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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

So I have a floppy drive, which I rarely use but I need it now.  I can mount it just fine as root, but not as a regular user.  I added /dev/fd0 to /etc/fstab with a known working configuration, yet it still doesn't mount.  Also, I've been a KDE 4 user for over a year now and I remember when I was still using debian that there was an automatic floppy mount under "Places" in dolphin, but it isn't there anymore and I'm not sure how to re-create it.

Also, the drive will only unmount if it ISNT in fstab.  Otherwise umount complains that the drive doesn't exist in mtab.

Last edited by schmidtbag (2011-04-06 16:26:13)

tlvb

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2008-10-06

Posts: 297

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Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

What is the fstab entry you did not get to work? Did you have user,noauto options set?
Also, what are the exact error messages you get?

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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

From my fstab:
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto sync,users,noauto,nosuid,nodev 0 0

It was much simpler, but I copied the code from someone else who got theirs working just fine so I figured mine would work.  I do have /dev/fd0 and I do have /mnt/floppy.  I also have "floppy" and "ide-floppy" inside /etc/modules.conf.

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
mount: only root can do that

sudo mount works just fine, although it doesn't appear I'm able to read from the disk.

umount /dev/fd0
umount: /dev/fd0 is not mounted (according to mtab)

sudo umount gives the same results

Last edited by schmidtbag (2011-03-30 02:02:30)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Don't specify the target directory as a user.  Specify only the device node -- the system gets the mount location from /etc/fstab.  Users may not pick the mount point.

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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Don't specify the target directory as a user.  Specify only the device node -- the system gets the mount location from /etc/fstab.  Users may not pick the mount point.

so.... delete /mnt/floppy, reboot, and let fstab create it by itself?

EDIT:
nvm, i see what you meant.  when i type "mount /dev/fd0" the drive lights up but i still can't read or write from it.
EDIT2:
also, i'm still unable to unmount.

Last edited by schmidtbag (2011-03-30 02:28:56)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Sorry, I stepped away for dinner.

What is the file system?  After issuing the mount /dev/fd0, could you post the output of mount ??

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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

there is no output of mount, it just simply lights up the drive and it goes back to the command line.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Sorry, I meant to issue the mount command a second time without any other parameters:  Example:

ewaller@odin:~ 1031 %mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=494329,mode=755)
/dev/sda2 on / type ext3 (rw,commit=0)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda7 on /home type ext3 (rw,commit=0)
/dev/sda5 on /boot type ext2 (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ewaller/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ewaller)
ewaller@odin:~ 1032 %

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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

well without specifying parameters, i can mount the drive as root.  i can read and write files, and i can unmount the drive just fine as root.  i haven't tried just doing "mount /dev/fd0" after deleting floppy from fstab, but i don't see how it would know where to mount if i did delete it.

think i should still try it?

EDIT:
i tried commenting out floppy from fstab and just d "mount /dev/fd0" and it says it can't find fd0 in fstab or mtab.

Last edited by schmidtbag (2011-03-30 03:09:07)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Mount, without parameters, tells you what devices are mounted where with their file system types. permissions and mount options.

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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=256704,mode=755)
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda2 on /home type ext4 (rw,commit=0)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

We are getting close.  Go ahead and put /dev/fd0 back in /etc/fstab and try mount /dev/fd0 as a user, observe the activity light, then re-run mount without parameters and make use that /dev/fd0 appears in the output.  If it does not, mount it as root (including the mount point if necessary) and then see if it appears in the mount output.  Then lets look at the output of mount (the non-root method is preferred)

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thisoldman

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 1,172

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

With the line in fstab, try 'mount /mnt/floppy'.

Sometimes, but not always, my cdrom won't mount when I use 'mount /dev/cdrom'.  But then I try "mount /media/cd' and it works.  I can't figure that out.

The line in my fstab is:

/dev/cdrom   /media/cd   auto   ro,user,noauto,unhide   0   0

After a successful mount and a umount, either mount command works.  And 'mount' will then tell me '/dev/sr0' is mounted on '/media/cd'.

