Ubuntu Manpage: fdmount - Floppy disk mount utility

Name

       fdmount - Floppy disk mount utility

Note

       This  manpage  has  been  automatically  generated  from  fdutils's texinfo documentation.  However, this
       process is only approximative, and some items, such as cross-references, footnotes and indices  are  lost
       in  this  translation  process.   Indeed,  these  items have no appropriate representation in the manpage
       format.  Moreover, only the items specific  to  each  command  have  been  translated,  and  the  general
       information about fdutils has been dropped in the manpage version.  Thus I strongly advise you to use the
       original texinfo doc.

       *      To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:

                     ./configure; make dvi; dvips fdutils.dvi

       *      To generate a HTML copy,  run:

                     ./configure; make html

              A pre-made HTML can be found at: `http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils'

       *      To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:

                     ./configure; make info

       The  texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as HTML.  Indeed, in the info version certain examples
       are difficult to read due to the quoting conventions used in info.

Description

          fdmount [-l] [--list] [-d] [--daemon] [--detach]
          [-i interval] [--interval interval] [-o mount-options]
          [-r] [-readonly] [-s] [--sync] [--nosync] [--nodev]
          [--nosuid] [--noexec] [-f] [--force] [-h] [--help]
          [drivename] [mountpoint]

          fdumount [-f] [--force] [drivename]

          fdlist

          fdmountd [-i interval] [--interval interval] [-r]
          [-readonly] [-s] [--sync] [--nosync] [--nodev]
          [--nosuid] [--noexec] [--help] [drivename] [mountpoint]]

       The fdmount program mounts a floppy disk in the specified drive. It tries to figure out the exact  format
       and  filesystem type of the disk from data in the disk's boot sector or super block and the auto-detected
       track layout.

       Currently, fdmount supports the filesystems minix, ext,  ext2,  xia,  and  msdos,  and  includes  special
       support for disks formatted by the 2M utility for MS-DOS.

       It also checks whether the disk is write protected, in which case it is mounted read-only.

       The  symbolic  drivename  is  (currently)  one  of  `fd[0-7]',  corresponding to the special device files
       `/dev/fd[0-7]'. If drivename is not specified, `fd0' is assumed.

       The disk is mounted on the directory mountpoint, if specified, or on `/fd[0-7]'.   In  either  case,  the
       mount point must be an existing, writable directory.

       Due  to  a  bug in the floppy driver (?), the polling interval (-i flag) must be longer than the spindown
       offset. Thus you need to do (for example) floppycontrol --spindown 99 before starting fdmountd in  daemon
       mode

Options

-l --list
List all known drives with their symbolic name, type, and mount status.

-d --daemon
Run in daemon mode (see below).

--detach
Runs daemon in background, and detaches it from its tty. Messages produced after the fork are
logged to syslog.

-p file
--pidfile file

Dumps the process id of the daemon to file. This makes killing the daemon easier: kill -9 `cat
file`

-i interval
--interval interval
Set the polling interval for daemon mode. The unit for interval is 0.1 seconds, the default value
is 10 (i.e. 1 second).

-o options
--options options
Sets filesystem-specific options. So far, these are only available for DOS and Ext2 disks. The
following DOS options are supported: check, conv, dotsOK, debug, fat, quiet, blocksize. The
following Ext2 options are supported: check, errors, grpid, bsdgroups, nogrpid, sysvgroups, bsddf,
minixdf, resgid, debug, nocheck. When running as a daemon, options not applying to the disk that
is inserted (because of its filesystem type) are not passed to mount.

-r --readonly
Mount the disk read-only. This is automatically assumed if the disk is write protected.

-s --sync
Mount with the SYNC option.

--nosync
Mounts without the SYNC option, even when running as daemon.

--nodev
Mount with the NODEV option. Ignored for msdos filesystems, otherwise always set for non-root
users.

--nosuid
Mount with the NOSUID option. Ignored for msdos filesystems, otherwise always set for non-root
users.

--noexec
Mount with the NOEXEC option.

