failed to generate boot.vfat

Ma3ztro

I'm building the batocera-x86_64_defconfig on Ubuntu 17.04.
The process ends up with this output (any idea how to fix/workaround this?):

Executing post-image script board/recalbox/copy-recalbox-archives.sh

----- Generating images/recalbox files -----

creating boot.tar.xz
generating image
Total number of sectors (2457600) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
Total number of sectors (2457600) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
vfat(boot.vfat): adding file 'boot/grub/grub.cfg' as 'boot/grub/grub.cfg' ...
Total number of sectors (2457600) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
vfat(boot.vfat): failed to generate boot.vfat
Makefile:718 : la recette pour la cible « target-post-image » a échouée
make: *** [target-post-image] Erreur 1

nadenislamarre

hum strange.
didn't you do any modification ?
please check make menuconfig to see if you find an other to fix in your case on the generated image.

Ma3ztro

Could it be that you have a .mtoolsrc file in your home folder to specify:
mtools_skip_check=1

nadenislamarre

please check the file board/recalbox/copy-recalbox-archives.sh
line 159, the command genimage is building the image.
from the config output/images/genimage.cfg :

image boot.vfat {
vfat {
extraargs = "-F 32 -n RECALBOX"
file boot/linux { image = 'boot/linux' }
file boot/uInitrd { image = 'boot/uInitrd' }
file boot/recalbox { image = 'boot/recalbox' }
file boot/exynos5422-odroidxu3.dtb { image = 'boot/exynos5422-odroidxu3.dtb' }
file boot.ini { image = 'boot.ini' }
file recalbox-boot.conf { image = 'recalbox-boot.conf' }
}
size = 1200M
}

image batocera.img {
hdimage {
}

partition vfat {
	partition-type = 0xC
	image = "boot.vfat"
	offset = 646656
}

}

i've done this file. there is possibly an option to add for some case.
you should check the genimage documentation : https://github.com/vivien/genimage

do you have genimage installed on your computer ? on mine, no, it's using the genimage compiled for batocera, however, the script seems it doesn't use ${BR....} so, maybe, it's not using the correct genimage in your case.

Ma3ztro

Thanks for the information. I will certainly look into that.

FYI:
I confirm I did not install any software (except Chrome!... which requires "sudo apt install gdebi"...).
I did a standard install from scratch using ubuntu-17.04-desktop-amd64.iso into VirtualBox, then installed Chrome.

Then I followed instructions from the wiki for the (batocera-x86_64_defconfig target):
https://batocera-linux.xorhub.com/wiki/doku.php?id=en:compile_batocera.linux

Ma3ztro

I went to the line 159 of the copy-recalbox-archives.sh you mention... In fact, it was the wrong line you were referring to... I mentioned I was compiling x86_64... so it was hitting line 229:

genimage --rootpath="${TARGET_DIR}" --inputpath="${BINARIES_DIR}" --outputpath="${RECALBOX_BINARIES_DIR}" --config="${BINARIES_DIR}/genimage.cfg" --tmppath="${GENIMAGE_TMP}" || exit 1

...compared to line 159:

genimage --rootpath="${TARGET_DIR}" --inputpath="${BINARIES_DIR}/boot" --outputpath="${RECALBOX_BINARIES_DIR}" --config="${BINARIES_DIR}/genimage.cfg" --tmppath="${GENIMAGE_TMP}" || exit 1

...the inputpath is different? Is that correct?
--inputpath="${BINARIES_DIR}/boot" vs
--inputpath="${BINARIES_DIR}"

Ma3ztro

Ma3ztro The difference is correct. It does not fix the problem for sure. The solution is elsewhere.

nadenislamarre

i've ubuntu 16.10 i think. possibly an issue related to that.
how long to compile on a vm ?!? virtual disk are so slow that it slows down the compilation a lot.

you can run the genimage and isolate the issue to found a solution :

target_dir is output/target
binaries_dir is probably output/images
outputpath is probably output/images/recalbox
for tmppath i remember i put something like output/genimage or ouput/build/genimage (you can found values in the script)

genimage --rootpath="${TARGET_DIR}" --inputpath="${BINARIES_DIR}" --outputpath="${RECALBOX_BINARIES_DIR}" --config="${BINARIES_DIR}/genimage.cfg" --tmppath="${GENIMAGE_TMP}" || exit 1

Ma3ztro

nadenislamarre Thanks. I'll experiment with that...

Yep, it takes HOURS to compile! Hehe... but I gave the VM only one CPU core... that is likely not helping... and I changed it for the next time! 🙂

...how long does it take on a real hardware config?

nadenislamarre

for the x86_64, it takes about 8 hours for a full compilation.
for rpi1, rp2, it's more about 5 hours because there are less things to compile (wii/dreamcast/...)

jdorigao

I'm having the same error use Ubuntu 17.04 - 64. @Ma3ztro has solved your problem?

@nadenislamarre What is the operating system and version you are using to compile batocera.linux?

They're doing a good job ...!!!

jdorigao

In my case I was able to solve it by running the command below as root:
echo "mtools_skip_check=1" >> .mtoolsrc

Ma3ztro

jdorigao This shall work, although I made a fix so that this warning error does not trigger. It seems it does not take effect for RPI target... I'll need to review the solution with nadenislamarre.

Here is the delta of the fix:
https://github.com/S3riousSam/batocera.linux/commit/cbf8ee53945ae30682886020e5aedaf6aa19707e

jdorigao

Thanks for the info! @Ma3ztro
Actually the error occurs in Ubuntu 17.04 and not in 16.04, and the tests I did was for the RPI for PC I'm having problems that I'm still checking.

Ma3ztro

As a matter of fact, this problem is 17.04 specific.

nadenislamarre

@Ma3ztro in fact, since the values were changed (probably to fix in 17.04 or 16.10), i got the issue in 16.04. Strange.

jdorigao

Error generating the image at the end of batocera compilation in Ubuntu 17.10

Executing post-image script board/recalbox/copy-recalbox-archives.sh

----- Generating images/recalbox files -----

creating /home/juliano/GitHub/batocera.linux/output/images/recalbox/boot.tar.xz
creating /home/juliano/GitHub/batocera.linux/output/images/recalbox/batocera.img
Total number of sectors (2457568) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
Total number of sectors (2457568) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
vfat(boot.vfat): adding file 'boot/grub/grub.cfg' as 'boot/grub/grub.cfg' ...
Total number of sectors (2457568) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
vfat(boot.vfat): failed to generate boot.vfat
Makefile:749: recipe for target 'target-post-image' failed
make: *** [target-post-image] Error 1

Ma3ztro

This is easy to work around using the hint in the error message:

Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test

jdorigao

Ma3ztro It worked, thank you!

nadenislamarre

you can change the value in https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/blob/master/board/recalbox/grub2/genimage.cfg#L51
too,

from one version to an other, we get this warning.
i've not understand what's the correct value to put so that it works on all ubuntu versions.