I'm really starting to believe there is some kind of compatibility problem between what Linux thinks FAT file system is and what the CFE ROM thinks it is.

Even on a FAT formatted hard drive problems arise when deleting a file and then installing new ones.

If no files are deleted then things seem OK.

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Tinkering with computers.

@Signal

If you fat format a device on the amiga, it won't work right on a PC. You must fat format a device on a PC to work with both systems. I to find that strange.
All my usb stickes are fat formatted on windows & work fine.

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Hate tends to make you look stupid...

@sundown

I also format USB sticks on x86. I even formatted the CFcard over there and they work fine for most files. However, if I keep my Linux kernels on these devices they will work fine until I start deleting a few and replace them with new ones. Even though the file is there and the disk checks OK, when trying to boot the new kernel CFE will complain that it is not in ELF format.

If I copy that "faulty" kernel to a different device it works. If I re-format the device it was on and put it back on, it works. Same exact file, not a different one. This also happens on a hard drive.

Today I formatted the HD I use for kernels to ext2. We'll see what happens with that.

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Tinkering with computers.

@Signal

Yeah this is a known problem. It has annoyed me on many occasions. I once erased a USB stick and copied kernels over till it worked.

Did you empty the trash? I have CD/USB stereo and it kept picking up all the deleted songs. Until I releasied what it was doing I was wondering how it found all these deleted files. Just renamed into a trash folder really.

Linux should be okay if it unmounts/ejects the drive. AmigaOS is unsafer but think it should have eject for removable media without a physical button. Unless FAT is documented they would be using reverse engineered code. Windows would/should know the proper way.

I don't know where CFE gets it's FAT code from nor why or how it corrupts file data. Some people format to FAT16 to avoid the issue. If it helps.

@Hypex

I use FAT16 on the CFcard. It lasts longer, but even that gets messed up after awhile.

Again, the strange thing is, if I copy a Linux kernel to even a FAT format HD partition where I have deleted other test kernels it will not load the kernel because CFE does not recognize it as a ELF file. Copy that kernel off of the device it will not load from, reformat the device, put that same exact kernel back on and it loads and boots.

This is all using Linux, not AmigaOS. I'm guessing there is an inconsistency in how CFE and Linux read the FAT because the file is not corrupt.

_________________
Tinkering with computers.

@Signal

AFAIK it wouldn't be able to read an ELF from a FFS formatted stick. Which isn't good as CFE reads the OS4 bootloader from FFS and it has to work. Whatever is up wit that.

If it works better or even works perhaps formatting as Ext2/3 could be an option?