I ran into this same issue, and I think it must be related to the way Kingston formats/partitions the card a I was using a Kingson 1 GB also.

I got the exact same error, and by the text it seemed it must be an incompatibility between partitioning programs. I played around some by repartitioning and formatting in OS X via a card reader (in OS X Disk utility choose Partition, then the Options... button, select PC partitioning scheme then choose to format as PC-DOS).

This didn't work initially, but it did change the error to one saying that the first partition was longer than the physical size of the disk when cfdisk was run. This too seemed like maybe the OS X formatter and Kingston's were making a partition slightly larger than cfdisk thought could go on the media.

So I then went back to OS X and partitioned the card into two partitions. I made the second format as "Free Space" and made it as small as OS X allowed (you could type a smaller number but it then flagged the partition with an asterisk, I stopped at the smallest size w/o an asterisk which was about 70 MB). I formatted the first partition as PC-DOS and left the second as free space, I was hoping the first partition would look valid to cfdisk since it was smaller.

This worked. cfdisk started up fine and I was able to follow the steps as listed from then on. Also, when I deleted the large PC-DOS partition in cfdisk it combined that and the free space at the end, so I didn't waste any space on the card.

If you don't have OS X I'd guess there's some way to do this same thing in Windows, but I can't say how.

Good luck,
Ware

OK, thank you very much.

I'll do the same and let you know if it works.

Regards,
Antonio

I tried this with my 64 mb card, but I had no luck. I ended up having less memory then I started with. Any ideas?

What I did.

umount /media/mmc1
/var/lib/install/sbin/cfdisk /dev/mmcblk0
parted the mmc into 2 parts, 1 was 40 MB the second was 24.

i modified the extrootfs script because i was unable to partition the card. i didn't realize that you couldn't do the partitioning from the 770 device until i read this thread. maybe you can and i am missing something, i'm somewhat of a n00b and only have mac osx at my disposal. but....i was able to modify the script, and do it all on the device itself after installing the port of vim. the device is definitely snappier so thanks to eveyone who shared their info to help me out. i was a little scared to make mods to the script, but it all worked fine and the only downside is that i have no external storage...that is untl i spring for the 1GB mmc! if anyone wants the modified extrootfs script i would be happy to share it. i'm just so happy this hack worked and my mods didn't brick the device!

-posted from a 770.

The info is a great help, but just to ask the obvious question, could the mmc card be formatted from the 770 with the right software installed?

It would sure make life easier than downloading a live-CD over GPRS for those of us less-fortunate ones out here!

ok, wolfram. if i understand the above, i can take a brand new rs-mmc and do the partitioning and root extension all from the 770? that is terrific!

ok, i got the 1gb card, and after following the advice of various others i have set up everything working perfectly. thank you all for helping me get the most out of my 770. browsing is much improved now!

I'm at work and bored so I thought why not finally try this on my 770 and 1GB card. I followed the instructions and managed to get it working (I think). I followed Renauds instructions on how to do the partitioning part. Had a wee bit of trouble with the partitioning tool but that was because I wasn't full screen I think and so it messed up the display. I am just copying everything back onto the 800MB or so partition I can see on the 770 now. How much free memory should I see on the device now. I forgot to look before I started what it was using! Thanks Renaud and Stefan for your instructions

Hi,

After reading this thread I see nobody with the same problem I encountred.

The 2 latest lines from http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ExtendedRootFilesystem
propose to prefer ext2 as ext3 to default format.

Ext3 with /var/lib/install/sbin/extrootfs work fine,
but ext2 format cause problem with mount/umount system (doesn't work)
cause parameter ext3 line 26 from the extrootfs script

I replace ext3 with ext2 and as far as I can see all looks ok


Really thank you for great script Wolfram Ravenwolf !!!


Good day,
Laurent.

Since some Sata hardrive appear with /dev/sda device,
the best if you use some LiveCD is to unplug your harddrive

just in case of ...


Good day,
Laurent.