vfat not recognized in debian

Question

I want to mount my usb drive (kindle vfat32). When I do

mount -t auto /dev/sdf1 /mnt/usb

I get

mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'

• I checked if the drive is recognized with sudo fdisk -l and the recognized filesystem is W95 FAT32
• my kernel is 3.2.0-4-686-pae.
• I checked the recognized filesystem with cat /proc/filesystems and vfat is not there.
• dosfstools is installed

what should I do?

---

I am using the kernel released in the minimal netbook installation of debian.

If I run modprobe vfat as root I get the following:

libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:174 kmod_module_parse_depline: ctx=0xb8556008 path=/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/kernel/fs/fat/fat.ko error=No such file or directory
libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:174 kmod_module_parse_depline: ctx=0xb8556008 path=/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/kernel/fs/fat/fat.ko error=No such file or directory
ERROR: could not insert 'vfat': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

---

When I cat /proc/modules I get:

dm_mod 57362 0 - Live 0xfcb45000
ip6table_filter 12492 1 - Live 0xf847a000
ip6_tables 17185 1 ip6table_filter, Live 0xf8564000
snd_hda_codec_realtek 142274 1 - Live 0xf86a3000
ppdev 12651 0 - Live 0xf8408000
binfmt_misc 12813 1 - Live 0xf8454000
lp 12797 0 - Live 0xf846d000
nfsd 173890 0 - Live 0xf8711000
nfs 265921 0 - Live 0xf86cf000
nfs_acl 12463 2 nfsd,nfs, Live 0xf8437000
auth_rpcgss 32143 2 nfsd,nfs, Live 0xf8501000
fscache 31978 1 nfs, Live 0xf8494000
lockd 57277 2 nfsd,nfs, Live 0xf850a000
sunrpc 143904 6 nfsd,nfs,nfs_acl,auth_rpcgss,lockd, Live 0xf852e000
iptable_filter 12488 1 - Live 0xf8403000
ip_tables 17079 1 iptable_filter, Live 0xf8421000
x_tables 18158 4 ip6table_filter,ip6_tables,iptable_filter,ip_tables, Live 0xf8414000
usbhid 31554 0 - Live 0xf84cf000
hid 60152 1 usbhid, Live 0xf84e5000
nouveau 526808 3 - Live 0xf856d000
mxm_wmi 12467 1 nouveau, Live 0xf8385000
video 17459 1 nouveau, Live 0xf841b000
ttm 47786 1 nouveau, Live 0xf842a000
drm_kms_helper 22738 1 nouveau, Live 0xf840d000
drm 146387 5 nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper, Live 0xf84aa000
snd_hda_intel 21786 6 - Live 0xf8473000
snd_hda_codec 63477 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel, Live 0xf8443000
snd_hwdep 12943 1 snd_hda_codec, Live 0xf835b000
snd_pcm 53461 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec, Live 0xf8459000
snd_page_alloc 12867 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm, Live 0xf843e000
snd_seq 39512 0 - Live 0xf8394000
snd_seq_device 13016 1 snd_seq, Live 0xf82e3000
snd_timer 22356 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq, Live 0xf8363000
power_supply 13283 1 nouveau, Live 0xf8356000
snd 42722 19 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_timer, Live 0xf834a000
i2c_nforce2 12520 0 - Live 0xf8345000
i2c_algo_bit 12713 1 nouveau, Live 0xf83fe000
i2c_core 19116 5 nouveau,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_nforce2,i2c_algo_bit, Live 0xf8378000
soundcore 12921 1 snd, Live 0xf82d0000
evdev 17225 8 - Live 0xf82f7000
acpi_cpufreq 12807 0 - Live 0xf82e8000
mperf 12421 1 acpi_cpufreq, Live 0xf82de000
processor 27565 1 acpi_cpufreq, Live 0xf84a2000
thermal_sys 17752 2 video,processor, Live 0xf8372000
parport_pc 22036 0 - Live 0xf83a9000
parport 31254 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc, Live 0xf83a0000
coretemp 12770 0 - Live 0xf838f000
container 12525 0 - Live 0xf838a000
button 12817 1 nouveau, Live 0xf8380000
wmi 13051 2 nouveau,mxm_wmi, Live 0xf836d000
pcspkr 12515 0 - Live 0xf82fe000
loop 17810 0 - Live 0xf82d8000
autofs4 22784 2 - Live 0xf82f0000
ext4 306996 3 - Live 0xf83b2000
crc16 12327 1 ext4, Live 0xf82be000
jbd2 52330 1 ext4, Live 0xf82b0000
mbcache 12938 1 ext4, Live 0xf8239000
usb_storage 35142 0 - Live 0xf82c6000
sg 21476 0 - Live 0xf8264000
sr_mod 17468 0 - Live 0xf82aa000
sd_mod 35425 5 - Live 0xf8295000
cdrom 34813 1 sr_mod, Live 0xf82a0000
crc_t10dif 12332 1 sd_mod, Live 0xf8234000
ata_generic 12439 0 - Live 0xf822f000
ahci 24917 4 - Live 0xf828d000
libahci 18308 1 ahci, Live 0xf8242000
ohci_hcd 22059 0 - Live 0xf826c000
r8169 41802 0 - Live 0xf8281000
mii 12595 1 r8169, Live 0xf821f000
libata 125014 3 ata_generic,ahci,libahci, Live 0xf8325000
ehci_hcd 35509 0 - Live 0xf8273000
scsi_mod 135037 5 usb_storage,sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata, Live 0xf8303000
usbcore 104555 5 usbhid,usb_storage,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd, Live 0xf8249000
usb_common 12338 1 usbcore, Live 0xf8215000

