# mount floppy

## d3c3it

hi

ive got just recently installed gentoo and lastnite finished installing X but ive still got my custom XF86config file from my old *redhat* install *i had it setup to work with both my touchpad and usb mouse on my laptop* now the XF file is on my windows machine and my only way to get it to my laptop is thou floppy but i cant mount it

my fstab looks like this

/dev/hda2                  /boot             ext2         noauto,noatime 1 1

/dev/hda4                  /                   ext3         notime              0 0

/dev/hda3                  none             swap        sw                    0 0

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0  /mnt/cdrom    iso9660    noauto,ro          0 0

/dev/fd0                    /mnt/floppy     ext2        noauto,ro          0 0

proc                         /proc               proc        defaults

now the floppy is fat so i emerged dosfstools.

now i dont know if thats setup right but

mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy just wont work at all

iam very new to gentoo

i also read from searching the forum about loading the floppy module but that hasnt turned up anything either

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## bsolar

I suggest you to specify 'auto' as the fs for removable storage.

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,ro 0 0

If you try to mount it there are error messages?

btw. make sure that in your kernel configuration the support for your fs (in your case fat) is enabled.

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## d3c3it

right when i mount my gentoo boot disk i do

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

and it mounted fine

i try the same for my fat floppy and i get

"mount: you must specify the filesystem type"

i try mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

"mount: fs type vfat not supported by kernel"

so recompile to get that?

thanks for your help:)

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## bsolar

 *d3c3it wrote:*   

> right when i mount my gentoo boot disk i do
> 
> mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
> 
> and it mounted fine
> ...

 

You can compile them as modules since you don't need them at boot.

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## d3c3it

i did a recompile and included them and it did the trick thanks

sorry to ask but how to you compile invidual(sp) modules and load them

im practically a complete newbie *i can install and uninstall software thats about it and setup a linux system, to an extent:)*

thanks again

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## bsolar

 *d3c3it wrote:*   

> i did a recompile and included them and it did the trick thanks
> 
> sorry to ask but how to you compile invidual(sp) modules and load them
> 
> im practically a complete newbie *i can install and uninstall software thats about it and setup a linux system, to an extent:)*
> ...

 

Some kernel options can be built also as modules pressing m instead of y. Reading the help you can see the module name and use it to load the module itself. I.e. lsmod shows the loaded modules. rmmod [module] unloads a loaded module. modprobe [module] loads the module.

But in your case the system should understand that it needs the module to mount vfat and should load it automatically when needed.

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## ronmon

There might be an easier way, but when I want to add modules, here's the way I do it:

'cd' into /usr/src/linux, 'make menuconfig' (or xconfig or config) and add the modules that I need. Then do 'make dep && make modules'.

If you haven't added any non-standard modules that you don't want to overwrite, you can do 'make modules_install' and 'depmod -a'. Watch for any errors.

If you have modules you want to protect, you can manually copy the new ones from the kernel source directory into /lib/modules/[version]/kernel, maintaining the same directory structure. In this case, it would be [version]/kernel/fs/ containing  fat, msdos and vfat directories with fat.o, msdos.o and vfat.o living in them. Then run depmod -a. They will auto-load when you mount something that needs them.

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## d3c3it

 *bsolar wrote:*   

>  *d3c3it wrote:*   right when i mount my gentoo boot disk i do
> 
> mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
> 
> and it mounted fine
> ...

 

Hey

i just wanted to ask you something, for some reason i cant write to my floppy as either root or user account says its "read-only" and its not because ive copied files to it in windows, any idea on how to make it write able? would making the /mnt/floppy folder chmod 777 change it?

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## Cappy

Make sure you DON'T specify "ro" in fstab....it designates it as read only. Should be:

/dev/fd0    /mnt/floppy   auto    noauto     0 0

That will make it writeable.

Cap   :Laughing: 

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## d3c3it

 *Cappy wrote:*   

> Make sure you DON'T specify "ro" in fstab....it designates it as read only. Should be:
> 
> /dev/fd0    /mnt/floppy   auto    noauto     0 0
> 
> That will make it writeable.
> ...

 

Thanks that did the trick, cant believe i didnt think of that:)

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## Cappy

Any time   :Very Happy: 

Sometimes the obvious escapes even the best of us   :Wink: 

Cap   :Cool: 

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## bleakcabal

My floppy also doesn't work and searching the forums brought me here.

