# Request/suggestion: automount usb-storage (soundfonts etc) for offloading sdcard read/writes

**URL:** <https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144>\
**Category:** Software\
**Created:** [August 9, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144 "2019-08-09T13:31:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/jofemodo/32/2_2.png) [@jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/jofemodo)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 9:34am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144/21 "2020-08-10T09:34:05Z")

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Where did you add the link for the External Storage section?

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**Author:** ![jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/jofemodo/32/2_2.png) [@jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/jofemodo)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144/22 "2020-08-10T09:39:12Z")

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Also, i would like to short the section by removing the part where you say that exFAt is not supported.  
Let’s include the exfat driver on the SD and that’s all 😉

Could you try to install the driver and test if it works automatically?

```
apt-get -y install exfat-utils

```

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![sehrgut](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sehrgut](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/sehrgut)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144/23 "2020-08-10T15:12:23Z")

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Lemme grab a spare drive and test that!

And I linked it from both [https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian\_UI\_Users\_Guide](https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian_UI_Users_Guide) and [https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian\_Features](https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Zynthian_Features). As well, to ensure search coverage, I created a redirect “USB drive” that points to “External storage”.

Edit:

Nope, just installing exfat-utils doesn’t let automount see it. Audio record goes to SDC, and the drive is not visible in du:

```auto
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 29950364 9895632 18706708 35% /
devtmpfs 4045056 0 4045056 0% /dev
tmpfs 4078848 80508 3998340 2% /dev/shm
tmpfs 4078848 8620 4070228 1% /run
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 4078848 0 4078848 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 258095 54407 203688 22% /boot
tmpfs 815768 0 815768 0% /run/user/0

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sehrgut](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sehrgut](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/sehrgut)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144/24 "2020-08-10T15:22:28Z")

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Looks like it’s just automount, though, nothing deeper, because if I manually mount it and /media/usb0, Audio Recorder uses it just fine.

```auto
root@zynthian:~# mount -t exfat /dev/sda1 /media/usb0/
FUSE exfat 1.3.0
root@zynthian:~# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 29G 9.5G 18G 35% /
devtmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /dev
tmpfs 3.9G 79M 3.9G 2% /dev/shm
tmpfs 3.9G 8.5M 3.9G 1% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 3.9G 0 3.9G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 253M 54M 199M 22% /boot
tmpfs 797M 0 797M 0% /run/user/0
/dev/sda1 7.6G 4.7M 7.6G 1% /media/usb0

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sehrgut](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sehrgut](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/sehrgut)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144/25 "2020-08-10T15:36:12Z")

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I think the issue may be that exfat is a FUSE filesystem, which requires special handling in udev. Possibly we could grab the kernelmode driver for exfat instead? Though that would be outside vanilla raspbian because of licensing concerns, I believe. I’ve not looked at the Samsung code, but I know several linux distros are going FUSE on exfat for licensing reasons/fear of Microsoft.

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**Author:** ![twelve](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/twelve/32/5211_2.png) [@twelve](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/twelve)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/request-suggestion-automount-usb-storage-soundfonts-etc-for-offloading-sdcard-read-writes/3144/26 "2020-08-21T13:49:50Z")

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> [@sehrgut](#):
>
> `mount -t exfat /dev/sda1 /media/usb0/`

Same experience here with a new exfat usb disk, after install exfat-uitils the drive didn’t show up, but mounting manually did the trick.  
Obviously this is not a sustainable solution, so hopefully this can be improved. If possible, I’d rather not reformat the USB disk. (The same USB disk is automatically mounted perfectly on another linux system)

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