Challenge, Easy,  on  Linux
ProblemSolutionDiscussion

You have access to a Linux system with an additional empty, unformatted drive. Your mission is to:

  1. Discover the empty drive
  2. Format it with the ext4 filesystem
  3. Mount it at /mnt/my-ext4-drive
  4. Create a test file to prove everything works

First, identify and format the empty drive with ext4:

Hint 1: Discovering Available Drives 💡

You need to identify which drives are available on the system and which ones are unformatted. Commands like lsblk or fdisk -l can help you explore the storage devices.

Look for drives without any filesystem information.

Hint 2: Formatting Commands 💡

Linux provides several commands for formatting drives with different filesystems. For ext4, you'll want to use the mkfs family of commands.

Research the appropriate command for creating ext4 filesystems.

Next, mount the formatted drive at the specified location:

Hint 3: Mount Points 💡

Before mounting a filesystem, you need a directory to serve as the mount point. The challenge expects the filesystem to be mounted at /mnt/my-ext4-drive.

Don't forget to create this directory before attempting to mount.

If you've never mounted a drive before, try solving our mount challenge first.

Finally, create a test file hello.txt in the mounted drive and write something to it:

Discussion:  Discord
Categories: Linux
Tags:  #storage #filesystem #ext4 #mkfs

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How to Author Challenges on iximiuz Labs

Instead of providing a subpar online editing experience, iximiuz Labs offers a helper CLI tool called labctl, allowing you to use your favorite text editor (or a full-featured IDE) to write content from the comfort of your local machine.

Install labctl CLI

curl -sf https://labs.iximiuz.com/cli/install.sh | sh

This will download and install the latest version of the labctl CLI. You only need to do this once per workstation.

Authorize labctl

labctl auth login

This will open a browser window asking you to authorize labctl to access your account. You need to do it after a fresh install of labctl and repeat it whenever the auth session expires.

Pull challenge content

labctl content pull challenge storage-simple-format

This will create a local copy of the challenge content in a directory named storage-simple-format. You only need to do this once per challenge.

Stream your changes

labctl content push -fw challenge storage-simple-format

Run this command in a separate terminal to continuously upload your changes to the server while editing the challenge in your favorite text editor or IDE.

You can also use labctl to create, list, and delete your content. Learn more about the available commands: labctl content --help