Re: Formatting a 32G or 16G SD card?

[Curt <curty@free.fr>]

On 2019-01-04, Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 03, 2019 at 08:59:50PM +0100, Pascal Hambourg wrote:
>>Le 03/01/2019 à 11:35, Jonathan Dowland a écrit :
>>>You then write a MBR-type filesystem
>>
>>Nonsense. You mean a partition table or disk label.
>
> Thank you yes, that was a typo ("Nonsense" is a bit harsh)

Neither does "typo" appear to be the proper term for it. Rather it seems
your statement falls somewhere between nonsense and typographical error
into that vast, catch-all category sometimes referred to as "I misspoke."

>>>That said the documentation for mkdosfs "-I" is pretty unclear so
>>>perhaps it's doing something that you intend and I have missed.
>>
>>-I forces mkdosfs to accept a whole unpartitioned device.
>
> Perhaps you could consider writing a patch for the man page.
>

 -I  It is typical for fixed disk devices to be partitioned so, by default, you are not permitted
     to  create  a filesystem across the entire device.  mkfs.fat will complain and tell you that
     it refuses to work.  This is different when using MO disks.  One doesn't always need  parti‐
     tions on MO disks.  The filesystem can go directly to the whole disk.  Under other OSes this
     is known as the 'superfloppy' format.  This switch will force mkfs.fat to work properly.

I think PH's inference not too arduous from the above, frankly.

But how about:

  -I When using MO disks, where partitions aren't always required, modifies
     mkfs.fat's default behavior, allowing it to write the filesystem across the
     entire, unpartitioned device (called 'superfloppy' format under some
     other OSes).