Fat32 USB stick missing directories....

iru

Environment: Lenovo 460 laptop. Latest Ghost, all updates, etc.

I have a 128GB USB with a FAT32 file system.

On Ghost using caja, sudo caja the mate search tool and using LS in a terminal session some files and directories are missing.

On Windows 10 and linux mint 20.? all directories and files can be seen and accessed.

The missing directories are more recent than the visible directories.

Any ideas, brilliant solutions, etc????

Ian

iru

Gentlefolk,
I performed some more tests....

On Linux Mint I copied one directory which does not display on Ghost from the origional 12GB USB to 'Downloads' and then copied that to a 32GB USB. Can see that directory with 'ls -l' on the 32G USB.

Inserted the 32GB USB into Ghost. in caja, etc NO directory displayed.

So it is not the 128G USB, unlikely that a second USB would have the same problem, Ghost, FreeBSD??????

Ian.

vimanuelt

This might help.

#!/bin/sh
#
# File: usb-mount-gui.sh
#
# Description:
#   A user-friendly graphical script using Zenity to mount USB drives as
#   FAT32 or exFAT on GhostBSD. It ensures required tools are installed,
#   mounts the drive, and optionally unmounts it via graphical prompts.
#

set -eu

# === Root check ===
if [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ]; then
  exec sudo "$0" "$@"
fi

MOUNT_POINT="/mnt/usb"
DEVICE_HINT="/dev"
ENCODING="en_US.UTF-8"
CODEPAGE="CP437"
TIMESTAMP="$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)"
LOGFILE="/tmp/usb-mount-log_$TIMESTAMP.txt"

log() {
  echo "[*] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE"
}

warn() {
  echo "[!] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE" >&2
}

error_exit() {
  zenity --error --title="Mount Failed" --text="$1\nSee log: $LOGFILE"
  echo "[✘] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE" >&2
  exit 1
}

ensure_package() {
  PKG_NAME="$1"
  if ! pkg info -e "$PKG_NAME"; then
    log "Installing missing package: $PKG_NAME"
    if ! pkg install -y "$PKG_NAME" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
      error_exit "Failed to install $PKG_NAME"
    fi
    log "Successfully installed: $PKG_NAME"
  else
    log "Package $PKG_NAME is already installed."
  fi
}

log "Starting USB mount process with Zenity GUI..."
mkdir -p "$MOUNT_POINT"

ensure_package "zenity"

# Detect USB device(s)
log "Detecting USB storage devices..."
DEVICES=$(geom disk list | grep -E "Name: (da[0-9]+)" | awk '{print $2}')

if [ -z "$DEVICES" ]; then
  error_exit "No USB storage devices were detected."
fi

for DEV in $DEVICES; do
  DEVICE="${DEVICE_HINT}/${DEV}s1"
  log "Checking device node: $DEVICE"

  if [ ! -e "$DEVICE" ]; then
    warn "Device node $DEVICE not found. Skipping."
    continue
  fi

  log "Trying to mount $DEVICE as FAT32..."
  if mount -t msdosfs -o longnames,-m=755,-L="$ENCODING",-D="$CODEPAGE" "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" 2>>"$LOGFILE"; then
    log "Mounted $DEVICE as FAT32."
    break
  else
    warn "FAT32 mount failed. Trying exFAT fallback..."
  fi

  if ! kldstat | grep -q fusefs; then
    log "Loading FUSE kernel module..."
    if ! kldload fusefs >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
      warn "Could not load FUSE. Skipping exFAT."
      continue
    fi
    log "FUSE loaded successfully."
  fi

  ensure_package "fusefs-exfat"

  log "Trying to mount $DEVICE as exFAT..."
  if mount.exfat "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
    log "Mounted $DEVICE as exFAT."
    break
  else
    warn "exFAT mount failed. Trying next device..."
  fi
done

if ! mount | grep -q "$MOUNT_POINT"; then
  error_exit "No USB device could be mounted."
fi

zenity --info --title="Mount Successful" --text="USB drive mounted at:\n$MOUNT_POINT"

# Optional unmount prompt
if zenity --question --title="Unmount USB" --text="Would you like to unmount the USB device now?"; then
  log "User requested unmount..."
  if umount "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
    zenity --info --title="Unmounted" --text="USB device has been unmounted successfully."
    log "Unmount completed."
  else
    zenity --warning --title="Unmount Failed" --text="Could not unmount. The device may still be in use."
    warn "Unmount failed."
  fi
else
  log "User chose to keep the device mounted."
fi

exit 0

iru

Thank you for the prompt response (do you ever sleep? (It is 9:27PM Australian Eastern Time as I write this)).

