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.