Formatting SD card as Ext4 in R77.20.85

[Naftali_Oziel]

Quick question, if I have one firewall that has an SD card already inserted, upgrading to r77.20.85 and understanding that enhancements to file system has been made.  Will I have to reformat the SD card?  or will it continue to operate with the old ext system?

[PhoneBoy]

I believe the new filesystem applies only to newly formatted SD cards on R77.20.85 or above.

Previously formatted SD cards with ext3 should still work.

[Naftali_Oziel]

Thanks, should I have any issues, do I need to eject the SD and re-insert to initiate a reformat?

[PhoneBoy]

I believe it will only format the drive if there is no filesystem it recognizes on it, but I'm not 100% sure.

Otherwise it should the existing filesystem (vfat, ext3).

[PhoneBoy]

To close out this issue, here's how it works:

• If the (Micro)SD card contains a .cp file in the root directory (either FAT32 or ext4), we will not format the card and use the filesystem it has.
• If there is not a .cp file in the root directory (or we can't read it), we assume the (Micro)SD card is not one we've seen before and will format it.
  
  • In releases prior to R77.20.85, we would format as FAT32.
  • In R77.20.85 and above, we use ext4.
• To force the system to format the (Micro)SD card, do the following:
  • Remove the .cp file from /mnt/sd filesystem
  • Unmount the (Micro)SD in the web interface
  • Remove and re-insert the (Micro)SD card or reboot the appliance 

[G_W_Albrecht]

There is already a new sk about that available: sk144253: How to format an SD card on an SMB appliance