Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Mon, 17 May 2004 Lamotkin AT softhome.net wrote:

> 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org writes:
>
> > Lamotkin AT softhome.net wrote:
> >>
> >> It's all to gain access to my Fujitsu M25-MCC3064AP
> >> MO drive (640 Mb, IDE).
> >
> > Is it not possible to mount that drive in the usual way?
>
> Till now I thought the usual way to mount an IDE device
> (a [M]agneto-[O]ptical drive in my case, not an HDD)
> is to edit '/etc/mtab' first (adding '/dev/hdd /MO msdos rw 0 0'),
> create that '/MO', then run 'mount /dev/hdd'.
> Is it right?

I think you could say there are 2 basic ways to mount a drive: I'll call
one of them "manual" and the other "automatic."  What you're describing is
the automatic method.  When one mounts drives this way, they edit a file
on the system (usually /etc/fstab) that tells the system to mount the
drive at a certain place every time the computer boots.  For someone
experienced in Linux, editing /etc/fstab in order to get the machine to
mount a drive in a certain place at each boot without doing some initial
testing is possible.  For those newer to Linux, however, it's probably
wise to test mounting the drive with the manual method first - to make
sure you've got all the info right about the drive and that it actually
mounts with that info.  I think maybe Steven is talking about the manual
method when he speaks of the "usual way."  The manual method is performed
as follows (as based on info you've given here): mount /dev/hdd /MO .
This presumes you've created the mount point /MO in advance.  I know
nothing about the sort of drive you're talking about, so I can't say if
/dev/hdd is right.  In the case of hard drives, and entry like hdd would
have to be followed by a number, since you're mounting a partition, and
partitions are numbered on hard drives under Linux.  The first primary
partition on the master drive of the primary IDE channel is hda1, for
example.  The place to double-check whether you've got the right info for
the drive is by looking at dmesg output, as Steven suggested, and see what
it shows about the drive in question.  So, the place to start might be to
try mounting your drive manually and see what the system tells you.  If it
doesn't work for some reason, then look at dmesg output and see if its
information about the drive agrees with what you've used in trying to
mount it.  From that point maybe further help could be offered onlist.

James