Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

AmigaOne X1000 platform specific issues related to Linux only.
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kilaueabart
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Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by kilaueabart »

I booted Amiga OS4.1FE a few minutes ago. Awful! Must have been 640x480 or the like! Two rows of Dockies across the bottom half of the screen.

It had a Disk Warning: "Volume has Broken Cluster Geometry! Can't mount it!"

I launched Odyssey to google that term, but nothing showed in the Odyssey window. I tried various web pages. Odyssey seemed to be loading them, but the window stayed blank.

Fortunately I have this Ubuntu on a different volume. I Googled the phrase in Firefox and got an Amigans.net thread from January 2015 where someone had a similar (but apparently even worse) problem. Epsilon suggested it was a CF card problem, and said it should be fully formatted in FAT.

I figured that must be it. I had just reformatted my CF card yesterday in order to test a version of kernel 4.7. So I checked with the Ubuntu Mate "Disks" app. But it says, "Size: 4.0 GB; Device: /dev/sdd1; Partition Type: FAT16; Contents: FAT (16-bit version)--Not mounted."

I don't understand why it's not mounted. In the past it has always been mounted when Ubuntu finishes booting. But otherwise it seems to meet Epsilon's criteria. Where do I go from here?

I checked with GParted as well, and that says "Partition: /dev/sdd1; File System: [solid green rectangle] fat16; Size: 3.72 GiB; Used: 152.00 MiB; Unused: 3.57 GiB; Flags: [blank]." Oh, and I see it also has this info: "Partition table: msdos," whatever that means.

I find myself liking Ubuntu more and more, and the only thing I really need OS4 for is color printing (Ubuntu makes a real mess of that!), so it's not quite an emergency, but I would like the option back.
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xeno74
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by xeno74 »

Hi Bart,

I am sorry I have forgotten to tell you that you have to create partitions on the CF card if the CF card is bigger than 2GB.

I think OS4.1 only supports FAT16 partitions <= 2GB. I use a 256MB CF card in my X1000.

OK, theoretically FAT16 should support 4GB. Maybe it does but what about OS4.1?

Cheers,

Christian
http://www.amigalinux.org
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Running Linux on AmigaONEs can require some tinkering.
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tonyw
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by tonyw »

Why would you format anything with FAT16?

I think you'll find that the AmigaOS support for FAT is complete. There are no known issues AFAIK.
cheers
tony
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kilaueabart
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by kilaueabart »

Thank you, Christian. This is all very puzzling (but also a bit entertaining!).

This is the same CF card I have used ever since my first install of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I don't recall ever partitioning it but am unsure whether I have always formatted it as FAT16.

In the past, it always came up mounted,, icon on screen, when I booted Ubuntu. Now I need to mount it "by hand." But once mounted (as "4.0 GB Volume"), it is easy enough to click open and use. So any lack of partitioning doesn't hurt the Ubuntu side.

I'm not sure what you mean by "but what about OS4.1?" and "OS4.1 only supports FAT16 partitions <= 2GB." Is this why it appears on Workbench as "CFIDE0: Unitialized"? Previously its disk icon appeared automatically on WB, where I would change its name to "CF CARD." In fact, I have often loaded new kernels to it from WB, although I took someone's warning that I should not use it to transfer files between Amiga and linux otherwise, and started using USB sticks for that.

Amiga's Media Toolbox shows something odd. One choice is "CF CARD," at Id,LUN 0,0, "Fixed Hard Disk, Not Installed." But if I go to the section where my two 1TB hard drives, the CD/DVD, and SSD are listed, the first hard drive is also at Id,LUN 0,0. Does it make sense to have two drives at 0,0?

Running programs on WB is interesting. Some, e.g., PHA$AR, FinalCalc, DiskMaster, Pete's FTP, and Digital Universe open more or less normally, but most others open hugely bloated and not fitting on what should be a 1280x1024 screen. That is, unless I go to Preferences > Workbench, click on something there, and click "Test." Then WB comes up at the proper resolution but with everything except the temperature thing and the Dock squeezed over to the left (and the CPU thing is missing). Now everything I run from WB comes up normal size! But the DOpus desktop is still bloated.

I think I may try "Install"ing CFIDE0: from Media Toolbox. I think the worst that could happen is I would lose the kernels on the CF card and either access them from USB or go back to the 12.04 install DVD and start over. I'm afraid to Install "CF CARD:," just in case that "0,0" is really pointing at my Amiga drive.

