[gentoo-user] floppy flops: mtools vs file managers

[gentoo-user] floppy flops: mtools vs file managers

[Philip Webb]

Ordinarily, I use Mtools to manage diskettes (floppies):
it's very fast & efficient to copy & delete files from the CLI.

I've long had Krusader installed & have recently tested Thunar & Dolphin
& find that while they claim to handle diskettes, it's not reliable:
sometimes they do copy or delete files successfully;
sometimes they say they have, but nothing happens in the drive;
sometimes they say they can't access the drive at all.
I've added a line to  /etc/fstab :
  '/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user 0 0'
& I've changed the permissions on  /mnt/floppy  to '777'.
Yes, I do have HAL installed & it does start at boot time.

I'm using KDE 3.5.6 with Kernel 2.6.20 & everything else works well.
Xfce 4.4 , incl Thunar, is installed in  /usr/local ,
using the official Xfce installer (I tested Thunar with KDE & Xfce).

Have other people had such problems -- have they even tried -- ,
does anyone have useful comments, suggestions or explanations ?

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,  Philip Webb : purslow@chass.utoronto.ca
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|  Centre for Urban & Community Studies
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'  University of Toronto
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Re: [gentoo-user] floppy flops: mtools vs file managers

[David W Noon]

In message <88R9a-3YR-1@gated-at.bofh.it>, Philip Webb wrote:

> Ordinarily, I use Mtools to manage diskettes (floppies):
> it's very fast & efficient to copy & delete files from the CLI.

I presume you use only FAT12 formatted floppies (i.e. no ext2), as that is
the only format mtools supports (last I looked).

> I've long had Krusader installed & have recently tested Thunar & Dolphin
> & find that while they claim to handle diskettes, it's not reliable:
> sometimes they do copy or delete files successfully;
> sometimes they say they have, but nothing happens in the drive;
> sometimes they say they can't access the drive at all.
> I've added a line to  /etc/fstab :
>   '/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user 0 0'

Why use vfat for the filesystem? I would have thought msdos would make more
sense if all your floppies are FAT12. However, I use auto for the
filesystem (but noauto in the options) as I also use ext2 floppies.

-- 
Regards

Dave  [RLU#314465]
======================================================
dwnoon@ntlworld.com (David W Noon)
======================================================


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Re: [gentoo-user] floppy flops: mtools vs file managers

[Mick]

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On Wednesday 11 April 2007 20:56, Philip Webb wrote:
> Ordinarily, I use Mtools to manage diskettes (floppies):
> it's very fast & efficient to copy & delete files from the CLI.
>
> I've long had Krusader installed & have recently tested Thunar & Dolphin
> & find that while they claim to handle diskettes, it's not reliable:
> sometimes they do copy or delete files successfully;
> sometimes they say they have, but nothing happens in the drive;
> sometimes they say they can't access the drive at all.
> I've added a line to  /etc/fstab :
>   '/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user 0 0'

This won't work well with dbus and hald running at default runlevel.  To 
automount a device like /dev/fd0 you will need to take it out of fstab and 
leave the job to dbus & hald.  If you want to mount it manually from the CLI 
use pmount/pumount instead of mount.  Alternatively, if you want a totally 
manual approach forget hald and make an entry in fstab as above; vfat is best 
for writing long filenames, auto will also work as suggested.

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] floppy flops: mtools vs file managers

[Walter Dnes]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 05:52:57PM -0400, Philip Webb wrote

> Thunar mounts, writes & deletes ok, but there's a  35 sec  delay
> before the drive reacts & to update the file list you have to
> 'unmount' the device, then reopen it;

  That's called "caching".  It does wonders for system responsiveness,
but sucks at fast updates to files.  If you're willing to wait while the
system writes to the floppy, try...

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy msdos noauto,user,sync 0 0

...in /etc/fstab.  I don't know if the "sync" options works with MSDOS
filesys, but it's worth a try.  Another option is the "sync" command, as
in /bin/sync.  However, it's a bit heavy-handed because it syncs all
mounted partitions.  It may be more convenient than unmount+mount.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
Q. Mr. Ghandi, what do you think of Microsoft security?
A. I think it would be a good idea.
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Re: [gentoo-user] floppy flops: mtools vs file managers

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:11:32 -0400, Walter Dnes wrote:

> /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy msdos noauto,user,sync 0 0
> 
> ...in /etc/fstab.  I don't know if the "sync" options works with MSDOS
> filesys, but it's worth a try.

It does, it's useful for killing flash memory devices :( It will be very
slow though, because Linux now updates the FAT table after each block
write, which is how it managed to start wearing out flash memory.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Windows Error #02: Multitasking attempted. System confused.

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