#2707 Issue `closed`: ReaR USB, error filesystem vfat will not be supported¶

Labels: support / question, fixed / solved / done

Chownx opened issue at 2021-11-09 14:37:¶

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(quick response is not guaranteed with free support):

Relax-and-Recover 2.6 / Git

OS version ("cat /etc/os-release" or "lsb_release -a" or "cat /etc/rear/os.conf"):

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Release:    11

ReaR configuration files ("cat /etc/rear/site.conf" and/or "cat /etc/rear/local.conf"):

BACKUP=NETFS
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%d-%m-%Y_%H:%M)
OUTPUT=USB
USE_RESOLV_CONF="no"
BACKUP_PROG=tar
BACKUP_URL="usb:///dev/sdc1"
USB_UEFI_PART_SIZE="512"

Hardware vendor/product (PC or PowerNV BareMetal or ARM) or VM (KVM guest or PowerVM LPAR):
PC
System architecture (x86 compatible or PPC64/PPC64LE or what exact ARM device):
X86
Firmware (BIOS or UEFI or Open Firmware) and bootloader (GRUB or ELILO or Petitboot):
BIOS / GRUB
Storage (local disk or SSD) and/or SAN (FC or iSCSI or FCoE) and/or multipath (DM or NVMe):
SSD and HD
Storage layout ("lsblk -ipo NAME,KNAME,PKNAME,TRAN,TYPE,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT"):

NAME        KNAME     PKNAME   TRAN   TYPE FSTYPE   SIZE MOUNTPOINT
/dev/sda    /dev/sda           sata   disk        698,6G 
`-/dev/sda1 /dev/sda1 /dev/sda        part btrfs  698,6G /mnt/btrfs_pool
/dev/sdb    /dev/sdb           sata   disk        238,5G 
|-/dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb        part btrfs    953M /boot
|-/dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdb        part swap    14,9G [SWAP]
`-/dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb3 /dev/sdb        part btrfs  222,6G /home

Description of the issue (ideally so that others can reproduce it):
I have to tried to make a ReaR USB with below details,
but always get the same error:

ERROR: Filesystem 'vfat' will not be supported.
Saved /var/log/rear/rear-irix.log as rear/irix/20211108.2314/rear-irix.log
ERROR: Filesystem 'vfat' will not be supported.
Some latest log messages since the last called script 850_make_USB_bootable.sh:
  2021-11-08 23:15:53.913609798 Including output/USB/Linux-i386/850_make_USB_bootable.sh
Aborting due to an error, check /var/log/rear/rear-irix.log for details
Exiting rear mkbackup (PID 56515) and its descendant processes ...
Running exit tasks

I dont have any vfat filesystem on my laptop and i could not to find out
whta is the root cause, can you please help me ?

Workaround, if any:
Attachments, as applicable ("rear -D mkrescue/mkbackup/recover" debug log files):

jsmeix commented at 2021-11-09 15:23:¶

The ERROR: Filesystem 'vfat' will not be supported.
comes from
usr/share/rear/output/USB/Linux-i386/850_make_USB_bootable.sh
from before
https://github.com/rear/rear/commit/3218e36bbba1782ad8b9587b3fefe579eb3f9b9d

The ERROR: Filesystem 'vfat' will not be supported.
is about a filesystem on your USB medium
not about a filesystem on your disk in your laptop.

I assume you did not prepare your USB disk before with "rear format"
which will completely overwrite all what there is on your USB device
and create partitions with filesystems for ReaR from scratch.

The "rear format" workflow has a somewhat special syntax
(that is caused by what getopt needs for nested getopt calls
because getopt is first called in rear and then in the format workflow)

# rear format -- --help
Use 'rear format [ -- OPTIONS ] DEVICE' like 'rear -v format -- --efi /dev/sdX'
Valid format workflow options are: -e/--efi -f/--force -y/--yes

For a simple example for OUTPUT=USB with BACKUP=NETFS see
http://relax-and-recover.org/documentation/getting-started

Chownx commented at 2021-11-09 16:50:¶

Hi jsmeix,
Thanks a lot for your quick response. To be honest I did the format to USB stick, but I will do double check again.

Thanks a lot.

Chownx commented at 2021-11-10 09:59:¶

Hi jsmeix,

you were right, the problem was due to the USB partition. I have to remove the current partition and do the rear format /dev/sdX again.

Thanks a lot for your support.

jsmeix commented at 2021-11-10 10:18:¶

@Chownx
thank you for the prompt feedback what the root cause was.
It is important for us at ReaR upstream to get such explicit feedback
so we know whether or not there could be a hidden issue inside ReaR.

jsmeix commented at 2021-11-10 11:44:¶

@Chownx
wait - I think I found something - you have

BACKUP_URL="usb:///dev/sdc1"
USB_UEFI_PART_SIZE="512"

which indicates you did rear format -- --efi /dev/sdc
and then /dev/sdc1 will be the EFI system partition (ESP) with a FAT filesystem.
But I guess you don't want to store your whole backup in the ESP ;-)
so I think your BACKUP_URL points to the wrong partition.
You need the ReaR data partition as BACKUP_URL.
By default the filesystem on the ReaR data partition
is labeled REAR-000 by the ‘format’ workflow, see
USB_DEVICE_FILESYSTEM_LABEL in rear/conf/default.conf
so the usual

BACKUP_URL=usb:///dev/disk/by-label/REAR-000

cf. http://relax-and-recover.org/documentation/getting-started
should "just work".

[Export of Github issue for rear/rear.]

#2707 Issue closed: ReaR USB, error filesystem vfat will not be supported¶