I will test when I get some time in the next few days.

Ian

vimanuelt

I do not sleep much. PTSD nightmares keep me awake. I sleep when I pass out from exhaustion.

iru

vimanuelt,

I have tried your script.
It fails at the following:

ensure_package "fusefs-exfat"

log "Trying to mount $DEVICE as exFAT..."
if mount.exfat "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
log "Mounted $DEVICE as exFAT."
break
else
warn "exFAT mount failed. Trying next device..."
fi
done
[*] 09:52:43 Checking device node: /dev/Name:s1
[!] 09:52:43 Device node /dev/Name:s1 not found. Skipping.

The USB stick is plugged in.

I will try and work my way through the script and????

iru.

vimanuelt

Thank you for the feedback.

The following script uses sysctl -n kern.disks for reliable device listing instead, and I have added supports for both GPT (p1) and MBR (s1) style partitions, as well as whole device. :-)

#!/bin/sh
#
# File: usb-mount-gui.sh
#
# Description:
#   A user-friendly graphical script using Zenity to mount USB drives as
#   FAT32 or exFAT on GhostBSD or FreeBSD. It ensures required tools are installed,
#   mounts the drive, and optionally unmounts it via graphical prompts.
#

set -eu

# === Root check ===
if [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ]; then
  exec sudo "$0" "$@"
fi

MOUNT_POINT="/mnt/usb"
DEVICE_HINT="/dev"
ENCODING="en_US.UTF-8"
CODEPAGE="CP437"
TIMESTAMP="$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)"
LOGFILE="/tmp/usb-mount-log_$TIMESTAMP.txt"

log() {
  echo "[*] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE"
}

warn() {
  echo "[!] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE" >&2
}

error_exit() {
  zenity --error --title="Mount Failed" --text="$1\nSee log: $LOGFILE"
  echo "[✘] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE" >&2
  exit 1
}

ensure_package() {
  PKG_NAME="$1"
  if ! pkg info -e "$PKG_NAME"; then
    log "Installing missing package: $PKG_NAME"
    if ! pkg install -y "$PKG_NAME" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
      error_exit "Failed to install $PKG_NAME"
    fi
    log "Successfully installed: $PKG_NAME"
  else
    log "Package $PKG_NAME is already installed."
  fi
}

log "Starting USB mount process with Zenity GUI..."
mkdir -p "$MOUNT_POINT"

ensure_package "zenity"

# Detect USB device(s)
log "Detecting USB storage devices..."
DEVICES=$(sysctl -n kern.disks | tr ' ' '\n' | grep ^da || true)

if [ -z "$DEVICES" ]; then
  error_exit "No USB storage devices were detected."
fi

for DEV in $DEVICES; do
  for DEVICE in "${DEVICE_HINT}/${DEV}s1" "${DEVICE_HINT}/${DEV}p1" "${DEVICE_HINT}/${DEV}"; do
    log "Checking device node: $DEVICE"

    if [ ! -e "$DEVICE" ]; then
      warn "Device node $DEVICE not found. Skipping."
      continue
    fi

    log "Trying to mount $DEVICE as FAT32..."
    if mount -t msdosfs -o longnames,-m=755,-L="$ENCODING",-D="$CODEPAGE" "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" 2>>"$LOGFILE"; then
      log "Mounted $DEVICE as FAT32."
      DEVICE_MOUNTED="$DEVICE"
      break 2
    else
      warn "FAT32 mount failed. Trying exFAT fallback..."
    fi

    if ! kldstat | grep -q fusefs; then
      log "Loading FUSE kernel module..."
      if ! kldload fusefs >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
        warn "Could not load FUSE. Skipping exFAT."
        continue
      fi
      log "FUSE loaded successfully."
    fi

    ensure_package "fusefs-exfat"

    log "Trying to mount $DEVICE as exFAT..."
    if mount.exfat "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
      log "Mounted $DEVICE as exFAT."
      DEVICE_MOUNTED="$DEVICE"
      break 2
    else
      warn "exFAT mount failed. Trying next partition..."
    fi
  done
done

if ! mount | grep -q "$MOUNT_POINT"; then
  error_exit "No USB device could be mounted."
fi

zenity --info --title="Mount Successful" --text="USB drive mounted at:\n$MOUNT_POINT"