-f --force
Attempt a mount or unmount operation even `/etc/mtab' says that the drive is already mounted, or
not mounted, respectively. This option is useful if `/etc/mtab' got out of sync with the actual
state for some reason.

-h --help
Show short parameter description

Security

       When  mounting  on  the  default mount point, the mount points' owner is set to the current user, and the
       access flags according to the user's umask.  For a specified mountpoint, owner and permissions  are  left
       unchanged. Default mount points are called /fd0, /fd1, ... , /fd7.

       The  user running fdmount must have read access to the floppy device for read only mounts, and read/write
       access for read/write mounts.

       Fdmount can be run suid root, allowing users to mount floppy disks. The following restrictions are placed
       upon non-root users:

       *      If a mountpoint is specified explicitly, it must be owned by the user.

       *      A user may only unmount a disk if the mount point is owned by the user, or if it the disk has been
              mounted by the same user.

       *      Non-msdos disks are automatically mounted with the nodev and nosuid flags set.

       However, do not rely on fdmount being secure at the moment.

Daemon mode

       In daemon mode, the  specified  drive  is  periodically  checked  and  if  a  disk  is  inserted,  it  is
       automatically mounted.

       When  the disk is removed, it is automatically unmounted.  However, it is recommended to unmount the disk
       manually before removing it. In order to limit corruption, disks are mounted with the  SYNC  option  when
       running in daemon mode, unless the --nosync flag is given.

       Note that this mode has some potential drawbacks:

       *      Some  floppy  drives  have  to  move  the  drive head physically in order to reset the disk change
              signal. It is strongly recommended not  to  use  daemon  mode  with  these  drives.   See  section
              floppycontrol, for details.

       *      If  a  disk  does  not  contain a filesystem (e.g. a tar archive), the mount attempt may slow down
              initial access.

       *      As fdmount cannot identify the user trying to use the disk drive,  there  is  no  way  to  protect
              privacy. Disks are always mounted with public access permissions set.

Diagnostics

error opening device name

error reading boot/super block
fdmount failed to read the first 1K of the disk. The disk might be damaged, unformatted, or it may
have a format which is unsupported by the FDC or the Linux kernel.

unknown filesystem type
No magic number of any of the supported filesystems (see above) could be identified.

sorry, can′t figure out format (fs filesystem)
The size of the filesystem on the disk is incompatible with the track layout detected by the
kernel and an integer number of tracks. This may occur if the filesystem uses only part of the
disk, or the track layout was detected incorrectly by the kernel.

failed to mount fs> <sizeK-disk
The actual mount system call failed.

failed to unmount
The actual unmount system call failed.

cannot create lock file /etc/mtab~
If `/etc/mtab~' exists, you should probably delete it. Otherwise, check permissions.

Can′t access mountpoint
Most probably, the default or specified mount point does not exist. Use mkdir.

mountpoint is not a directory
The mountpoint is not a directory.

not owner of mountpoint
Non-root users must own the directory specified as mount point. (This does not apply for the
default mount points, /fd[0-3].)

No write permission to mountpoint
Non-root users must have write permission on the mount point directory.

Not owner of mounted directory: UID=uid
Non-root users cannot unmount if the mount point is owned (i.e. the disk was mounted) by another
user.

invalid drive name
Valid drive names are `fd0', `fd1', etc.

drive name does not exist
The drive does not exist physically, is unknown to the Linux kernel, or is an unknown type.

Drive name is mounted already
Trying to mount a drive which appears to be mounted already. Use the --force option if you think
this is wrong.

Drive name is not mounted
Trying to unmount a drive which does not appear to be mounted. Use the --force option if you
think this is wrong.

ioctl(...) failed
If this occurs with the FDGETDRVTYP or FDGETDRVSTAT, ioctl's you should probably update your Linux
kernel.

mounted fs size-disk (options)
Success message.

Bugs

       *      Fdmount should be more flexible about drive names and default mount points (currently hard coded).

       *      Probably not very secure yet (when running suid root).  Untested with ext and xia filesystems.

       *      Can't specify filesystem type and disk layout explicitly.

       *      In daemon mode, the drive light stays on all the time.

       *      Some newer filesystem types, such as vfat are not yet supported.