Debian Bug report logs - #1120932
exfatprogs: default sector size fails for Windows 11

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: John Ogness <john.ogness@linutronix.de>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: exfatprogs: default sector size fails for Windows 11

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 13:37:49 +0106

Package: exfatprogs
Version: 1.2.9-1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

Dear Maintainer,

When using Debian/trixie mkfs.exfat with no special options, it can create an
exFAT FS that is not readable by Windows 11. In my case, it was creating an
exFAT FS with sectore size 4096. Windows 11 would not recognize it as usable.
When I then formatted it using Windows 11, I noticed it used a sector size of
512. By specifying "mkfs.extfat -s 512 /dev/sdz" I was then able to create
an exFAT FS readable by Windows 11.

This issue has already been addressed upstream and is part of 1.3.0 (which is
in forky). The upstream fix is here:

https://github.com/exfatprogs/exfatprogs/commit/d4f77ae41ce178c04b8e3326178554182ca94bd5

Applying this patch to 1.2.9-1 also fixes the issue. This may be something that
should be fixed in trixie, since it can be a major issue for some and (like me)
cost several hours to hunt down the problem.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.2
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.16.3+deb13-rt-amd64 (SMP w/24 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages exfatprogs depends on:
ii  libc6  2.41-12

exfatprogs recommends no packages.

exfatprogs suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 1120932@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sven Hoexter <sven@stormbind.net>

To: John Ogness <john.ogness@linutronix.de>, 1120932@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#1120932: exfatprogs: default sector size fails for Windows 11

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 14:22:56 +0100

On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 01:37:49PM +0106, John Ogness wrote:

Hi,

> This issue has already been addressed upstream and is part of 1.3.0 (which is
> in forky). The upstream fix is here:
> 
> https://github.com/exfatprogs/exfatprogs/commit/d4f77ae41ce178c04b8e3326178554182ca94bd5
> 
> Applying this patch to 1.2.9-1 also fixes the issue. This may be something that
> should be fixed in trixie, since it can be a major issue for some and (like me)
> cost several hours to hunt down the problem.

Thanks for letting me know, as you might guess I don't have any Windows nor a wide
variety of devices to test in the household. I take care of preparing a patched
package for the next point release.

Sven

Message #17 received at 1120932@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sven Hoexter <sven@stormbind.net>

To: John Ogness <john.ogness@linutronix.de>, 1120932@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#1120932: exfatprogs: default sector size fails for Windows 11

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 21:35:13 +0100

On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 01:37:49PM +0106, John Ogness wrote:

Hello John,

> Applying this patch to 1.2.9-1 also fixes the issue. This may be something that
> should be fixed in trixie, since it can be a major issue for some and (like me)
> cost several hours to hunt down the problem.

stable pu update bug is https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1120962
my src + amd64 package build is available at https://sven.stormbind.net/debian/exfatprogs-trixie/

Sven

Message #22 received at 1120932@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: John Ogness <john.ogness@linutronix.de>

To: Sven Hoexter <sven@stormbind.net>, 1120932@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#1120932: exfatprogs: default sector size fails for Windows 11

Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2025 11:12:30 +0106

Hi Sven,

On 2025-11-18, Sven Hoexter <sven@stormbind.net> wrote:
> stable pu update bug is https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1120962
> my src + amd64 package build is available at https://sven.stormbind.net/debian/exfatprogs-trixie/

I confirm that your package now works as expected and Windows 11 is
happy with the exFAT FS.

My device with 4096 physical, emulating with 512 logical:

$ lsblk -o NAME,PHY-SEC,LOG-SEC /dev/sda5
NAME PHY-SEC LOG-SEC
sda5    4096     512

Formatting using defaults and your _fixed_ package:

$ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sda5

Verifying that the exFAT FS is using 512 bytes per sector (rather than
4096):

$ sudo dump.exfat /dev/sda5 | grep Bytes
Bytes per Sector:                        512

And the final test... plugging it into a Windows 11 box and being able
to use the FS as is.

Thanks!

John Ogness

Message #27 received at 1120932-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Debian FTP Masters <ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org>

To: 1120932-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#1120932: fixed in exfatprogs 1.2.9-1+deb13u1

Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2025 13:17:11 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Source: exfatprogs
Source-Version: 1.2.9-1+deb13u1
Done: Sven Hoexter <hoexter@debian.org>

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
exfatprogs, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1120932@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Sven Hoexter <hoexter@debian.org> (supplier of updated exfatprogs package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:57:33 +0100
Source: exfatprogs
Architecture: source
Version: 1.2.9-1+deb13u1
Distribution: trixie
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Sven Hoexter <hoexter@debian.org>
Changed-By: Sven Hoexter <hoexter@debian.org>
Closes: 1120932
Changes:
 exfatprogs (1.2.9-1+deb13u1) trixie; urgency=medium
 .
   * Add trixie branch information to gbp.conf and Vcs-Git.
   * Add debian/patches/windows-compat-use-512-sector-size.patch
     for Windows compatibility. Windows fails to access devices
     with a 4KB sector size which use a 512Byte sector emulation.
     Cherry-Pick the revert from exfatprogs 1.3.0 to use a 512Byte
     sector size for those devices, despite the performance penalty.
     If a user would like to omit the Windows compatability
     "mkfs.exfat -s 4096" can still be used to override the sector size.
     (Closes: #1120932)
Checksums-Sha1:
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 5908697a3c642ba5e13d9d9c497826a573354dbf 7304 exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1.debian.tar.xz
 a9fa890fe04c7106832c52ab996f9149adc79af2 6110 exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
 d3884d675b5f191f2414b46738b64022204c2395c55480510465480299660791 2210 exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1.dsc
 ad75dfb061804fabe98e7b32cb83d9985a606ab5c5c308939ffc5028316e2c19 7304 exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1.debian.tar.xz
 98d45afa88eed7fd63ac89667f10a67cb9b53d021d6cb77c2ee319b86a5db048 6110 exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1_amd64.buildinfo
Files:
 5c05b5dd613c81fca1ba79808d110039 2210 otherosfs optional exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1.dsc
 6f880264bdaa842ec5c3314bde5250e4 7304 otherosfs optional exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1.debian.tar.xz
 09a7c6d7f1981f9429a431af6186d202 6110 otherosfs optional exfatprogs_1.2.9-1+deb13u1_amd64.buildinfo

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