# Optional unmount prompt
if zenity --question --title="Unmount USB" --text="Would you like to unmount the USB device now?"; then
  log "User requested unmount..."
  if umount "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
    zenity --info --title="Unmounted" --text="USB device has been unmounted successfully."
    log "Unmount completed."
  else
    zenity --warning --title="Unmount Failed" --text="Could not unmount. The device may still be in use."
    warn "Unmount failed."
  fi
else
  log "User chose to keep the device mounted."
fi

exit 0

iru

vimanuelt,

Things have turned rather ugly here.....
do
Tried your latest script. Stopped it after the section 'for DEV in $Devices'.

The script complained about not finding /dev/das01 as fat32 and exFAT, etc...

Saved off the script and its output, saved it to/home/iru/Documents.

Used caja to look at /media/LINUX-MINT.... Name of 32Gig USB stick.

There is the directory I could not see previously. Content is accessible....

I thought 'What has happenned, what have I done', etc..

What if the script has caused this, fixed the problem?????

So I unmounted the USB and rebooted the laptop.

Things got worse.... After the reboot I can no longer 'see' 'LINUX-MINT' USB.

That is why I cannot send you any of your script-output, I cannot write anything to a USB the system does not see (tried a couple) they and 'LINUX_MINT' open and read OK on windows......

I will do some more on it in the next couple of days.

iru.

vimanuelt

This is almost certainly not a hardware failure or irreversible damage, but possibly a kernel module state issue, a mounting remnant, or metadata corruption (e.g. volume label cache, not data loss).

Let me look at the problem again. I might have misunderstood the requirements.

vimanuelt

#!/bin/sh

set -eu

LOGFILE="/tmp/fat32-recover-$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).log"
MOUNT_POINT="/mnt/usb"
DEFAULT_ENCODING="en_US.UTF-8"
DEFAULT_CODEPAGE="CP437"
DEVICE=""
ENCODING=""
CODEPAGE=""

trap 'fatal "An unexpected error occurred. Check the log for details."' INT TERM HUP
trap 'cleanup' EXIT

log() {
  echo "[*] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE"
}

warn() {
  echo "[!] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1" | tee -a "$LOGFILE" >&2
}

fatal() {
  MSG="[✘] $(date +%H:%M:%S) $1"
  echo "$MSG" | tee -a "$LOGFILE" >&2
  if command -v zenity >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    zenity --error --title="FAT32 Recovery Error" --text="$1\n\nLog saved at:\n$LOGFILE"
  else
    echo "$MSG"
  fi
  exit 1
}

cleanup() {
  if mount | grep -q "$MOUNT_POINT"; then
    umount "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1 || warn "Cleanup: failed to unmount $MOUNT_POINT"
  fi
}

ensure_package() {
  PKG="$1"
  if ! pkg info -e "$PKG"; then
    log "Installing missing package: $PKG"
    pkg install -y "$PKG" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1 || fatal "Failed to install required package: $PKG"
  else
    log "Verified: $PKG is installed."
  fi
}

ensure_package zenity

zenity --info --title="FAT32 Recovery Utility" \
  --text="This tool detects and mounts FAT32 USB partitions.\nRecovery is offered for filesystems marked dirty.\n\nLog file: $LOGFILE"

log "Scanning for USB partitions..."
ALL_PARTS=$(sysctl -n kern.disks | tr ' ' '\n' | grep ^da | while read -r disk; do
  for part in s1 s2 p1 p2 ""; do
    path="/dev/${disk}${part}"
    [ "$part" = "" ] && path="/dev/${disk}"
    [ -e "$path" ] && echo "$path"
  done
done)

[ -z "$ALL_PARTS" ] && fatal "No USB partitions were found. Ensure the USB device is properly inserted."

