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LVM ... effin buggy

Started by xchris, 2012.08.01, 20:35:07

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xchris

Hello,

I am sure something is wrong with LVM application...

I have a 16GB (SanDisk Cruzer Fit mini USB flash), and as I know, I need to put LVM info on this
so  I can use it with the eCS too (FAT32 formatted).

When I insert it, it creates a Drive (E:) that thinks that the USB flash is 32MB (LOL time now).

Then I run the LVM application, I can see that it reports the correct size, 15xxx MB, but there is NO
f* way to add LVM info...  Also I tried the DFSEE, I added the LVM info like drive name and letter, but
even then, the dammit eCS cannot use this info..

So I assume that the LVM cannot handle a USB (removable) drive with this size (16GB) !!?!

thx

chris

EugeneGorbunoff

You can use SEDIT to initialize flash disk
http://ecomstation.ru/projects/flashdisk/?action=sedit

Attention! don't kill your main harddrive!

ivan

Chris, did you make a partition on that USB stick?  If not you will see what you are seeing.

I have a 32GB USB stick divided into two partitions - one formatted as jfs the other as fat32.  both have drive letters that are seen by OS/2  and are readable by OS/2.  I use the fat32 partition when working on clients windows machines to transfer drivers etc.

ivan

xchris

Quote from: ivan on 2012.08.01, 23:18:43
Chris, did you make a partition on that USB stick?  If not you will see what you are seeing.

I have a 32GB USB stick divided into two partitions - one formatted as jfs the other as fat32.  both have drive letters that are seen by OS/2  and are readable by OS/2.  I use the fat32 partition when working on clients windows machines to transfer drivers etc.

ivan

hm.. I assume you meant, to make the partition ON the eCS? if so, no! It was already formatted , but
I deleted and re-created the partition under XP and Linux, as there was no way to make a partition using LVM...

Thanks for the info anyway, I will try Eugene's suggestion too, but now I have some files there and I think I will lose them...




ivan

Sorry Chris, I used DFSee running on OS/2 to create the partitions and add the LVM information on the USB stick.  The fat32 was formatted by DFSee and the JFS by OS/2.

Backup any files you want to keep to a computer then you can experiment without fear of loosing anything.  Another thing, which I only give an information, the fat32 partition is 10GB and the LVM is the remainder.

ivan

melf

I have found that the only good way to prepare USB sticks is to totally wipe it (not just delete the partition i comes with) and the make the partitions you wish. I do as Ivan, I have one FAT32 and one JFS. Many USB sticks contains security software and such stuff which also seem to disturb eCS.  If the program Eugen refers to works this wood be great. There is a need of an easy way to prepare USB sticks. Also sometimes it has been suggested to use the /CHS switch to USBMSD.ADD which I think "take care" of different partition layouts, thus making more USB memories readable (well that was how I understood it!)
/Mikael

xchris

I am still trying to fix this, but a lot of strange things are happened like:
Everytime I put the flash into the USB port, the eCS is trying to automount it, so at that time
the system hangs and/or the desktop icons are disappeared...

Running the DFSee is not a joy either, as the system umounts/remounts all the time (while the DFSee is running),
in this case I see a yellow alert that the device was removed without unmounted properly...

Also the SEDIT does not display the partition info just the 1st sector..
@Eugene, mate on that page it says that the last 4 chars should be 55AA, but when I put other USB flash disks
I can see that the 4 last chars are AA55 ...

BTW, regarding the SEDIT, I am suppose to ZERO all the bytes of the partition table, the 1st screen that I see, right?
NOT the 1st sector...

To sum up, I think that this USB flash cannot be initialized properly under eCS as the system is trying to mount it all the time, so is there any way to stop/kill the auto-mount process?

thx to all!

melf

Just remembered that eCs in fact offer a utility to wipe an USB drive (or other drives), but only if you use the maintain console. So if you put in your CD1 (esc2.1) and reboot, follow the ordinary steps and the check "maintance console" (or "system maintance"?). Put in you USB stick and then start the "disk utility" (under "Disk" I think). There you can use the disk of your choice (right click on it) and wipe it. Of course be shure it is the right one.

But your other trouble mounting/unmounting. Maybe it is possible to fix in Windows....?
/Mikael

wimpie

Quote
Attention! don't kill your main harddrive!
You could use my http://home.hccnet.nl/w.m.brul/resetmbr/index.html  Backup/Restore/Wipeout Master Boot Record utility.

ALT

You can prevent the automount by deleting the USB widget from the eCenter, or by closing the eCenter entirely (eCS 2.x), or by killing the "USB Removable Device Monitor" daemon, USBMSDD.EXE (earlier eCS versions).

Anyway, the problem is that these devices are factory preconfigured with a partition that doesn't align to cylinder boundaries (or what LVM thinks cylinder boundaries should be).  You can use the OS/2 version of DFSee to resize the partition to, say, 10 MiB smaller than the current size - that should force the partition to align on the closest cylinder boundary, and this may fix the problem for you.  (Once done you will have to eject and remount the USB stick.)

The advantage of this method is that you don't necessarily lose the files on the disk (although of course you should still have a backup).

xchris

Quote from: ALT on 2012.08.04, 17:49:59
You can prevent the automount by deleting the USB widget from the eCenter, or by closing the eCenter entirely (eCS 2.x), or by killing the "USB Removable Device Monitor" daemon, USBMSDD.EXE (earlier eCS versions).

thx for this, I managed to get rid the automount, as I just closed the usb-mount widget...

and finally I managed to wipe the MBR, using dd from Linux, I just formatted the whole flash disk as JFS (under Linux too) so now works ok...

as melf mentioned, this flash disk came with a security s/ware, I thought that might be the problem, but I asked Sandisk and wrote me that that was a "software only" security, nothing to do with AES chips etc...

Anyway, I think the current tools (miniLVM, LVM) may be a bit outdated and not designed to work well with USB devices...

cheers