destroy DOS disks

[itld]

howdy,
my box has 2 partitions a 20GB linux RH 7.2 kernel 2.4.7-10 and a 40GB WinME.
The problem is when i mount a DOS floppy in linux and read from it (no writing) it becomes unreadable in WinME, in fact it cant even be reformated. WinME issues an error something like. this disk is damaged and can not be formated, replace the disk.
CD's work fine and mounting the windows partion from linux works fine.
any ideas??

M.R.

[starX]

Exactly HOW are you mounting it? Even if you are just issueing the mount command, /etc/fstab specifies exactly how to mount the floppy. I can guess, but if you post the exact command you use (if you mount -t), or the line from fstab, I can give a more exact answer.

starX
www.axisoftime.com

[Salem]

You could just move the little "write protect" tab on the disk itself.

[itld]

howdy,

this is the line from /ect/fstab that mounts the floppy.

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
i used code tags to simulate the spacing of the fstab line

i use the KDE desktop menu to mount the floppy like this
system - disk management - /mnt/floppy.

Hey salem thats a good idea i'll try that when i get done here to see if it will protect the disk.

Thanks

M.R.

[stautze]

make sure you umount before you eject the disk.

[billholm]

Yah you should try to unmount it. Linux does something to the disk's filesystem before it uses it, though I don't exactly know how. :D

I use Loop Linux (DosLinux) , but my disks become unreadable by DOS only when I write directly into the device driver instead of the mount directory. I wonder why... it should have the same effect, shouldn't it?

[stautze]

linux is famous for rendering disks unuseable if they are not unmounted properly...

[starX]

It's like I thought, you are mounting it as "auto", which makes mount try and guess the filesystem. As you've probably guessed, it's not always very good at this. Change the line so it looks like this:


/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0


That will tell mount to always mount the floppy as a fat32 filesystem, which dos *SHOULD* be able to read (converted to msdos type). If dos still can't read after you've tried this, try changing "vfat" to "msdos". Sometimes dos doesn't like doing the conversion, but I rarely have a problem with it.

I've actually seen this problem on my own system before, and "vfat" does the trick. That's what most floppies are default formatted to these days anyway, so it should work no questions asked. If you have any other filesystem disks (like ext2 or ext3) use:


mount -t *filesystem* /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy


as root, where *filesystem* is the name of the filesystem on the floppy. Then you can copy the data somewhere else, format it back in windoze, and re-use.

Hope this helps

[itld]

howdy,
hey thanks StarX, i wondered what exactly that "auto" meant. I've made the change in fstab so tomorow i will try it and see if vfat works.

just goes to show you the people on these boards realy do know stuff.

Thanks

M.R.

[stautze]

i can't see how the auto function is causing the problem you described. But if you want you could change it you do something like this:


/dev/fd0 /mnt/dos msdos rw,nosuid,dev,exec,noauto,user,async 1 0

/dev/fd0 /mnt/linux ext2 rw,suid,dev,exec,noauto,user,async 1 0


Notice that dos partitions have no SUID or SGID bits.

BTW, Did you ever try "umount" before you ejected the disk?

[itld]

howdy,
BTW, Did you ever try "umount" before you ejected the disk?

yes, the disk was still rendered unreadable.


M.R.

[starX]

stautze,

I'm not saying it does it on every system all the time, but sometimes the auto fs detect can't figure out it is looking at an msdos or vfat floppy, and decides that it is actually ext2. The result winds up being a lot like what happens when you copy from your linux part to your windows part; it can't preserve ownership, but the files look unchanged. Putting them on the floppy, windows will get a whole bunch of what it thinks is junk data, and figure that there has either been a disk error or it's the wrong fs, or something stupid like that.

Like I said, I've run into this problem on my system, as well as on a few others.

starX
www.axisoftime.com

[stautze]

>Like I said, I've run into this problem on my system, as well as on a few others.

Eperience is a valuble thing, and I don't really have alot of it when it comes to sharing files with windows and linux.

Seems to me that the "suid" option should be set to "nosuid" for all dos files systems, so there is no user or goup file permissions written to the cd? I think the default is suid...

[billholm]

Hey guys! I've reformatted my floppy into the ext2 filesystem, I copied into it the files needed to boot Linux, but it wont boot linux when I restart my pc with floppy boot as first priority: it just reads the disk, but bypasses it and proceed to booting my windows hd. How come?

[itld]

howdy,

Bill Gates owns your box, he can't even believe you are trying to boot into an open source OS.



actually i've never booted Linux from a floppy :o

M.R.

[billholm]

Hehe! I'm trying to get my way around Bill Gates' box. :D Anyway, you mean to say you didn't buy your box from Gates?

[itld]

howdy,
call me a rebel...
my box is not an Intel machine. i have an AMD Athlon
my primary OS is not M$. i use RH 7.2 kernel 2.4.7-10
my browser is not IE. i surf using Mozilla
:( :mad: the only reason i have to boot to Windoze is to use AutoCad, what can i say it how i make my living.


M.R.

[billholm]

Hehehe! You really do hate Windows. :) It's ok I understand how you feel -- Windows crash too much.

Here in my country, most (almost all) people thinks that Windows is the only operating system in the world. Last week I was bringing around my UNIX book and my classmates even mistook it for a new programming language (LOL) hahaha!

Ever since birth I was influenced largely by the MIcrosoft world... until last month that is :D I was able to install a small version of Linux and I'm going full blast to make good use of it. One thing I can say: DOS is really much more user friendly, Linux is kind of cryptic. (But I think that's the beauty of it, right?) :cool:

[itld]

howdy,
Linux LOOKS to me like an OS written by people that thinks like programmers instead of people serviceing an uneducated (at least as far as programming goes) general public.
just think back to the DOS days where we used commands like cd\, delete, copy..... from the command line, or am i dating myself?

M.R.

[billholm]

>>just think back to the DOS days where we used commands like cd\, delete, copy..... from the command line, or am i dating myself?


Yah after all those years, I still have a fondness for the DOS command line hehehe :D I have to admit, it really awed me the first time I used it (That was the first time I've ever used a computer)

You know, that command line practice in DOS has helped me in transitioning into Linux smoothly. They're pretty much the same, except that Linux provides more tools and versatility.:cool:

So why should we hate DOS when in fact it somehow had a healthy effect once in our life? :D

[itld]

howdy,
So why should we hate DOS when in fact it somehow had a healthy effect once in our life?

i was one of those guys that said no to windows, "you aint puttn that childish point and click crap on my PC clone"

M.R.

[Unregistered]

could any of the moderators please close this thread? it's way too pointless...

[itld]

howdy,
well well there he is again "unregistered the post cop"

look over to the bottom right hand side of the box, you will see a red sentence Warn moderators about post you can do your deed much better that way.:rolleyes:

M.R.

[linuxgeek]

Try mounting with the "noatime" option. Even though you aren't writing anything to the disk, the system may be writing the access times for any files you use.

[billholm]

>> could any of the moderators please close this thread? it's way too pointless...


Hahaha! Since he thinks this post is pointless, :) he must be some kind of weird nerd. Nerds always voice out their opinion behind the veil of secrecy.


>>i was one of those guys that said no to windows, "you aint puttn that childish point and click crap on my PC clone"


You mean to say you actually hate the things that make the PC a more convenient environment? :D You shouldn't... Linux has that GUI system too :)

[itld]

howdy,
You mean to say you actually hate the things that make the PC a more convenient environment?

NO NO NO i meant back in the old days when my ego said "I don't need that school kid stuff to command my 8088. Damn it anyone that uses one of these should know debug. Hell i can do anything i want with a simple entry in my autoexec.bat or config.sys. That windows stuff is for children that just dont understand"
NOW i really apreciate GUI infact i have just recently fallen in love with KDE.

M.R.

[billholm]

Oh I thought you hate GUI hehehe. :D The only thing I hate with the MS-Windows GUI is that it sometimes is so goddam slow. My PC is an IBM-clone Pentium I 100MHz with Windows 95 as primary platform. Windows eats up the memory and prone to crashes when I go into heavy C pointer programming. Other than that, I love the Windows GUI :D Makes me productive in my other tasks.

I'd love to install a window system in my Linux but it's kinda complicated. What's the best Linux GUI system?

[itld]

howdy,
What's the best Linux GUI system?

OOOHH MAN you shouldn't ought to gone an asked that. thats like asking whats better blonde or red head.

for me i have spent one year infront of gnome on mandrake and about 6 months infront of KDE on RH, my vote goes to KDE.
the main reason is Stability Gnome was constantly eating it where KDE only occasionaly burps.
IMHO


M.R.

[starX]

I like brunettes myself. The best GUI is, by far, fvwm.

So what does this have to do with destroyed DOS disks again?

starX
www.axisoftime.com

[billholm]

My DosLinux has no GUI system hehehe... how bout X-Windows?

>>So what does this have to do with destroyed DOS disks again?<<

The GUI system will influence the way you access your disks so that it will not be destroyed by the time you reboot to Windows. (I just made this up hehehe...)