Accessing Removable Media

Making a Linux Filesystem on a Floppy

1. Use fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
2. To make a filesystem on the disk type "mkfs –t filesystem –c /dev/fd0H1440" where filesystem is the type of filesystem, usually ext2 (linux native).
3. Mount the filesystem "mount –t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

Mounting floppy and CD-ROM drives

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy	To mount a floppy
umount /dev/fd0	To unmount a floppy
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom	To mount a cdrom or
mount -t iso9660 -r /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom	Another way to mount a CD-ROM with type specified or mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

Note the CDROM may be on the secondary controller as a master (/dev/hdc) or slave (/dev/hdd). In fact, your /dev/cdrom is probably actually a softlink to one of these two devices, if you have an IDE interface. If you use SCSI, you will probably use something like /dev/sda1 or 2, etc.

Mounting a parallel port zip drive:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /mnt/zipdrive

Note: in all these examples, the mount points must exist, be empty, and not already have a device mounted on them. Also you must unmount the device before removing it.

Setting up Removable and External Filesystems to Automatically mount when used

1. The program "autofs" must be setup to run as a daemon upon system startup. To do this with Redhat Linux, use the program "linuxconf" and select "Control", "Control panel", "Control Service activity". Activate "autofs" using the menu selections.
2. Edit the file "/etc/auto.master" to the following:

3.   /mnt     /etc/auto.misc   --timeout 20

The above example sets the program to unmount the device after 20 seconds.

4. Edit the file "/etc/auto.misc" adding lines like:

5. cd -fstype=iso9660,ro     :/dev/cdrom

6.  fl -fstype=auto           :/dev/fd0

This will cause the cd-rom to be mounted when you access the directory "/mnt/cd" and the floppy to be mounted when you access "/mnt/fl". The directories "/mnt/cd" and "mnt/fl" must not exist in order for this to work.

To use automount, put a cd in the CD-ROM drive and type "ls /mnt/cd" or "cd /mnt/cd".