Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hey everyone, trying to make more bootable puppy usb sticks.

Gparted started acting weird.

I've been getting this warning when trying to create the fat32 partition:

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for fat32 file system support: dosfstools, mtools.

So far I got that message when using Gparted in Slacko64-8.2.1 trying to create a bootable fat32 on an internal drive.
And on a 32GB usb stick.
And in Fossapup64 trying to burn the same usb stick.

That USB stick was cheap and already written many times. I have an unopened USB, a Samsung 32GB Bar Plus. I'm going to try again and document my steps in Slacko64-8.2.1

I opened the package and put the USB drive in a USB slot on my computer. I'm trying a different USB slot, too.

The drive is labeled sdc1.

Opening Gparted
Selecting sdc USB Flash drive -- Samsung Flash Drive (29.8G)
Upon opening it, it already has the warning flag with the above message, so I don't want to try to repartion it because now that's been on every single fat32 partition I've tried to make in the past few days.

What does that warning mean?

I just booted into Fossapup64
plugged in new Samsung USB
The warning does not display.

I wonder if I can successfully use Gparted in Fossapup64?

Currently the whole USB, out of the box, is fat32. 29.88 Gib, Used 16.02 Mib, Unused 29.86 Gib, flags lba.

Device>Create Partition Table...
msdos Apply
Partition>New
New size 300, free space following 30293, fat32

Clicking Apply All Operations
in case doing two or three at once caused the warning before
/dev/sdc1 fat32 300.00 Mib Used 620Kib Unused 299.39 Mib
The warning flag would be between sdc1 and fat32 if it were there. Clean fat32 partition!

Making the rest ext3
Clicking Apply All Operations

And I have a clean ext3 partition.

I got the error on the other USB using both systems (I think, I'm about to retry it)

I think I only used Slacko64-8.2.1 to make a fat32 on the internal drive. Maybe the warning is because Slacko is missing some packages, and the other USB is cheap/failing?

Will do another attempt to partition the old usb in Fossapupy64 since the new one just worked, and document in a new post.

Okay... just plugged the old usb into Fossapup64. The last think I did before unplugging it was try to reformat my fat32 to a fat16 to see if that wouldn't get an error (it did. same thing but said fat16 instead of fat32)

No error in Fossapup64 on my fat16.

Does it matter to Puppy if a boot partition is fat16 or fat32?

In Slacko64-8.2.1, I tried to move foward with a frugal install despite the error. It seemed like the puppy copied okay but not grub. When I tried to boot it,
I saw the boot menu
got a few errors ending in press any key

Selecting my fat32 partition
Partition>Format to>fat32
Apply All Operations

Now sdc1 is fat32 with no warning, maybe I was wrong about which Puppy I was using earlier and am only having this problem in Slacko64-8.2.1

hundido wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:42 am

Hey everyone, trying to make more bootable puppy usb sticks.

Gparted started acting weird.

I've been getting this warning when trying to create the fat32 partition:

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for fat32 file system support: dosfstools, mtools.

[...]

viewtopic.php?p=31426#p31426

Why are you using a "alpha-alpha-beta-in development"-puppy as a beginner?

peace

Maybe he doesn't know it's an "alpha-alpha-beta-in development"-puppy. Does it say so anywhere?

If gparted run from the fossa stick works without errors, go with that. using gparted to prep your stick is generic. you do not have to use the gparted supplied with the same flavor pup you wish to install.

In Slacko64-8.2.1, I tried to move foward with a frugal install despite the error. It seemed like the puppy copied okay but not grub. When I tried to boot it,
I saw the boot menu
got a few errors ending in press any key

the boot loader is not finding something, this would be typical when creating a manual frugal install. Likely, a configuration file has to be edited to match your configuration.

the booting error may not be caused by the gparted error, but one should consider duplicating what you have done thus far on a stick partitioned without errors to eliminate that possibility

to help further we need to know

1. what boot loader you have installed
2. what puppy/puppies you are making a frugal of
3. any subfolders you have created for your frugals
4. tell us a little more about how you copied grub

a screenshot of rox showing the top level that contains your subfolder, along with another screenshot of the contents of the subfolder would work nice.

A refind.conf can be found in mnt/sd?1/EFI/BOOT/ if you are using the bootloader from slacko. (or do you have a grub.config somewhere in the fat folder?)
Pasting the contents of the config file you are using in a code block would work the best.

hundido,

I think you may have discovered a bug in Slacko64 8.2.1
Please edit the subject of the first post and add Slacko64 8.2.1, so people know the problem is with Slacko64 8.2.1.

Maybe he doesn't know it's an "alpha-alpha-beta-in development"-puppy. Does it say so anywhere?

Slacko64 8.2.1 is still in development and will have some bugs.
viewtopic.php?p=24908#p24908

One thing you could try is Puppy Package Manager(PPM)
First update the database using PPM->Configure.
Search for dosfstools and mtools.
Try installing these.
Slacko64 8.2.1 may be missing some part of these or using the wrong version.

Try Gparted now in Slacko64 8.2.1

Clarity wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:31 am

Bug? Slacko64-v8.2.1 gParted v1.3.0 warning; missing a filesystem component?Unexplained messages.jpg

@Clarity already reported this "bug" on page 6.

viewtopic.php?p=27876#p27876

peace

To: Clarity

Good reference to "previous" topic.
Very interesting.

The following list of software packages is required for fat32 file system support: dosfstools, mtools.

This tells you what is wrong.
Slacko64-8.2.1 is missing the needed software.
Usually it can be found in PPM and added.

You can also check Gparted->View->File System Support
That will tell you exactly what Gparted can do, with a specific format, and also what software it needs, to add more ability to work with a specific format.

Generaly Puppy Linux versions only have needed software to support working with fat, ntfs, and ext formats.
That is if the needed support software got put in the build.

I agree that the stick needs Gparted New Partition Table. This erases EVERYTHING previously on the stick. Then make a sizeable ext3 partition, say 2Gb.