Format Partition in IMG File – How to Format a Partition Inside an IMG File

disk-imagefilesystemspartition

I created an img file via the following command:

dd if=/dev/zero bs=2M count=200 > binary.img

It's just a file with zeroes, but I can use it in fdisk and create a partition table:

# fdisk binary.img

Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x51707f21.

Command (m for help): p
Disk binary.img: 400 MiB, 419430400 bytes, 819200 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x51707f21

and, let's say, one partition:

Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 
First sector (2048-819199, default 2048): 
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-819199, default 819199): 

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 399 MiB.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Syncing disks.

When I check the partition table, I get the following result:

Command (m for help): p
Disk binary.img: 400 MiB, 419430400 bytes, 819200 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x7f3a8a6a

Device      Boot Start    End Sectors  Size Id Type
binary.img1       2048 819199  817152  399M 83 Linux

So the partition exists. When I try to format this partition via gparted, I get the following error:

enter image description here

I don't know why it looks for binary.img1 , and I have no idea how to format the partition from command live.

Does anyone know how to format it using ext4 filesystem?

Best Answer

You can access the disk image and its individual partitions via the loopback feature. You have already discovered that some disk utilities will operate (reasonably) happily on disk images. However, mkfs is not one of them (but strangely mount is).

Here is output from fdisk -lu binary.img:

Disk binary.img: 400 MiB, 419430400 bytes, 819200 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
...

Device           Boot Start    End Sectors  Size Id Type
binary.img1            2048 819199  817152  399M 83 Linux

To access the partition you've created you have a couple of choices

  1. The explicit route

    losetup --offset $((512*2048)) --sizelimit $((512*817152)) --show --find binary.img
/dev/loop0

    The output /dev/loop0 is the name of the loop device that has been allocated. The --offset parameter is just the partition's offset (Start) multiplied by the sector size (512). Whereas --sizelimit is the size of the partition, and you can calculate it in the following way: End-Start+1, which is 819199-2048+1=817152 , and that number also has to be multiplied by the sector size.

    You can then use /dev/loop0 as your reference to the partition:

    mkfs -t ext4 -L img1 /dev/loop0
mkdir -p /mnt/img1
mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/img1
...
umount /mnt/img1
losetup -d /dev/loop0

  2. The implicit route

    losetup --partscan --show --find binary.img
/dev/loop0

    The output /dev/loop0 is the name of the primary loop device that has been allocated. In addition, the --partscan option tells the kernel to scan the device for a partition table and assign subsidiary loop devices automatically. In your case with the one partition you also get /dev/loop0p1, which you can then use as your reference to the partition:

    mkfs -t ext4 -L img1 /dev/loop0p1
mkdir -p /mnt/img1
mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt/img1
...
umount /mnt/img1
losetup -d /dev/loop0
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