Format Read Only exfat Micro SD Card To ext4?

[JeZ-l-Lee]

Hi,

How would I format a read only exfat 128GB Micro SD card to ext4?
I've tried everything on Kubuntu 18.04 but nothing works?
Thanks!

Jesse

[JeZ-l-Lee]

I did do below:

sudo apt-get install exfat-fuse exfat-utils

(but it only allows reading exfat not writing exfat)

Any ideas?

[Snowhog]

While you are logged in and on your Desktop, plugin/insert the SD card, then launch KDE Partition Manager. Select the SD card and format it as you wish.

[JeZ-l-Lee]

While you are logged in and on your Desktop, plugin/insert the SD card, then launch KDE Partition Manager. Select the SD card and format it as you wish.

I already tried to format the card via KDE Partition Manager - it fails with unspecified error?

I ultimately used a Win 10 test desktop to format card to Linux readable/writable NTFS.
Just wondering if the above is even possible with Kubuntu?

[JeZ-l-Lee]

"exfat" is some Microsoft proprietary crap.
Any SD card formatted with exfat is unusable under Linux unless you format the card to NTFS under a Windows computer.
Kinda sucks...

[oshunluvr]

"exfat" is some Microsoft proprietary crap.

True...

Any SD card formatted with exfat is unusable under Linux unless you format the card to NTFS under a Windows computer.
Kinda sucks...

...This one not so much. Try installing exfat-fuse and exfat-utils.

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@Precision7730[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#5454FF][B]~/Desktop[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ apt-cache search exfat[/COLOR]
exfat-fuse - read and write exFAT driver for FUSE
exfat-utils - utilities to create, check, label and dump exFAT filesystem
[/FONT]

[JeZ-l-Lee]

I did that already - see post #2

[jlittle]

If you don't have files greater than 4 GiB, I'd suggest FAT32 for convenience, but I have no experience with large SD cards.

If you can't format it, have you tried zeroing it first with sudo dd if=/dev/zero? Be absolutely sure you have the right device, or you could wipe out your data or your system altogether.

[oshunluvr]

I did that already - see post #2

Then your problem is elsewhere. I just took an old 2GB sdcard out of the drawer, formatted it exfat, mounted it, and copied a file to it;

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ sudo umount /dev/sdg1[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sdg1[/COLOR]
mkexfatfs 1.2.8
Creating... done.
Flushing... done.
File system created successfully.
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ sudo mount /dev/sdg1 /mnt/test[/COLOR]
FUSE exfat 1.2.8
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ ll /mnt/test/                  [/COLOR]
total 32
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32768 Dec 31  1969 [COLOR=#1818b2].[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   162 Jan 30 16:15 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]..[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ ll /mnt[/COLOR]
total 64
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   162 Jan 30 16:15 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B].[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   288 Jan 29 12:47 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]..[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Aug 20 08:50 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]840pro[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxrwxr-x 1 root root   332 Jan 13 09:25 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]backup1[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root   220 Jun 11  2018 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]backup2[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Dec 31 11:08 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]backup3[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Dec 31 11:12 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]backup4[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Aug 20 08:49 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]grub[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root    48 May 28  2018 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]private[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Sep  4 17:55 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]router[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32768 Dec 31  1969 [COLOR=#1818b2]test[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Aug 20 08:48 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]vm_drive[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Sep  4 18:03 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]vm_drive1[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root     0 Aug 20 08:48 [COLOR=#54FFFF][B]vm_drive2[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ ls /mnt/test[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]210_Sky_Sail.pdf[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#54FF54][B]stuart@office[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]:[/COLOR][COLOR=#54FFFF][B]~[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]$ [/COLOR]

[/FONT]

[oshunluvr]

It's possible some camera or other device "formatted" it and left it read-only. Maybe Windows ignores that. Using Linux, the usual fix is to do:

sudo hdparm -r0 /dev/sdg

disables read-only status. It's there so devices (or you) can "lock" a USB device.

[JeZ-l-Lee]

I don't know...

The computer was freshly installed with Kubuntu 18.04 a day ago.
Also the 128GB Micro SD card was purchased brand new from NewEgg.

[oshunluvr]

It does seem odd, but still, exfat works - at least here. Not that I use it :0