mount an (amiga) ffs drive in ubuntu

jvdbossc

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Well, for google purposes, the info found online forget's to tell about partition numbers so this is mine.

Dump the disk information in a shell, you'll need to know the size to be sure it is the right disk, since fdisk does not display ffs partitions.

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbdca301f

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 409601379 204697266 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 409602046 667414527 128906241 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 409602048 604913663 97655808 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 604915712 667414527 31249408 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 16.0 GB, 16021192704 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1947 cylinders, total 31291392 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 8192 31291391 15641600 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 4009 MB, 4009549824 bytes
124 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1018 cylinders, total 7831152 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

The disk is sdc, but not identified partitions are on it. First partition would be sdc1 but it is not listed, but you need to specify it anyhow :whistle: Don't forget to imagine the partition number or it won't work.

You need to make a mount point to mount the amiga ffs system.

sudo mkdir /mnt/amiga


sudo mount -t affs /dev/sdc1 /mnt/amiga

Then you can go to there and read files. Though you won't be able to write to it.

Best is to open a window to drop the files in, so run nautilus with root permissions. (now you can drag files in to the window)

sudo nautilus

Voila, writing to ffs in linux, no winuae needed(y) (real fast!) It's also very fast to make a backup. Ubuntu does not seem to wait for writing to complete, it returns shell instantly.

Before removal or cf card over usb best to unmount:

sudo umount /mnt/amiga

The execution bit gets lost, so you might need to extract files on amiga. Or label the proper file(s)
 
Last edited:
nice one.. thanks for info :)

I didn't know ffs was compiled into the kernel
 
nice one.. thanks for info :)

I didn't know ffs was compiled into the kernel

Thanks!

I did not know myself. But I did not install anything extra. Nice additions of course are lha and stuff, but execution bit seems to get lost when extracting on pc.

ps: it's an ancient implementation so don't push it. (large drives etc not tested)
 
A knew about it for some time now, but I always find using WinUAE the best scenario for my needs.
It's too essential in my case :)
 
I am trying to do this right now. It is the only way I have to transfer files to my A3000, but I can not get it to work following your guide.

I need to use ubuntu because the scsi card I have is not supported in windows anymore.
So I run ubuntu 12.04 and mount the partition, then do the sudo nautilus, but I still do not get to see the files, it just loads endlessly "busy" pointer spinning..
 
FFS support has existed in Linux for over 10 years now, but I've still never had cause to use it. I remember seeing it in the compile options when I was building Linux 2.2 kernels!

Surprised that fdisk can't read RDB partition tables though. I wonder if there are other Linux partition tools which can...
 
I am trying to do this right now. It is the only way I have to transfer files to my A3000, but I can not get it to work following your guide.

I need to use ubuntu because the scsi card I have is not supported in windows anymore.
So I run ubuntu 12.04 and mount the partition, then do the sudo nautilus, but I still do not get to see the files, it just loads endlessly "busy" pointer spinning..

Try changing the permits on the mount directory.

Supposing that you want to mount your Amiga dh0: partition on /media/dh0 try this:

mkdir /media/dh0
mount -t affs /dev/sdc1 /media/dh0

chmod -R 777 /media/dh0
chown -R youruser:youruser /media/dh0

Now you should be able to browse the directory as normal user.

When finished:

umount /media/dh0

Bye,
Liviux76

PS:
Be careful since your Amiga dh0: partition could be sdb1, sdd1 or something else and not necessarily sdc1.
 
arioch@Mournbringer:~$ mkdir /media/dh0
mkdir: cannot create directory `/media/dh0': Permission denied
arioch@Mournbringer:~$ sudo mkdir /media/dh0
[sudo] password for arioch:
arioch@Mournbringer:~$ sudo mount -t affs /dev/sde1 /media/dh0
arioch@Mournbringer:~$ sudo chmod -R 777 /media/dh0
arioch@Mournbringer:~$ sudo chown -R arioch:arioch /media/dh0
arioch@Mournbringer:~$

And still I get, it loads forever just state "loading", and I never get to see the files...

Update: I had an error mounting 0x0801, so I go to do manual recovery, which logs me in as root, and then I mount the file system, and I can see it. So I need to be root for it to work it seems.

I am not at home in linux, so I dont know how to fix the 0x0801 error, though it seems to have nothing to do with the amiga harddrive.

I will see if I can change things so that I can login as root, and mount the amiga partitions.
 
sudo should be enough rights. Or sudo su. (as far as I know). No harm in trying it otherwise however.

My personal bet is that the disk is not supported or is broken, or the partition is written differently on the amiga.

Did you follow the guide a la lettre?
 
There is nothing wrong with the drive.
With Sudo su I can mount it, and see folders and files. But this is READ only, so I am unable to write files to the drive. Any help would be appreciated since I am not that well versed in linux..
 
I tried to copy files through the terminal, as in nautilus I wont be able to see the files. It just locks up at "loading". Just used CP filename destination path/
 
I tried to copy files through the terminal, as in nautilus I wont be able to see the files. It just locks up at "loading". Just used CP filename destination path/

Once it's locked up, do you see any error messages if you type "dmesg" into another terminal?
 
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