[Cluster]

How do i use my floppy drive. Do I have to mount it. Under my /mnt folder there is an entry for /floppy, but if i copy anything here, it doesn't end up on the floppy. How do i use it.

[David]

Linux addresses the floppy device as /dev/fd0. To use a floppy you must first tell linux where to attach it to the filesystem. Use mount for this. SO if you want to use your first floppy drive through /mnt/floppy, type:

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

Hope this helps

PF

PS Unless you want to corrupt the data () then you must unmount the disk BEFORE you eject it .

This is done using umount, NOT unmount:

umount /dev/fd0

[SFNole]

Originally posted by PenguinFreak
PS Unless you want to corrupt the data () then you must unmount the disk BEFORE you eject it .

This is done using umount, NOT unmount:

umount /dev/fd0

Hello PF,

     I'm a little confused by the whole "mounting" thing. . . or should I say the "unmounting" thing. Do you mean you have to use the mount command every time you want to insert a 3.5 floppy and use unmount when you want to eject that 3.5 floppy?

     Or do you mean that you only have to use "mount" once for the system to recognize the drive?

Thanks in advance,

SFNole

[XWRed1]

You mount the drive so the system makes it available to users to use. You unmount the drive when you remove it.

[Visidex]

In windows have you ever opened My Computer and had it freeze for a bit when you put a new cd in? That's windows mounting the drive.

You have to use mount every time you put in a floppy/cd and umount every time before you take it out.

[David]

Linux does this better - as it will not let you eject a CD while it is mounted

[XWRed1]

It will if you're using supermount.

[SFNole]

Thanks for the info guys. I understand the idea of "mount" much better now. I am still, however, having difficulty actually getting the floppy to mount.

I tried:

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

and I got the following error:

mount: /dev/fd0: unknown device

---------------

I also tried:

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

and I got the same error:

mount: /dev/fd0: unknown device

-------------

I also tried this:

mount /dev/fd0 -t msdos /mnt/floppy

and I got the same error:

mount: /dev/fd0: unknown device

-------------

I tried the above with vfat instead of msdos with the same result. . .

my fstab file (I didn't even know I had an fstab file 2 days ago ) looks like this:

/dev/hda1 / ext2 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 /home ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,exec,codepage=850,ro,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,sync,exec,codepage=850,noauto 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

------------

Any help you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated. This Linux stuff is fun, but man is it different. . .

SFNole

[XWRed1]

Its "eff-dee-zero" that you type, not "eff-dee-oh"

[Kendan]

Originally posted by XWRed1
Its "eff-dee-zero" that you type, not "eff-dee-oh"

SFNole is my brother. I just want to clarify that he was using the number 0 not the letter O. you can see how they are different in this post. So it should work. Is there a reason that you know that could be causing it not to work?

[David]

Try doing the following:

ls /dev/fd*

Does it bring up anything?

If it doesn't bring up /dev/fd0 then I'll see if I can find the numbers required to make the device.

Does the floppy drive DEFINATELY work oie in windows?

What distro are you using.

XWRed1: Off the top of your head, do you know the major and minor device numbers of /dev/fd0 ? I can find out but I'd have to reboot.

[XWRed1]

No, but the distro should have created a node for /dev/fd0 when it installed, and I would think they'd have installed a kernel supporting floppies as well.

[David]

You're right, I was just wondering if the node WAS there.

Unknown device...haven't seen that one before.

[XWRed1]

Thats what it would say if the kernel didn't support floppies.

[Kendan]

It says there is no such directory. So I cd /dev. I can see it but it wont let me ls it or cd to it. We are using mandrake 8.1.

[David]

Hmm the node is there.

Check that the disk works. Have you recompiled a kernel or is linux just as it should be?

do the following:

less /var/log/boot.msg

Does it seem to show any errors?

[Kendan]

Originally posted by PenguinFreak
Hmm the node is there.

Check that the disk works. Have you recompiled a kernel or is linux just as it should be?

do the following:

less /var/log/boot.msg

Does it seem to show any errors?

It says no such file or directory.

Haven't done anything to the kernal that I know about.
The disk works because I used a floppy to format the drive before instalation of Mandrake.

[David]

Right

1) the node is there

2) the hardware works

3) the disk works.

I think I have run out of ideas

As a last resort you *could* try a reformat/reinstall.

Is the drive a standard 1.44MB 3.5" drive?

[XWRed1]

Wait. You are doing this as root, right?

[SFNole]

Originally posted by XWRed1
Wait. You are doing this as root, right?

Yep. . . Still stumped. . . We will figure this out . . . The game is afoot.

Thanks for all of your help everyone,

SFNole