Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 11:38:17 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: "Michael P. Sale" <mike@merchantsnet.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: mounting floppy file systems Message-ID: <19980407113817.27869@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <01bd61c3$0ae8fc40$3206bccc@708644668>; from Michael P. Sale on Mon, Apr 06, 1998 at 06:18:16PM -0700 References: <01bd61c3$0ae8fc40$3206bccc@708644668>
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On Mon, Apr 06, 1998 at 06:18:16PM -0700, Michael P. Sale wrote:
> While
> >> trying to mount my floppy (following instructions on "the complete
> freebsd"
> >> pg 211) I ran into all sorts of fun with that darn /A. After buying a
> >> little sense, I did some searching and came up with the /mnt instead.
> Works
> >> just fine now, though I'm still searching for how to get the /A set up as
> >> well..
> >
> >We're not getting the full picture yet. Is it a DOS formatted floppy? Have
> >you told /etc/fstab to expect one of those when mounting /A or not? Does the
> >/A directory exist? Exactly what command are you using to mount the floppy?
> /A does not show up in /etc/fstab. I suspected that I needed it in there,
Not necessarily.
> but thought that was a question more for RTFM or the questions list. (I'm
> still not sure how to do it) It has however been noted by myself that
> questions had best be reserved for the questions list. :-]
That's right, but in this case we're trying to help you work out what that
question will be :-)
> If I format the floppy with freebsd I use the mount /dev/fd0 /mnt command.
>
> With a win95/DOS disk I use the mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt command.
>
> Both seem to work just fine, though I went searching through the archives to
> find the mount -t msdos command. Up until then, I had a heck of a time
> figuring out how to get the file systems working right.
So what happens, what does it say, when it doesn't work?
> >> Was I jettin along too fast at the beginning of the book, possibly
> missing
> >> the part that told me why /A should work later? Is this worth asking to
> get
> >> put in as Errata later? I kinda figured that it must be somewhere else
> in
> >> the book, or else it would have made it into the first errata.
> >
> >You shouldn't still be using the first errata. Check inside the first page
> >and pick up the current one. Additions are always well received.
> >
> The point I now realize I am trying to make is "how intuitive is it for the
> newbie user to figure the /A out before he/she gets to that page?" If I'm
> just a goof (possible) and it is fairly simple and I missed it earlier in
> the docs, then it can be forgotten about.
Now that I take a quick look at the book, it seems to be saying "this is a
lead-in _example_ of how you would do it with a ufs floppy, but of course
you'll be using FAT floppies as described over the page, for reasons given
over the page"
> If getting to the /A requires new questions and searching upon getting to
> page 211 (I went there pretty quickly because it was the "floppy disks"
> chapter), then I think it would be nice to have a little blurb that says
> "hey you goof, if you are getting xxxx error when trying to mount the
Yeah? Well what is your xxxx error? No secrets now! :-)
> floppy, please try mount /dev/fd0 /mnt and reference page xx for details on
> how to get /A set up correctly in your /etc/fstab file".
I very much doubt that that is what you would want to do.
Generally DOS formatted floppies are used (read on to see why), and there's
two ways I know of to access them. Either they can be mounted (with a
command that says they're DOS or with an fstab entry), or you can skip all
that baloney and use the easier mtools (described later in the chapter)
which are intuitive, magic, and don't require mounting to happen.
> This was why I thought it may be a decent "newbies" topic. I doubt too many
> Unix guru's have too much trouble mounting floppies or figuring out how to
> modify the /etc/fstab file.
Well the best you can expect here is to share someone else's misinformation
until it's together enough to make an answerable question. Sometimes during
that process the problem goes away. On the other hand, that too can be a
newbies illusion :-)
See if you read the book the same way as I do now, or not.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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