Kalmar

Member

From: Québec, Canada

Registered: 2011-03-27

Posts: 10

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Sounds just like the problem i had with the USB drives. Is your user in the floppy group? Also, try the «default» in fstab, it solved my mounting problems for NTFS partitions. Otherwise, here is the link to the very similar problem i encountered (even though it was for USBs and NTFS partitions)...

schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

@Kalmar:
I am already part of the floppy group.

@thisoldman:
I tried mounting /mnt/floppy and it still doesn't work, however, the drive does still light up; it reacts the same way as mounting /dev/fd0.

@ewaller:
/dev/fd0 is back in fstab.  i tried "mount /dev/fd0", waited for the light, then "mount" and i got the same results as before - no fd0 in output.  With the drive back in fstab, mounting as root just lights up the drive and nothing happens, and "mount" still gives the same results.

schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

so no one knows what else can be done?

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

perhaps the output of dmesg might be of use. see what new lines come up when you try mounting.

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thisoldman

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 1,172

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Floppy drives and media have always been temperamental.  They go bad quickly with age.

Have you tried formatting a floppy in the drive?
Have you tried to mount a different floppy that another machine or OS can read?
Can you boot up with a live CD and see if the drive will mount and that the floppy (or any floppy) can be read?

schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Floppy drives and media have always been temperamental.  They go bad quickly with age.

Have you tried formatting a floppy in the drive?
Have you tried to mount a different floppy that another machine or OS can read?
Can you boot up with a live CD and see if the drive will mount and that the floppy (or any floppy) can be read?

yes, it was successful
yes, and when the disks do mount in linux, i can read and write from them.  the problem is i can't read, write, or mount them as non-root
last time i checked, i'm pretty sure

thisoldman

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 1,172

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Listen to this shot going off in the dark: check that /dev/fd0 exists.

Under /dev/, I have no fd0.  But I have a plain /dev/fd/.  Under /dev/fd/ are four symlinks labeled 0, 1, 2 and 3.  The symlinks all point to /dev/pts/0.  Of course, I have no floppy drive installed so I'm really uncertain about this.

Another shot in the gloom: in the options, try user instead of users.    See man mount for the difference.

Does the option order in fstab make a difference?  I don't think it does.  But try putting the order as:

noauto,user,sync,nosuid,nodev

schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Listen to this shot going off in the dark: check that /dev/fd0 exists.

Under /dev/, I have no fd0.  But I have a plain /dev/fd/.  Under /dev/fd/ are four symlinks labeled 0, 1, 2 and 3.  The symlinks all point to /dev/pts/0.  Of course, I have no floppy drive installed so I'm really uncertain about this.

Another shot in the gloom: in the options, try user instead of users.    See man mount for the difference.

Does the option order in fstab make a difference?  I don't think it does.  But try putting the order as:

noauto,user,sync,nosuid,nodev

i do have an fd0.  the floppy drive WILL mount if i get rid of it from fstab and if i mount it as root.  i did originally try doing "user" instead of "users" but that makes no difference.  btw, "users" is better because it allows everyone access.  for "user", i believe it restricts everyone who isn't in the same group but i might be wrong about that.  perhaps i could add both?

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

Okay, remove it from fstab; mount it as root; and post the output of mount

Please.

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Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

after doing what you asked, here are the results:

proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=10240k,nr_inodes=256704,mode=755)
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda2 on /home type ext4 (rw,commit=0)
/dev/fd0 on /mnt/floppy type vfat (rw)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

I am puzzled as to why it does not mount as a fstab entry.  I'm working on that....

For now, try mounting the floppy using:
sudo mount -o umask=0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
and then see if the file system can be read (or written) by a regular user at /mnt/floppy.

If not, I'd be interested in what ls -l /mnt

Note: The umask option tells fat/vfat file systems which privileges to deny to owner/group/other

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

schmidtbag

Member

From: NH, USA

Registered: 2011-02-08

Posts: 337

Re: Floppy drive mounting *SOLVED*

I am puzzled as to why it does not mount as a fstab entry.  I'm working on that....

For now, try mounting the floppy using:
sudo mount -o umask=0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
and then see if the file system can be read (or written) by a regular user at /mnt/floppy.

If not, I'd be interested in what ls -l /mnt

Note: The umask option tells fat/vfat file systems which privileges to deny to owner/group/other

interesting... that does work.  i am able to read and write files as a normal user.