" suggests this. I commanded it to correct the
>> problems and delete the bad files, but it seems that it didn't do it.
>>
>> How do I get it to actually make the required changes?
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> Martin
>>
>
> Yes that means, that the changes haven't been written.

Okay, but why weren't they written? I should point out that I'm a
newbie to Linux. I just installed Mint two weeks ago and have a lot to
learn. When the fsck -t vfat /dev/scramdisk/vol01 command was
executing, the Terminal asked me several times what to do, for
example, correct a problem or leave it alone. It would give me a
choice of 1 or 2, and I would key 1 or 2 and then press enter.

I don't even know if that is the correct thing to do in Terminal. Did
I do that correctly?

Can that command be changed so that it will actually fix the file and
save the changes?

> There are a number of further options you may try.
> By the command
>
> man fsck.msdos
>
> a manual page of the msdos/vfat file system checker,
> which fsck calls with the option -t vfat, is displayed.
> You can always find such man pages in the internet
> if they are not installed on your computer or you
> like a more friendly presentation in the browser.
> Especially the options (copied from the man page)
>
> -w for "Write changes to disk immediately."
> -t for "Mark unreadable clusters as bad."
> and perhaps
> -a for "Automatically repair the file system.
>        No  user  intervention  is necessary.
>        Whenever  there  is more than one method
>        to solve a problem, the least destructive
>        approach is used."

Thanks. But, again, I'm a novice to Linux. Can you give me a complete
command to use man fsck.msdos to automatically fix the container
mounted on
scramdisk Vol01?

Since you mentioned man fsck.msdos first, i assume i should try it
before the one that follows:

>
> of fsck.msdos might be worth trying. You may also
> call fsck.msdos directly without instructing fsck
> by the option -t vfat to call it. So a possible
> approach would be
>
> fsck.msdos -w -t /dev/scramdisk/vol01
>
> or
>
> fsck.msdos -w -t -a /dev/scramdisk/vol01.
>
> I hope this helps, but there is no guaranty that
> the file system will be repaired successfully.
>
>
>> Unfortunately, after doing this in Terminal, I still can't mount the
>> container. when I click on the Volume 01 (none (don't mount))
>> container and click Mount, I get the error: "Container file already
>> mounted." And it gives the file system location of my container file.
>> But of course it is NOT mounted there. And it is not mounted in the
>> folder I selected as the Mount Point either.
>
> You first have to unmount the container which was
> mounted with the special option "none (don't mount)".
>
> Perhaps you are confused by the two meanings of the phrase
> "mount" in the context of SD4L. The first meaning is
> to read the header of the container and decrypt it with
> the passphrase. The second meaning is to mount the file
> system within the container to make it accessible by your
> Linux machine. The option "none (don't mount)" results
> in only doing a "mount" in the first meaning. If this
> option isn't chosen, both meanings of "mount" are performed.
> So either you unmount the container before doing the normal
> mount or you may perform the second meaning of "mount"
> in your root terminal by the command
>
> mount -t vfat /dev/scramdisk/vol01 /mnt
>
> where /mnt may also be any other directory where you like
> to have your container mounted.


Is this the same thing as doing it with the GUI? I prefer to use the GUI.


> Another possibility of mounting is to replace vfat with
> msdos. The difference is that with the option -t msdos
> of the mount command no long file names are available
> but only 8.3 dos file names. SD4L has this option msdos
> also as a separate mount option. If mounting with -t vfat
> fails after all fsck runs this option -t msdos may be a
> last trial.

Okay, thanks Ulrich. I guess I'd like to know, first, if I can modify
your original command, fsck -t vfat /dev/scramdisk/vol01 , to make it
really fix the container. Then, I'd like to know an actual command to
run for man fsck.msdos. And then, I can try the fsck.msdos -w -t -a
/dev/scramdisk/vol01. And if all that fails, I will try to mount it as
MS-DOS.

Thanks so much for all your assistance.

Martin