amtm Issue formatting USB/ Swap

[Dee dee]

I am having a issue getting my USB drive to create a SWAP.

I am using a LEXAR 16gb USB 2.0 Drive plugged into the usb 2.0 slot on my router.

Attached are the logs.

Is the stick dead? Should I try a new one?

Disk /dev/sda: 15.6 GB, 15640625152 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 14916 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1               1       14916    15273968  83 Linux
admin@RT-AC68U-1340:/tmp/home/root#





 Enter option  fdl

 ---------------------------------------------------
 amtm-format-disk.log has this content:

 START FILE, --- lines are not part of file
 ---------------------------------------------------
 amtm format disk log Tue, 17 Nov 2020 14:33:33 -0500

  Zeroing disk sda Lexar USB Flash Drive (15.6 GB)


  Creating partition(s) on sda Lexar USB Flash Drive (15.6 GB)

 Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI, OSF or GPT d                                                                                                                                                             isklabel
 Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
 until you decide to write them. After that the previous content
 won't be recoverable.


 The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14916.
 There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
 and could in certain setups cause problems with:
 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
    (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

 Command (m for help): Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
 until you decide to write them. After that the previous content
 won't be recoverable.


 The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14916.
 There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
 and could in certain setups cause problems with:
 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
    (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

 Command (m for help): Command action
    e   extended
    p   primary partition (1-4)
 Partition number (1-4): First cylinder (1-14916, default 1): Using default valu                                                                                                                                                             e 1
 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-14916, default 14916): Using defa                                                                                                                                                             ult value 14916

 Command (m for help): The partition table has been altered.
 Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table

  Formatting disk as "ext4", enabling journalling

 Creating filesystem with 3818492 4k blocks and 954720 inodes
 Filesystem UUID: adcbc196-84d8-4869-894b-ed6f96408507
 Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208

 Allocating group tables: done
 Writing inode tables: done
  Setting disk device label "Mine"

 tune2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)

 ---------------------------------------------------
 END FILE


 No compatible device available to create
 a swap file
_____________________________________________

 Enter option

 

[bbunge]

Use the EXT3 format with the AC68U. There is an issue with the firmware that does not accept EXT4

 

[ColinTaylor]

There is was an issue with ext4 and the alpha firmware builds. Are you using an alpha build?

 

[Dee dee]

Nope 384.19

I'll try today with ext3.
Thanks @bbunge and @ColinTaylor

 

[Dee dee]

Nope Same Error.

Guess I Will try L&LD's Reset Guide(If i can find it ).

Before I go nuclear and reset , anything else I can try looking at logs etc?

 

[ColinTaylor]

There shouldn't be any need to reset the router, unless it is exhibiting other bizarre behaviour.

After you formatted the flash drive did the router reboot itself? Is the router now showing the flash drive as being mounted?

EDIT: Can you post the output of these two commands:

df -h
/bin/mount

 

[Dee dee]

There shouldn't be any need to reset the router, unless it is exhibiting other bizarre behaviour.

After you formatted the flash drive did the router reboot itself? Is the router now showing the flash drive as being mounted?

EDIT: Can you post the output of these two commands:

df -h
/bin/mount

Here you go.

Yes I formatted as ntfs in my windows PC before I started.


ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AC68U 384.19_0 Fri Aug 14 19:17:44 UTC 2020
admin@RT-AC68U-1340:/tmp/home/root# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 29.1M 29.1M 0 100% /
devtmpfs 124.7M 0 124.7M 0% /dev
tmpfs 124.8M 1.1M 123.8M 1% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock4 62.8M 1.8M 61.0M 3% /jffs
admin@RT-AC68U-1340:/tmp/home/root# /bin/mount
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
/dev/root on / type squashfs (ro,relatime)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=127732k,nr_inodes=31933,mode=755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,relatime)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,mode=600)
/dev/mtdblock4 on /jffs type jffs2 (rw,noatime)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,relatime)
admin@RT-AC68U-1340:/tmp/home/root#

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks for that. So that confirms that the flash drive isn't being mounted whereas it was being shown as mounted in the first part of your output in post #1. Strange.

Yes I formatted as ntfs in my windows PC before I started.

So all the things you have done/tried have been after you have reformatted the drive as ext3 or ext4. Correct?

 

[Dee dee]

Thanks for that. So that confirms that the flash drive isn't being mounted whereas it was being shown as mounted in the first part of your output in post #1. Strange.


So all the things you have done/tried have been after you have reformatted the drive as ext3 or ext4. Correct?

Yes I formatted on my Windows PC to NTFS.

Then I safely ejected plugged it into the USB 2.0 port on my router and rebooted again.

Then I did a format with amtm's FD command to ext4 the first time had a swap issue and then ext3 after plugging it back into a computer after formatting to NTFS again.

I think all this started when I went to 384.19 after some weird issue I had.

So I'll check if there's a newer firmware and I'll try upgrading and then do a full format of my router and set up lnld's info.

has anyone seen a router like this or something around 100 bucks on sale for Black Friday at Best buy or Walmart I'll just get a new one maybe my old one's dead?

 

[agilani]

Just my two cents

delete all the partitions using diskpart under windows, then try to format it using ext3 using amtm.

 

[ColinTaylor]

As the flash drive isn't being mounted I would unplug it from the router, wait a few seconds and then plug it back in. If it still isn't mounted look at the system log which should indicate the reason why.

 

[Dee dee]

@ColinTaylor I tried that to no avail.

So i instead restored my router to factory settings , restored my cfg file for my custom lan IP's and wifi, and now formatting works fine (creating swap file as we speak).

Very very odd.