From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jan 29 00:44:28 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A36FD16A4CF for ; Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:44:28 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ns1.tiadon.com (SMTP.tiadon.com [69.27.132.161]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52AE543D45 for ; Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:44:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from [69.27.131.0] ([69.27.131.0]) by ns1.tiadon.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211); Fri, 28 Jan 2005 18:44:28 -0600 Message-ID: <41FADC68.7040809@daleco.biz> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 18:44:24 -0600 From: Kevin Kinsey User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041210 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: crzdgns1@starpower.net References: <8e97bec7.c591c815.81b3300@ms07.mrf.mail.rcn.net> In-Reply-To: <8e97bec7.c591c815.81b3300@ms07.mrf.mail.rcn.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 29 Jan 2005 00:44:28.0947 (UTC) FILETIME=[B0847E30:01C5059B] cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where can I find more information X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:44:28 -0000 crzdgns1@starpower.net wrote: >Hello, > >My name is Mark. I recently banished windows and >windows-based programs from my (ancient) computer because it >is too slow to handle windows XP and all of the attendant >programs required to keep it virus and ad-free. I have >installed FreeBSD-5.3-RELEASE on my computer (Intel Pentium >II Celeron, 330 MHz, ~500 Mb Ram, Western Digital Hard Disk >(40 Gb, Master), Western Digital Hard Disk (6 Gb, Slave), >floppy disk (1.44 Mb), IOMega ZIP-Drive (100Mb, IDE), Hitachi >CD/DVD-ROM, Memorex CD-RW, Diamond Multimedia Viper v550 >video card, and a few other ancient goodies). I am having >great difficulty mounting and unmounting floppies, zips, and >CDs from my system. I have done my best to follow the >recommendations in The Handbook, The FreeBSD FAQ, and the >documentation that came bundled with FreeBSD-5.3-RELEASE, all >to no avail. I have also searched the archives that I could >find using the queries "mount" and "unmount", but didn't find >anything that seemed to fit. I have no trouble mounting and >unmounting CDs if I use the device manager in KDE, but have >had no luck trying to do the same from the command line. Can >someone out there recommend additional, better, or >easier-to-understand sources of information for someone who >is essentially a complete beginner in UNIX and FreeBSD? >Alternatively, if I were to post a technical question to a >mailing list, which mailing list would be appropriate? > > Hi, Mark! Welcome to FreeBSD! If you wish to post a technical question to a mailing list, the most appropriate one is quesions@freebsd.org. I'll show you something I use(d) for floppies: #alias | grep a: a: sudo mount_msdosfs /dev/fd0 /floppy && cd /floppy && ls -l A couple of assumptions: *I* have sudo installed (/usr/ports/security/sudo) and have a directory under / called floppy (which I think everyone has by default?) Anyway, typing "a:" into my shell mounts the floppy, moves me to that directory and lists everything on it in long form ... kinda cool. You've gotten the correct answer already ... according to the handbook (www.freebsd.org/handbook) you do need to set a sysctl value and chown the mount point. What you see above was my solution before I read that page ;-) It does kind of show you how "there are many ways to skin a cat" ... which is a nice thing about UNIXes in general ... the philosophy is "tools, not policy". Kevin Kinsey