ext4 and usb flash drive

[1richard]

I have been trying to format a usb flash drive to ext4, it appears to do it, but then it will not mount it, what file do I need to install to get 12.04 to mount the ext4 flash drive, thanks

[vinnywright]

you shouldn’t need to do anything but unplug it and replug it!!......exactly how did you go about it?

VINNY

[james147]

How did you flash it? How are you tring to mount it?

[1richard]

This is what I get on 3 different flash drives, for ext4

[21034.554308] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[21034.562870] sdd: sdd1 < >
[21034.564412] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] No Caching mode page present
[21034.564418] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Assuming drive cache: write through
[21034.564423] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
[21230.744664] JBD2: no valid journal superblock found
[21230.744669] EXT4-fs (sdd1): error loading journal
[22322.335754] JBD2: no valid journal superblock found
[22322.335760] EXT4-fs (sdd1): error loading journal

[vinnywright]

again I ask how did you partition/format it (what tools)?

with the flash drive plugged in post the output of

sudo parted -l

VINNY

[vinnywright]

@hear I took 1 of my sandisk 16Gig usb sticks

Model: SanDisk Cruzer (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 16.0GB 16.0GB primary fat32

run the kde-partition manager delete the partition , new primary partition type ext4 , apply changes


now

Model: SanDisk Cruzer (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 16.0GB 16.0GB primary ext4

however now the usb stick follows *nix permissions and is owned by root , so open dolphin as root (alt+F2 kdesudo dolphin) go to /media (if you have pluged in the usb and tryed to click open with file manager in the device notifier) right click the folder that is the usb stick and then property’s and then the permissions tab, change user from root to you and group from root to you or plugdev ,,,,,,now you can use it

VINNY

[1richard]

Vinny this is what I got and I follwed your directions

[Snowhog]

You posted in 12.04, but are you using 12.04? I ask, because the message indicates that your kernel doesn't support ext4.

[1richard]

Yes, I am using 12.04 i386

[vinnywright]

yes ,,,,what @Snowhog asked ?

VINNY

OOPS dident see your post ,,

[Snowhog]

Check to be sure that you have e2fsprogs and e2fslibs installed.

[1richard]

My hard disk is formatted with ext4 and is very fast. that is why I want to use ext4 on my flash drives, I formatted them 32 bit and they work fine, so something is missing I thinnk

[vinnywright]

My hard disk is formatted with ext4 and is very fast. that is why I want to use ext4 on my flash drives, I formatted them 32 bit and they work fine, so something is missing I thinnk

if your system is formatted ext4 and working then your flash drives should work as ext4 as well ,,,,,,,when you say " I formatted them 32 bit and they work fine" what are you talking about?
nothing should be missing if your system uses ext4!!

maby you messed up labelling them me ?


VINNY

[SteveRiley]

My hard disk is formatted with ext4 and is very fast. that is why I want to use ext4 on my flash drives, I formatted them 32 bit and they work fine, so something is missing I thinnk

Typical USB flash drives peak around 20-30 Mbps because of their hardware designs. Changing the file system from FAT32 to EXT4 won't suddenly make your flash drives operate faster. It's possible that they'll actually perform a little slower because of the journaling during writes. If you must use an EXT file system, use EXT2 instead. But even here, there's little value to be gained. You will, though, have more work to do: EXT* carries permissions, which creates extra steps if you want to use the drive on multiple machines. Also, EXT* isn't universal, so you won't be able to use the drives on Windows computers, for instance.

Longish and informative article on LWN about flash drives and Linux: http://lwn.net/Articles/428584/

Oh, and when you wrote "formatted them 32 bit," I presume you meant "formatted them FAT32"?

[1richard]

Hi thanks for all the help, but I did format the flash drives with fat32 and they work fine, so I guess I will have to stay with fat32 on the flash drives until the next LTS comes out, if it does