mounting floppy problems

[Markoman01027]

hey all,

running slackware 10(forgot what kernel, but default kernel was loaded) ..I am at the prompt now, I log in as root, and type in mount /mnt/floppy and the floppy drive is mounted. I log out of root, go into my regular name, and startx and go into KDE.

I try to save a document and it gives me an error message saying something like "Trying to access A: the drive is busy. please wait and try again" or something similiar to that..but the drive does not appear to be doing anything.

So I log out of my name, go back to root, type in umount /mnt/floppy and the floopy drive is unmounted.

I log out of root, go into my normal name, startx, try to save something to the floppy drive and it works just fine. so this only appears to be a problem when I try to mount the floppy drive.

I have tried going into KDE as root, and the samething happens.

PS- What is the command to mount a cd-rom drive so I can play my audio files?

Any advice? This laptop is a compaq armada E500(p3 600mhz, 192mb of sdram, not sure about anything else)

TIA

[MichaelS]

Althought it doesn't change the technical aspect of the problem, could you please elaborate on what Window Manager you were using and what application you were using?

Thanks,

Michael

[LocoCoyote]

Why are you manually mounting the floppy and why as root? Is this a slackware thing?
KDE can automate this process for you.
The mount command works the same for all drives. mount dev location.

have a good day

[Markoman01027]

Sounds like the floppy drive is automaticly mounted when I am in KDE, but as soon as I manually mount it in the console, it screws up when I try to write to the disk.
AFAIK, I can only mount drives as root unless I specify for another user.


Thank you for the reply Lococoyote

Mike- I haven't been on the laptop for a few days so I will tell you the program name next time I am on it. Most likely tomorrow.

[mikeL]

Have you tried changing your /etc/fstab file, possibly your drive can be mounted only by it's owner (which may be root) and not user.

[Markoman01027]

MikeL: I have not yet tried changing the /etc/fstab file because I do not know how to properly change it.

I mount the floppy drive when I am root. I switch out of root and log into my other name. Then I go into KDE, try to save a document and thats when it happens.

As soon as I log into root again, and unmount it, go back to KDE with regular user name, and it works fine.

[MichaelS]

Originally Posted by Markoman01027 MikeL: I have not yet tried changing the /etc/fstab file because I do not know how to properly change it.

open your /etc/fstab with your favourite editor and look for a line similar to:

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

and change it to read:

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

The important option to change is the 'owner' to 'user'. Typically root owns the floppy device, so that's why you can't mount it as non-root.

Regards,

Michael

[kilgoretrout]

Markoman, there's nothing wrong; that's exactly the way it's suppose to work. When you mount the the floppy as root, root owns the device till root unmounts the device. Slack has no automounters for removable media. You should always unmount the device before removing the media otherwise, as far as linux is concerned, the device is still busy.
Re audio cds - they are not mounted in linux assuming your talking about cd audio, i.e. like a commercial music cd. Just put the cd in the drive and open a cd audio player; KsCD is the one usually used if your running kde. You should be able to play the cd from there.
Re mounting a data cd - just open a console and run:

$ mount /mnt/cdrom

Assuming /mnt /cdrom is the mount point for your drive. That will be listed in fstab. You can then access the data on the cd by going to the mount point in konqueror. When your done, close konqueror and unmount the device in a console. Note, you have to close konqueror before unmounting or you will get a device busy error message as konqueror is still accessing the drive till it's closed. Also, you will not be able to eject the cd till you unmount it.
If you want to simplify this whole process, you can make mounting icons on your desktop so you don't have to open a console to mount and unmount your drives. Post back if your interested and I'll tell you how.

[Markoman01027]

Thank you for the reply.

The problem is. When I mount as root, and try to save to the floppy, it says the drive is busy. Once I unmount it, I can save to the floppy with either root or my other user name.

I changed the fstab file, and mounted the floppy with my other user name, and it says the samething until I unmount it. Sounds like it works fine when I dont mount it at all.

[kilgoretrout]

To see what process is accessing the drive run:

# fuser -vm /mnt/floppy

that might give some clue as to what's causing the problem.