fdmount

fdmount(1)                  General Commands Manual                 fdmount(1)

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 represen-
       tation  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 ad-
       vise you to use the original texinfo doc.

       *      To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the  fol-
              lowing 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-de-
       tected track layout.

       Currently, fdmount supports the filesystems minix, ext, ext2, xia,  and
       msdos, and includes special support for disks formatted by the 2M util-
       ity 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  speci-
       fied, `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 exam-
       ple)  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. Mes-
              sages 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  avail-
              able  for DOS and Ext2 disks. The following DOS options are sup-
              ported: check, conv, dotsOK, debug, fat, quiet, blocksize.   The
              following Ext2 options are supported: check, errors, grpid, bsd-
              groups, 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, oth-
              erwise 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 un-
       changed. 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 no-
              suid 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 or-
       der 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 or-
              der to reset the disk change signal. It is strongly  recommended
              not  to  use daemon mode with these drives.  See section floppy-
              control, 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 unsup-
              ported 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 ker-
              nel.

       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.  Other-
              wise, check permissions.

       Can't access mountpoint
              Most probably, the default or specified mount point does not ex-
              ist.  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 di-
              rectory.

       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.

See Also
       Fdutils' texinfo doc

fdutils-5.5                         03Mar05                         fdmount(1)