Fun and games!
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kilaueabart
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by kilaueabart »

tonyw wrote:Why would you format anything with FAT16?

I think you'll find that the AmigaOS support for FAT is complete. There are no known issues AFAIK.
This sounded like you were saying FAT is bad, then that FAT is good. But I finally remembered to go back to 2015-08-17, when I was having the exact same problem, and you told me to use FAT32, not FAT16, and warned me NOT to use MTB on the CF card.

I'm sure glad I thought to look back. That was less than 10 months ago! If my memory is this bad at 80, I hate to think what it will be like next month!

Anyway, as soon as I post this, I'm going to call up GParted and solve all my non-mental problems. Thank you again.
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xeno74
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by xeno74 »

kilaueabart wrote:
tonyw wrote:Why would you format anything with FAT16?

I think you'll find that the AmigaOS support for FAT is complete. There are no known issues AFAIK.
This sounded like you were saying FAT is bad, then that FAT is good. But I finally remembered to go back to 2015-08-17, when I was having the exact same problem, and you told me to use FAT32, not FAT16, and warned me NOT to use MTB on the CF card.

I'm sure glad I thought to look back. That was less than 10 months ago! If my memory is this bad at 80, I hate to think what it will be like next month!

Anyway, as soon as I post this, I'm going to call up GParted and solve all my non-mental problems. Thank you again.
I use FAT16 without any problems.
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Running Linux on AmigaONEs can require some tinkering.
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kilaueabart
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by kilaueabart »

Well, it seems that in my case reformatting as FAT32 got things almost back to normal, including WB, with the mysterious exception that my CPU meter Docky had disappeared. But CF CARD was on WB as it always used to be.

I was expecting it to show up automatically on the MATE desktop as it always had too, and surprised that I had to drum it up from Places > Computer. But I don't think there is any reason that it needs to be represented all the time, as long as I can get it when I need to, like to slip in a kernel that needs testing.
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xeno74
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by xeno74 »

kilaueabart wrote:Well, it seems that in my case reformatting as FAT32 got things almost back to normal, including WB, with the mysterious exception that my CPU meter Docky had disappeared. But CF CARD was on WB as it always used to be.

I was expecting it to show up automatically on the MATE desktop as it always had too, and surprised that I had to drum it up from Places > Computer. But I don't think there is any reason that it needs to be represented all the time, as long as I can get it when I need to, like to slip in a kernel that needs testing.
It's good to know that it works with FAT32. I use FAT16.
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Running Linux on AmigaONEs can require some tinkering.
daz
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by daz »

kilaueabart wrote:Well, it seems that in my case reformatting as FAT32 got things almost back to normal, including WB, with the mysterious exception that my CPU meter Docky had disappeared. But CF CARD was on WB as it always used to be.

I was expecting it to show up automatically on the MATE desktop as it always had too, and surprised that I had to drum it up from Places > Computer. But I don't think there is any reason that it needs to be represented all the time, as long as I can get it when I need to, like to slip in a kernel that needs testing.
It may just be a difference in the way Mate handles removable media. Most CF cards have a bit set indicating that they are 'Removable Media Devices' I know it's not the easiest thing in the world to remove the CF card from an X1000, but the hardware does support hot removal/insertion. (I used to do this a lot before the Linux CF driver was written!)

Just one of the things you will find with using different Linux versions, they all have slightly different ways of doing things.

Regards
Darren
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Re: Broken Cluster Geometry -- CF CARD?

Post by daz »

kilaueabart wrote: Amiga's Media Toolbox shows something odd. One choice is "CF CARD," at Id,LUN 0,0, "Fixed Hard Disk, Not Installed." But if I go to the section where my two 1TB hard drives, the CD/DVD, and SSD are listed, the first hard drive is also at Id,LUN 0,0. Does it make sense to have two drives at 0,0?
Thats fine. LUN is specific to an interface, for example CFIDE has its LUN's and sb600sata.device will have its own set of LUNS. They are used mostly with SCSI devices.

Think of it as a more detailed way of numbering the drives, if you look at CFIDE: you'll find it has a device 0, and on sb600ata.device your boot HDD will also be device 0, but the system doesn't get confused.

Regards
Darren
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