Solution 1

mount use libblkid to guess the filesystem from the device you're trying to mount, and you can see that it work from the error message it give:

mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'

but the weird thing here is that if the required filesystem is in a module that isn't yet loaded, mount try to auto-load the module using modprobe.

So my only guess so far is that something is wrong with your kernel modules:

/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/kernel/fs/fat/vfat.ko
/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/kernel/fs/fat/fat.ko

edit

or for some reason mount fail to execute modprobe.

Solution 2

I got a similar error on ArchLinux, the reason was a mismatch between installed kernel (uname -r) and package (pacman -Q linux / pacman -Q linux-hardened).

P.S. Credits to "Namarrgon" on #archlinux IRC chat for helping me with the issue.

Comments

[Admin]

try modprobe vfat before mount

[Admin]

Are you using the kernel from Debian or did you compile your own? Do you have any modules loaded (cat /proc/modules)? What happens if you run modprobe vfat as root?

[simona]

my /proc/filesystems does not contain fat32. In fact from fdisk -l I can read my filesystem is W95 FAT32

[simona]

I have checked with lsmod that vfat (or fat32 or fat) is not loaded. When I use --verbose I get the same answer: mount: unknown filesystem type 'vfat'

[simona]

In fact I have found I do not have subdirectories in /lib/modules/3.2.0-4-686-pae/, hence there is no file *.ko

[Alex]

@simona, they should be in your linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae package, try to reinstall it with apt-get install --reinstall, but perhaps something wrong at least with your installation/filesystem/hd, it is the same pc where you were experiencing freeze?

[simona]

yes, it is the same pc. Now I have reinstalled and I can mount my kindle. thank you

[Alex]

Install and run debsums it check all the installed packages (may take a while).

[Alex]

let us continue this discussion in chat

[linuxNewbie]

It seems like I got the same problem. How did you fix that?

[VasyaNovikov]

@linuxNewbie I don't remember, but I think re-installing the kernel might work?

[Ishq]

uname -r shows the currently running kernel. pacman -Q linux shows the currently installed kernel. It is likely you applied an update, which installed a new Linux kernel, but you haven't rebooted yet. Simply reboot and you'll be running the same kernel which is installed, clearing this problem.