Problem formatting with exfat on GNOME disks

Project Discussion
1

Hello.
I have a problem with GNOME disks on fedora 33 when I format with exfat filesystem, does anyone have the same problem as me?
Can you format a USB stick with exfat filesystem using gnome disks?
I reported the bug: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-disk-utility/-/issues/203
Maybe it’s a package problem on fedora?

2 
$ sudo dnf provides $(command -v mkexfatfs)
Last metadata expiration check: 1:17:20 ago on Mon 15 Mar 2021 10:24:48 PM +03.
exfat-utils-1.3.0-5.fc33.x86_64 : Utilities for exFAT file system
Repo        : rpmfusion-free
Matched from:
Filename    : /usr/sbin/mkexfatfs

Do you have that package installed? Apparently, it is not a dependency for GNOME Disks:

$ sudo dnf repoquery --requires gnome-disk-utility
Last metadata expiration check: 1:14:43 ago on Mon 15 Mar 2021 10:24:48 PM +03.
libatk-1.0.so.0()(64bit)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.10)(64bit)
libcairo.so.2()(64bit)
libcanberra-gtk3.so.0()(64bit)
libdvdread.so.7()(64bit)
libgdk-3.so.0()(64bit)
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0()(64bit)
libgio-2.0.so.0()(64bit)
libglib-2.0.so.0()(64bit)
libgmodule-2.0.so.0()(64bit)
libgobject-2.0.so.0()(64bit)
libgtk-3.so.0()(64bit)
liblzma.so.5()(64bit)
liblzma.so.5(XZ_5.0)(64bit)
libm.so.6()(64bit)
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)
libnotify.so.4()(64bit)
libpango-1.0.so.0()(64bit)
libpangocairo-1.0.so.0()(64bit)
libpwquality.so.1()(64bit)
libpwquality.so.1(LIBPWQUALITY_1.0)(64bit)
libsecret-1.so.0()(64bit)
libsystemd.so.0()(64bit)
libsystemd.so.0(LIBSYSTEMD_209)(64bit)
libudisks2.so.0()(64bit)
rtld(GNU_HASH)
udisks2
1 Like
3

I’m a bit confused about the packages to install, there seems to be more than one.

emanu@desktop:~$ sudo dnf provides mkexfatfs
Ultima verifica della scadenza dei metadati: 0:27:15 fa il lun 15 mar 2021, 21:31:49.
exfat-utils-1.3.0-5.fc33.x86_64 : Utilities for exFAT file system
Repo : rpmfusion-free
Corrispondenza trovata in:
Nome file : /usr/sbin/mkexfatfs

I have in the system I have installed this:

emanu@desktop:~$ dnf list exfat* --installed
Pacchetti installati
exfatprogs.x86_64     1.0.4-1.fc33               @updates

But there is also this:

emanu@desktop:~$ dnf list exfat-utils-1.3.0-5.fc33.x86_64
Fedora Modular 33 - x86_64 - Updates 23 kB/s | 15 kB 00:00
Fedora 33 - x86_64 - Updates 20 kB/s | 11 kB 00:00
RPM Fusion for Fedora 33 - Free tainted 17 kB/s | 7.3 kB 00:00
Pacchetti disponibili
exfat-utils.x86_64 1.3.0-5.fc33 rpmfusion-free

Which one should I install?

4

According to error message you got, it is trying to execute mkexfatfs and failed to find it. exfatprogs doesn’t have /usr/sbin/mkexfatfs, can you try with exfat-utils?

1 Like
5

ok, solved:
I removed the “exfatprogs” package
and installed “exfat-utils”

2 Likes
6

I wonder, why are there two utility packages for exfat?
Which one that works for gnome disks on rpm fusion?

7

They are 2 different projects which provide similar functionality:

Since GNOME Disks tries to call mkexfatfs which is provided only by exfat-utils, you will need exfat-utils at the moment.

5 Likes
8

I installed exfatprogs from the Fedora repo.
I got Gnome Disks to format exfat filesystems by creating the following symbolic link:

cd /usr/sbin
sudo ln -s mkfs.exfat mkexfatfs
1 Like
9

Good point, that will work too. In the exfat-utils package, mkexfatfs is also a symbolic link to mkfs.exfat binary but exfatprogs package doesn’t provide it for some reason. But since /usr/sbin is managed by the package manager, it would be better to create it in somewhere not touched by the package manager, e.g. /usr/local/sbin.

2 Likes
10

OP accepted answer won’t work on Fedora 34.

On Fedora 34 the command:

sudo dnf install exfat-utils

For some reason install the package rpmfusion-free-obsolete-packages (I don’t know what that package is) which does not provide mkexfatfs.

To format a disk with exFAT with GNOME Disks on Fedora 34, I manually compiled and installed
[GitHub - relan/exfat: Free exFAT file system implementation](relan exfat repository).

To compile you need:
sudo dnf install automake autoconf fuse-devel

11

Apparently, exfat-utils is obsoleted in Fedora 34. exfatprogs package has mkfs.exfat binary but doesn’t have mkexfatfs. You can use this method:

1 Like
12

This I report when I upgrade to fedora 34 Formatting a device using exFat results in a raw device (exfatprogs) (#210) · Issues · GNOME / gnome-disk-utility · GitLab