FireWire hard drives

[Derick Centeno]

On Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:20:35 -0600
Paul Higgins <higg0008 at tc.umn.edu> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I'm having some difficulty understanding how to work with FireWire
> drives in YDL.  I need to get some important files transferred to a
> newer machine (iBook G4, YDL 4.1) from my older G3 iBook (YDL
> 4.0.1).  So I got one of those FireWire boxes and put a 250 GB HD in
> it.  I found this reference helpful in getting the drive formatted
> and creating an ext3 FS on it:
> 
> http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Unix/Linux/LINUX_InstallingIEEE1394FireWireHardDriveLinux.shtml
> 
> This article says you need to add an entry to /etc/fstab and create a 
> directory in /mnt.  According to the YDL site, it's supposed to be
> simpler than that:
> 
> http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/solutions/ydl_general/firewire.shtml
> 
> The only thing is, I'm a little confused by the message I get when I
> follow the directions from YDL:  
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> # tail -f /var/log/messages
> Dec 23 15:31:20 localhost udev[30357]: creating device node
> '/udev/sg0' Dec 23 15:32:45 localhost kernel: FAT: bogus number of
> reserved sectors Dec 23 15:32:45 localhost kernel: VFS: Can't find a
> valid FAT filesystem on dev sda.
> Dec 23 15:34:18 localhost kernel: VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on
> dev sda. Dec 23 15:34:49 localhost kernel: kjournald starting.
> Commit interval 5 seconds
> Dec 23 15:34:49 localhost kernel: EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
> Dec 23 15:34:49 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with
> ordered data mode.
> Dec 23 15:42:59 localhost udev[30464]: removing device node
> '/udev/sg0' Dec 23 15:42:59 localhost udev[30482]: removing device
> node '/udev/sda1' Dec 23 15:42:59 localhost udev[30493]: removing
> device node '/udev/sda' Dec 23 15:53:14 localhost kernel: ieee1394:
> Error parsing configrom for node 0-01:102
> 3
> Dec 23 15:53:16 localhost kernel: ieee1394: Error parsing configrom
> for node 0-00:102
> 3
> Dec 23 15:53:22 localhost kernel: scsi3 : SCSI emulation for
> IEEE-1394 SBP-2 Devices
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: ieee1394: sbp2: Logged into SBP-2
> device Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel:   Vendor: Maxtor 6  Model:
> Y250P0 Rev:
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel:   Type:
> Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 490234752 512-byte
> hdwr sectors (251000 MB)
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: drive cache: write
> through Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 490234752
> 512-byte hdwr sectors (251000 MB)
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: drive cache: write
> through Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel:  sda: sda1
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi3,
> channel 0, id 0, lun 0
> Dec 23 15:53:23 localhost kernel: Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi3,
> channel 0, id 0, lun 0,  type 0
> Dec 23 15:53:24 localhost scsi.agent[30582]: disk 
> at /devices/pci0002:20/0002:20:0e.0/fw-host0/0050770e100019a5/0050770e100019a5-0/host3/target3:0:0/3:0:0:0
> Dec 23 15:53:25 localhost udev[30628]: creating device node
> '/udev/sda' Dec 23 15:53:25 localhost udev[30629]: creating device
> node '/udev/sda1' Dec 23 15:53:25 localhost udev[30631]: creating
> device node '/udev/sg0'
> ------------------------------------------------------
> 
> It looks to me like using "sda1" works OK (I can get the drive
> mounted), though I can't seem to figure out how to transfer my KMail
> folders to the FireWire drive in the GUI.  I can do it from the CLI
> (at least it looks that way):
> 
> # cp -a -v /home/higg0008/Mail /mnt/firewire
> 
> I end up with a locked folder in the GUI, unfortunately, so I have to
> go back to the CLI to view what's in it.  I guess that has to do with
> the -a option ("-a" = "archive", preserves all file permissions).
> Mainly I want to make sure that I'm not hosing my entire KMail
> directory.  
> 
> -PRH
> _______________________________________________

Hi Paul!

I hope that you are enjoying the spirit of the holiday season.  

The two documents you referenced are referring to the same procedures
from a slightly different context.  As regards the output you produced,
it appears to me that you probably partitioned the drive but forgot to
format it using the mkfs command.

This line:

Dec 23 15:34:18 localhost kernel: VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on
dev sda.

refers to that problem.

It may be a good idea to run a diagnostic on the drive in question,
repartition it, then format it using mkfs and proceed from there.

After the above remember to modify the fstab file within the etc
directory;follow the instructions according to the first document.
Modifying fstab is done within an editor like vim or ed or gedit or
joe... essentially any text editor you get comfortable with. Since you
are going to be doing things with text files -- a lot -- you might as
well learn either emacs, vim or vi.

Of course, instead of /mnt/data you will enter the name of the
directory you created which is /mnt/firewire.

Best wishes....I'm going to have myself committed to the home of the
perpetually nerdy.

Derick.