DEVICE=$(echo "$ALL_PARTS" | zenity --list --title="Select USB Partition" \
  --text="Choose a FAT32 partition to scan and mount" \
  --column="Device" --width=400 --height=300) || fatal "No partition was selected. Operation cancelled."

log "Selected partition: $DEVICE"

mkdir -p "$MOUNT_POINT"

detect_codepage() {
  OUTPUT=$(file -s "$DEVICE" 2>/dev/null || true)
  echo "$DEFAULT_CODEPAGE"
}

detect_encoding() {
  echo "$DEFAULT_ENCODING"
}

ENCODING=$(detect_encoding)
CODEPAGE=$(detect_codepage)

STATUS_OUTPUT=$(file -s "$DEVICE" 2>/dev/null || echo "Unknown format")
PART_INFO=$(gpart show "$DEVICE" 2>/dev/null || echo "Partition map unavailable")

SUMMARY="Device: $DEVICE\n\nFilesystem: $STATUS_OUTPUT\nEncoding: $ENCODING\nCodepage: $CODEPAGE\n\nPartition Info:\n$PART_INFO\n\nProceed?"

zenity --question --title="Confirm Mount and Scan" \
  --width=500 --height=400 --text="$SUMMARY" || fatal "User cancelled before mounting."

log "Unmounting $MOUNT_POINT if needed..."
umount "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>/dev/null || true

log "Attempting to mount FAT32 partition..."
if ! mount -t msdosfs -o longnames,-L="$ENCODING",-D="$CODEPAGE" "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
  warn "Initial mount failed. Possible dirty bit set or filesystem error."
fi

if mount | grep "$MOUNT_POINT" | grep -q "read-only"; then
  zenity --question --title="Filesystem Appears Dirty" \
    --text="The filesystem was mounted read-only. This likely means it was not cleanly unmounted.\nWould you like to attempt repair with fsck_msdosfs?" || fatal "Mount read-only, and repair declined."

  log "Running fsck_msdosfs..."
  fsck_msdosfs -y "$DEVICE" | tee -a "$LOGFILE"

  log "Reattempting mount after repair..."
  if ! mount -t msdosfs -o longnames,-L="$ENCODING",-D="$CODEPAGE" "$DEVICE" "$MOUNT_POINT" >>"$LOGFILE" 2>&1; then
    fatal "Mount failed even after filesystem repair."
  fi
fi

zenity --info --title="FAT32 Mounted" \
  --text="✅ Successfully mounted:\n$DEVICE\n\nMount point:\n$MOUNT_POINT\n\nLog saved at:\n$LOGFILE"

log "Operation complete. Mounted at $MOUNT_POINT"
exit 0

The above fat32 recover gui.sh script is a graphical utility developed for GhostBSD and FreeBSD systems to safely detect, inspect, and mount FAT32 formatted USB drives, particularly those marked as dirty due to improper ejection on Windows or Linux systems. Upon execution, the script begins by logging all activity to a timestamped file located in the temporary directory and ensures that required packages, such as Zenity, are installed using the system's package manager. It then queries the system for connected USB storage devices by invoking the sysctl interface, extracts valid FAT32 partition paths such as /dev/da0s1 or /dev/da1p1, and presents the user with a graphical selection menu. Once a device is selected, the script retrieves the file system type using the file command, obtains partition geometry using gpart, and constructs a detailed status report that includes the selected device, file system summary, mount encoding, codepage, and partition table. This report is presented through a confirmation dialog, allowing the user to approve or decline the operation. If confirmed, the script ensures the mount point exists, unmounts any preexisting mounts at that location, and attempts to mount the selected partition using msdosfs with options that support long filenames, UTF-8 encoding, and the CP437 codepage. If the file system mounts as read-only, which often indicates the volume is marked as dirty, the script prompts the user for permission to perform file system repair using fsck msdosfs. Should the user approve, the script executes the repair and retries the mount operation. Upon successful mounting, a final information dialog is shown to confirm the outcome and provide the mount location and the log file path. The script employs structured error handling and cleanup routines to ensure the device is unmounted properly if the operation is interrupted or fails at any point. Throughout the procedure, no changes are made to the USB device unless the user explicitly authorizes repair. All operations are presented through safe and user friendly graphical dialogs, making this utility appropriate for both technical users and those with limited experience in FreeBSD based environments.