Mount and format exFAT disks in Ubuntu

In this guide, I’ll show you how to enable exFAT support in Ubuntu 10.04 – 11.10 (12.04 might work too, didn’t test it):

Open your terminal and enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:relan/exfat
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install exfat-utils fuse-exfat

That’s it. To get auto-mount support, use these procedures for 32bit or 64bit:

sudo apt-get -y install ncurses-dev
wget http://mirror.gbxs.net/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/v2.18/util-linux-ng-2.18.tar.bz2
tar xf util-linux-ng-2.18.tar.bz2
cd util-linux-ng-2.18
./configure
make

Now follow these steps if you have a 32bit system:

sudo mv /lib/libblkid.so.1.1.0 /lib/libblkid.so.1.1.0.backup
sudo cp shlibs/blkid/src/.libs/libblkid.so.1.1.0 /lib/
sudo chmod 644 /lib/libblkid.so.1.1.0
sudo rm /lib/libblkid.so.1
sudo ln -s /lib/libblkid.so.1.1.0 /lib/libblkid.so.1

or these for 64bit:

sudo mv /lib64/libblkid.so.1.1.0 /lib64/libblkid.so.1.1.0.backup
sudo cp shlibs/blkid/src/.libs/libblkid.so.1.1.0 /lib64/
sudo chmod 644 /lib/libblkid.so.1.1.0
sudo rm /lib/libblkid.so.1
sudo ln -s /lib/libblkid.so.1.1.0 /lib/libblkid.so.1

Now connect your disk or remount it. And you’ll should see your exFAT disk!

Some extra commands:

To format a exFAT partition:
sudo mkfs.exfat -n LABEL /dev/sdXn
or
sudo mkexfatfs -n LABEL /dev/sdXn

To change the label:
sudo exfatlabel /dev/sdXn NEW_LABEL

Get filesystem info:
sudo dumpexfat /dev/sdXn

To check the partition:
sudo fsck.exfat /dev/sdXn
or
sudo exfatfsck /dev/sdXn

9 thoughts on “Mount and format exFAT disks in Ubuntu

  1. Thanks!
    automount instructions are not needed for 12.04, just add the repository install the packages and away you go.

  2. did step 1, got error on step 2, so skipped it and for step 3 for 64bit…got this message:

    mv: missing destination file operand after `/lib64/libblkid.so.1.1.0/lib64/libblkid.so.1.1.0.backup’

    any idea why?
    thanks!

  3. Many thanks. It worked perfectly except ncurses-dev is a dead link. Had to find it online at another site.
    Can you explain why ncurses-dev is necessary and if it is secure to use? Thanks again!

  4. UPDATE: as of Ubuntu 13.10, as far as I can tell, no external repositories are needed, anymore. All you need is to add the exfat-fuse and exfat-utils packages either with the Synaptic package manager, or via command-line. (These may or may not already be installed on your system).

    $ sudo apt-get install exfat-fuse exfat-utils

    Also, note that in the old exfat repository, the package name was reversed. It was “fuse-exfat”. Now in the main Canonical/Ubuntu repo, it is called, “exfat-fuse”.

    No need to set up automounting, either. With the addition of the 2 packages above, 13.10 (and perhaps earlier Ubuntu’s?) will “automount” exFAT just like any other fs.

    Enjoy!

  5. Hi

    it tells me that the connection to mirror.gbxs.net has failed…..
    any idea why?

    thanx

    Giovanni

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