Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 19:30:39 -0700 From: "Michael P. Sale" <mike@merchantsnet.com> To: "Sue Blake" <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: mounting floppy file systems Message-ID: <01bd61cd$2751bca0$3206bccc@708644668>
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Yikes, What a mess! -----Original Message----- From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Michael P. Sale <mike@merchantsnet.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Date: Monday, April 06, 1998 6:38 PM Subject: Re: mounting floppy file systems >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. Mmmmm. OK, then how does one get it to work? Fess up the info. > >> 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 :-) True. > > >> 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? Not sure what you're lookin for here. When what does not work? If you are talking about file system incompatibility, win95 would declare a freebsd formatted disk unformatted. Funny though. When I would mount a dos disk with only mount /dev/fd0, freebsd would mount, write and read the disk. Win95 would read the disk as formatted, but would not see any files on it...... > >> >> 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" True. That was the intended use from the beginning. I was trying to get my ppp.conf file over from the freebsd box to win95 so I could post it in questions. :-) I did not however understand that I would need to treat the disk differently until a lot of searching and reading later. > >> 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! :-) Error reads as follows: mount: /A: No such file or directory > >> 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. Why not? <clueless look> > >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. See above comment on how I mounted the dos a third way (didn't work correctly)......Either way, I tried several different mount (no mtools) tactics with the /A and none worked. The only thing that ever worked was going to the /mnt at the end vs the /A. As for mtools. Not sure if I really see an advantage to mtools or not. The only thing I read that made an impression (granted it was a quick read) was the possible problem with carriage returns getting funked up during copies. Isn't there a unix utility that will fix that too though? > >> 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 :-) Yikes!! I expect better than that!! :-} >See if you read the book the same way as I do now, or not. > Yes and no. I think I understand where you are going with this. I have not read enough of the book to really agree or disagree. I do think that having a chapter with "floppy disks" in the title should either fully explain how to mount the darn things or point the newbie user someplace that can. I don't think that the pages in that chapter do it. Again, I have not read the whole book ( I think my poor little melon would explode), much less ever tried to write one, but I do think that the chapter makes a few assumptions that newbies could choke on. Greg does a great job of dropping hints and pointing readers to other places for information, I just think it may be an option here too. As a side note, I also understand that you can't have pointers to everything all over the place. That's why I posted it here, to see whether I was nuts or not and to see if other newbies had the same problems I did. >-- > >Regards, > -*Sue*- > >find / -name "*.conf" |more > > I think my brain is going to explode, Mike ---------------------------------------------- Michael P. Sale MerchantsNet.Com mike@merchantsnet.com www.merchantsnet.com ---------------------------------------------- "Humility has no equal in the battle for knowledge" -- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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