I have copied 

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0 

in my rc.conf

But I get this error message when I try to mount :

mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device

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## easykill

 *bleakcabal wrote:*   

> My floppy also doesn't work and searching the forums brought me here.
> 
> I have copied 
> 
> /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0 
> ...

 

For starters, that line would go in your /etc/fstab, not /etc/rc.conf

then, to mount it, simply type

root@whateveryourhostis# mount /mnt/floppy

I think you can change the noauto in that line to noauto,user and then you don't need to be root to mount it.  maybe you don't anyways.  i haven't used a floppy drive in several years...

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## d3c3it

 *bleakcabal wrote:*   

> My floppy also doesn't work and searching the forums brought me here.
> 
> I have copied 
> 
> /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0 
> ...

 

mine in fstab is

```
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto, users 0 0
```

users can then mount:)

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## bleakcabal

Sorry my mistake it was in the fstab in the first place, I wrote this email in school and the files got mixed up in my head.

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## Delirium

I have recently installed gentoo using the 1.4rc4 live basic cd from stage1. All has gone smoothly and I now have a base system that I can boot into and continue to build.

Before I do this I would like to make sure that all of my drives are working. I have a CDRW rive and DVD drive that I have configured to work after a little bit of trouble but my floppy drive is still coming up with the error:

/dev/fd0 is not a valid block device

I have checked through many posts in the forums and have come to nought but easy fixes that do nothing for my situation. My /etc/fstab looks as such:

/dev/hda5                  /boot              reiserfs   noauto,noatime,notail 1 1

/dev/hda6                  /                    reiserfs   noauto 0 0

/dev/hdd1                  /mnt/windows ntfs         noatime,ro 0 0

/dev/swap                  none              swap       sw 0 0

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0   /mnt/dvd        iso9660   noauto,ro 0 0

/dev/sr0                     /mnt/cdrw      iso9660   noauto,ro 0 0

/dev/fd0                     /mnt/floppy    auto        noauto,users,rw 0 0

I have tried many combinations in the fstab and none of these variations have fixed my problem.

It works in Windows XP and I have a gentoo boot floppy in the drive. In the /dev directory there is:

lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 8 Jun 19 2003 /dev/fd0 -> floppy/0

My question is that if this file is broken or was not installed properly how do I get another copy of the /dev/fd0 file or /dev/floppy/0 to use instead?

 :Crying or Very sad: 

I will continue with the install as I don't use a floppy disc much but it would be helpful for IT assignments to be able to use it to put small assignment files on.

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## d3c3it

 *Delirium wrote:*   

> I have recently installed gentoo using the 1.4rc4 live basic cd from stage1. All has gone smoothly and I now have a base system that I can boot into and continue to build.
> 
> Before I do this I would like to make sure that all of my drives are working. I have a CDRW rive and DVD drive that I have configured to work after a little bit of trouble but my floppy drive is still coming up with the error:
> 
> /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device
> ...

 

everything looks ok, all i can think of is my line in fstab for the floppy now looks like the following *ive reinstalled since i posted this*

```
/dev/fd0   /mnt/floppy   auto   noauto,users 0 0
```

i noticed you had rw on it, ive never had that, i take it it means read/write, but iuve got my setup as the following and never a problem with it

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## Delirium

After a week of ignoring the problem I decided to give it one more go and went for a search on the net with the output from the dmesg (or whatever it is). I found several posts of similar problems and the magority of them were for systems with an Asus P4TE motherboard, the same as mine. It appears that it is a hardware incompatibility with the present kernel or Grub or something. I will just have to wait for some new software untill my problem is fixed. Untill then I guess I can make do with K3b and a few CDrw's.

 :Rolling Eyes: 

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## Squinky86

Ya, I have the ASUS P4T-E mobo, too.  Sorry I didn't see this thread sooner, but the fix is simple:

compile the floppy support as a module, then make sure you have "floppy" in your modules.autoload.

Voila!  It works great!

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## Michal

I have recently installed gentoo on my laptop and the cdrom and floppy are removable drives.  But whenever I try to mount my cdrom it gives me the following error:

```
mount: can't find cdrom in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
```

My fstab file looks this:

```
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0      /mnt/cdrom    auto    noauto,ro,users   0  0

/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy   auto    noauto,users      0  0
```

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?  I have never tried using my floppy so I'm not sure if that will mount.

Thanks

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