Hi,
Using nbd to access local floppy-drives is not yet that safe.
Searching for a more stable alternative, I found out that there is a
straigtforward solution using floppyd coming with the mtools-package.
Naturally, only dos-formatted floppies are supported, but that's what our
users (I'm working at a school) have got.
So here we go:
(I'm using ltsp-2.09, mtools-3.9.7 and sort of SuSE-7.1)
Step 1
If not yet done, install the package mtools on the server (it should be
included in your distribution, otherwise get it from mtools.linux.lu).
Locate the file floppyd (which floppyd) and copy it to the workstation's
bin-directory (/opt/ltsp/i386/bin in my case).
Step 2
Find out the linked libraries necessary for floppyd (ldd `which floppyd`)
and make sure that you've got them in the workstation's /lib-directory, i.e
in /opt/ltsp/i386/lib or equivalent. (If ltsp_sound is installed those
libs might be already there.)
Step 3
Edit the mtools configuration-file mtools.conf (likely to be found in /etc
on the server) like this (start of my conf-file):
---------------- snip --------------------------------------------------
drive a: file="$DISPLAY" remote
drive a: file="/dev/fd0" exclusive 1.44m mformat_only
---------------- snap --------------------------------------------------
It is important to have the entries ordered like this.
These settings will be overridden by entries in a file named .mtoolsrc in a
users home-directory. So make sure that this is not the case; normally users
don't need such a file.
With these settings the command mdir will access the floppy at the server, when you're
logged in at the console of the server and on the workstation, when logged in
there under X-Window, using e.g. xterm.
Step 4
Create a file named rc.mfloppy in the workstation's /rc.d-directory, i.e
in /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/rc.d or equivalent, insert the following and make the
file executable:
--------------- snip ----------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
echo 'Starting Floppy Daemon'
/bin/floppyd -d -l -r root /dev/fd0
-------------- snap -----------------------------------------------------
You don't have to load the necessarily needed floppy-module; loading should
be triggered in this way.
(Of course, you can instead export /dev/fd1 as well, it will be accessable
as drive a: )
Step 5
Edit the lts.conf-file.
For a workstation that should provide local floppy-use via mtools,
add an entry like this (where 'xx' is a 2-digit number between 01 and 10):
RCFILE_xx = rc.mfloppy
Enabling of local apps is not required nor restarting of anything.
That's it.
Having neither a clean distribution nor a clean ltsp-install things may not
work as mentioned. So please check it out.
Wolfgang
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