Dale Morris wrote:
>
> I first posted this to the Newbie list, but got no reply. Hopefully, someone
> here can help.
> I just decided to give Mandrake 7.0 a try after using Redhat 6.1 for about a
> month and a half. Here's my problem:
> When I try to mount floppies I made with Redhat 6.1, I get an error
> message, "could not list directory contents, file/mnt/floppy.." what do I
> need to do to -- "So many idiots.. get this working correctly. I'm amazed
> that I can't mount a ext2 floppy. I so few comets.." edited the fstab as
> follows: H Henry /dev/hda1 /boot ext2 defaults 1 2 /dev/hda5 / ext2
> defaults 1 1 /dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/hda7 /home ext2
> defaults 1 2 /mnt/floppy /mnt/floppy supermount fs=vfat,ext2 dev=/dev/fd0
> 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
> /mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom supermount fs=iso9660,dev=/dev/cdrom 0 0
>
> (I added ext2 in fs=..)
Therefore, your current floppy line in /etc/fstab looks like this:
/mnt/floppy /mnt/floppy supermount fs=vfat,ext2 dev=/dev/fd0 0 0
That is clearly wrong. It should be this:
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto sync,user,noauto,nosuid,nodev,unhide
0 0
Or even just this:
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ext2 noauto 0 0
^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^
item 1 item 2 item 3 item 4 item 5
item 1 = physical device. MUST be in /dev in this case /dev/fd0
you are using a mount point in item 1, which will not work.
item 2 = mount point. Classically /mnt/floppy but you could
use any blank or empty directory you want. Some peope use
/drive_A
or something similar. Just create an empty directory and use it.
In most Linux distros, /mnt/floppy is the default. But make sure
it actually exists BEFORE you try mounting something to it.
item 3 = file system type. Could be msdos, could be ext2 or
could be "auto" for automatic detection of the file type in
the floppy. Auto was not allowed here until recently, when
auto-detection was implemented for floppy mounts.
item 4 These are options, and there are many. In the second
example above, "noauto" means not to mount the floppy
automatically
when it is inserted in the drive. When a floppy is inserted in
the drive, it closes a tiny switch which can be detected by the
operating system, which can then mount it. MSDOS and Win95 are
examples of OS's that do this, but you should know that this is
just by design and is not inherent. You have to make the OS
recognize the floppy. In the example above, noauto means
that you have to explictly give the 'mount' command.
Item 5 has to do with when fsck checks your drive for file
type errors.
Here are ways to mount things. Depends if you have a valid
fstab file that allows the shortcut.
prompt# mount /mnt/floppy
In this case, the mount command will look at /etc/fstab for
/mnt/floppy in the mount point column. It will see that this
is associated ONLY with /dev/fd0 and will attempt to mount
that drive to that mount point using the parameters in /etc/fstab.
If /mnt/floppy does not exist, or is associated with a different
device that is detected, then it will exit with an error message.
See below.
prompt# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
Thjis is more explicit. It tells the mount command to mount
the device or drive /dev/fd0 to the mount directory or point
called /mnt/floppy and to do it as an ext2 file system.
Note that this command is much more flexible. Here are some
bizarre possibilities:
Let us say you have /mnt/floppy as well as /mnt/cdrom, which
is typical of most systems. You also have a /home directory,
also typical.
Let us also assume that there is NO CD in the CD drive.
Try these for fun:
prompt# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/cdrom
prompt# cd /mnt/cdrom
prompt# ls (see that the floppy is mounted under /mnt/cdrom.
hehehehe.
prompt# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /home
prompt# cd /home
prompt# ls
Note that here, the contents of the floppy are now readable as
/home. Waht happened to your /home directory??!! &^& Well, no
problem, just do
prompt# cd /
prompt# umount /home
and all is back to normal.
Now take a blank, unformatted floppy and put it in the drive.
prompt# cd /
prompt# fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
prompt# mke2fs -c /dev/fd0 1440
prompt# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
prompt# cd /etc
prompt# cp profile /mnt/floppy (drive light goes on)
prompt# cd /mnt/floppy
prompt# ls -la (see two things: "profile" and "lost+found"
prompt# cd / (you cannot unmount when in the directory).
prompt# umount /mnt/floppy
prompt# ls -la /mnt/floppy (should say 0 files) OK.
prompt# cp /etc/bashrc /mnt/floppy (copy this text file over)
prompt# ls -la /mnt/floppy (should show ONLY "bashrc")
prompt# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
prompt# ls -la /mnt/floppy (will show "profile" "lost+found" but
NOT "bashrc".
prompt# umount /mnt/floppy
prompt# ls -la /mnt/floppy (now shows "bashrc" oNLY)
Ain't that the cat's meow?
Now, if you have /etc/fstab set up correctly, you can use the
abbreviated command:
prompt# mount /mnt/cdrom
instead of the longer command
prompt# mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
but please note that it depends on what /etc/fstab has in it
regarding the floppy device.
On thing that you have to be VERY CAREFUL of when you edit
/etc/fstab.
MAKE CERTAIN that none of the lines wrap. Each line MUST begin
in /dev/whatever and end in 0 0 or the two digits for fsck. If
they wrap, so you have something like this ANYWHERE:
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ext2
noauto 0 0
as two lines, your system will NOT BE BOOTABLE. If you are using
the pico editor on /etc/fstab, be absolutely certain that you
use the -w option and that you check for line wraps with more,
less
or cat. This is absolutely CRITICAL:
prompt# cd /etc
prompt# pico -w fstab
Another file you don't want to screw up with line wraps is the
/etc/inittab file. There are actually many such files in the
system, but those two will prevent booting, so don't say that
Ramon encouraged experimenting and did not warn you. You can
usually get back in with "linux single" at the LILO prompt or
with a rescue disk. So I suggest you create a backup of these
files first. Then if you screw up, go in as rescue mode and
recopy the files. Example:
prompt# cd /etc
prompt# cp fstab fstab.bak (creates a copy of it as fstab.bak)
prompt# pico -w fstab (lets assume you screw fstab up)
Reboot. Does not boot.
Go into rescue mode.
bash# cd /etc
bash# pwd (make sure you are in etc)
bash# mv fstab.bak fstab
or, a lengthier alternative:
bash# mv fstab fstab.bad
bash# mv fstab.bak fstab
Reboot.
In the later case, you have fstab.bad that you can peruse to
discover the error of your ways.
Play around. Worse comes to worse, you will get some training
in OS rescue, something totally lacking in Windows 95/98.
--
Ramon Gandia ============= Sysadmin ============== Nook Net
http://www.nook.net [EMAIL PROTECTED]
285 West First Avenue tel. 907-443-7575
P.O. Box 970 fax. 907-443-2487
Nome, Alaska 99762-0970 ==== Alaska Toll Free. 888-443-7525
