tlug: Re: mounting removeable media

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

Dave wrote:

> Another probably obvious question from the new guy to Linux:
>     How can i set it up so that users can mount and unmount CD ROMs and floppies? Is
> this sometihng to do with the "fstab" file?
>     And can't i get these things to automount like other OS's? (I won't name any OS

This is my fstab:

/dev/hda1               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/hda2               /                       ext2    defaults        1 1
/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy             ext2    noauto,user     0 0
/dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom              iso9660 noauto,ro,user  0 0
none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0

The floppy drive  and the cdrom drive are both mountable by any user, as
specified by the "user" parameter in the options.  

If by "automount," you mean it in the sense of Windows or a Mac, where you
just pop in the disc or CD and it's instantly accessible, no, you can't do
that (at least not that I've ever heard).  The only thing I know of that will
sort of do that is the Electric Books daemon, but it's awful.  It doesn't
really work very well, and it too me only a few minutes to conclude that
dealing with it was far more trouble than mounting the drives when I needed
them.

If you want, you can created shorter mount points, such as /cd and /fl, and
mount them on there instead.  That will give you much less typing to do.  In
any event, mounting the drives will soon cease to seem like such a chore.

Cheers,

Jonathan

--------------------------------------------------------------
Next Nomikai: 18 September, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
Next Meeting: October, Tokyo Station Yaesu central gate 12:30
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp