[vox-tech] Disks and CDROMs from Linux (Was re: [vox] a very novice Linux user)

[Matt Holland]

Bill Kendrick wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 10, 2002 at 04:04:29PM -0700, David Jeffrey Barnum wrote:
> 
>>How do you access floppies and CD-ROMs using Debian.  And can you access 
>>Windows formatted disks using Debian?  I downloaded some programs for 
>>Linux in WIndows.  Thanks for the help.
>>
> 
> 
> If you stick a floppy into your drive, and then issue the command:
> 
>   mount /floppy
> 
> ...it _should_ Just Work(tm).

If that doesn't work, try "mount /mnt/floppy"; likewise, "mount 
/mnt/cdrom" for a cdrom if "mount /cdrom" doesn't work.  Or if you're 
using Gnome with a recent Red Hat-like distro, right click on the 
desktop, and there should be entries in the menu to mount removable media.

> One last thing... you said you downloaded some Linux software using Windows.
> If the Windows you're speaking of happens to be the copy of Windows installed
> on the same system as your Linux system (e.g., a dual-boot, and you simply
> rebooted into Linux), then accessing the files on the Windows side of your
> computer is VERY easy.  (And MUCH more convenient than copying to floppy
> and then rebooting :^) )
> 
> I'll let someone else explain that, though, since I don't have Windows
> on any of my boxes, so I don't know the exact incantation to get to the
> files.  (It's another "mount" command, but typically with more options.)

mount -t vfat /dev/hdxn /mnt/win

or some other mount point (/mnt, /win, whatever).  "/dev/hdxn" stands 
for the actual partition Windows is on, and may be a bit confusing; an 
example is /dev/hda1, which means the first partition of the first IDE 
hard drive on your system.  If you had Windows on the machine before 
installing Linux, /dev/hda1 is probably correct.  If you're wrong, 
nothing bad will happen, except that you'll get a (probably confusing) 
error message.  Oh, and you most likely need to do this as root.

Matt

-- 
Matt Holland
Population Biology Graduate Group
University of California, Davis