mounting a zip disk as knoppix user

**cascadefx** · 02-14-2003, 11:14 PM

I have tried getting a zip disk mounted as the knoppix user all day and get all kinds of errors.

I thought that this series of instructions would work:

sudo mkdir /mnt/zip
sudo mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip

It did, sort of. I can access the zip disk (formatted as FAT) as the root user but not as the knoppix user. Again... I CAN see it as root. I CAN'T see it as knoppix. This makes it hard for the problem below.

What gives?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am working up instructions and a training class for non-linux/unix techs to use knoppix for file system recovery and general support friendliness.

I use knoppix to grab windows network drivers from websites all the time. If the system has a FAT or FAT32 filesystem, I have no problems, I can just download the files, reboot and I have them in windows. NTFS makes it harder. For now, I stuff them (using samba) on a network shared folder. I would like to just be able to download them to a mounted zip disk as the knoppix user.

Therein is my problem.

I need to get over this hurdle before i can continue.

Thanks in advance.

**aay** · 02-15-2003, 05:09 AM

If you can see your files as root but not as a normal user, you likely have a problem with permisions. If you want to make all the files on the disc readable, writeable, and executable by users other than root than try this (as root).

chmod -R 777 /mnt/zip

You should be able to access your files then.

**Dave_Bechtel** · 02-16-2003, 04:16 AM

--Also create/change the /etc/fstab entry for the zip drive:

/dev/sda4 /mnt/zippy auto defaults,noauto,noatime,users,rw 0 0

--Then you can umount the drive as root, and try ' mount /mnt/zippy ' as knoppix user.

Originally Posted by aay

If you can see your files as root but not as a normal user, you likely have a problem with permisions. If you want to make all the files on the disc readable, writeable, and executable by users other than root than try this (as root).

chmod -R 777 /mnt/zip

You should be able to access your files then.

**cascadefx** · 02-20-2003, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by Dave_Bechtel

--Also create/change the /etc/fstab entry for the zip drive:

/dev/sda4 /mnt/zippy auto defaults,noauto,noatime,users,rw 0 0

--Then you can umount the drive as root, and try ' mount /mnt/zippy ' as knoppix user.

There has got to be an easier way. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to have them edit a variety of files before they could have access to something so common as a zip drive.

Is there any chance that Klaus (or some other developer) would add in zip drive support to the fstab that is created on startup? It happens with floppies and cd-roms right now. Floppy support is being dropped by a lot of hardware manufacturers in the near near future (not going to argue whether this is good or bad) in favor of zips and other large capacity removable storage. It seems like a no brainer to make this less of a headache to use.

If anyone else has a good tip on getting this to work easily, I am all ears.

thanks

**hmeskine** · 03-01-2003, 07:11 AM

When you boot, make sure you have the disk in the drive. The problem is not with drive detection, it is with partition detection: the standard way that windoze zip disks are formated is such that the zip drive device is usually /dev/sda4. If the a disk is in the drive, the auto-detect program just takes the correct partition, and assigns it to /mnt/sda, creating a correct /etc/fstab at bootime.
'

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**cascadefx** · 03-02-2003, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by hmeskine

When you boot, make sure you have the disk in the drive. The problem is not with drive detection, it is with partition detection: the standard way that windoze zip disks are formated is such that the zip drive device is usually /dev/sda4. If the a disk is in the drive, the auto-detect program just takes the correct partition, and assigns it to /mnt/sda, creating a correct /etc/fstab at bootime.
'

'

Thanks. I'll try that.

Still. You don't have to do it with Floppies... why ZIPs?

**RockMumbles** · 03-02-2003, 04:38 PM

Do you have an internal zip? An internal zip without a disk is like a hard drive without a platter assembly, when you start up knoppix it is trying to figure out how to use the IDE device it sees and searches for media and/or partitions. External zips are dealt with differently they require the loading of a module for support, they must be assumed to be removable media (like floppies and cd-roms), so the kernel can deal with the drive without a media present.

Also running knoppix on most systems with an empty IDE zip is no problem, on a couple of machines knoppix sat there for a long time trying to figure out what was up with the errors from the zip drive not having a media present to the point that on one machine I un-plugged the zip drive to run knoppix.

HTH

rock