Ubuntu
yelp package

won't mount floppy

Asked by Silmaril

Hi! I've just installed Ubuntu, seems to be working fine in general, but two problems:
1) It won't mount my floppy disk drive. This is a MAJOR problem for me. The specific error message is:
Warning: device /dev/sda is already handled by /etc/fstab, supplied label is ignored
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified
Error: could not execute pmount

2)I created a user as instructed during the installation process. Now that's all I can log in as. I need access to the owner (root) priviledges. I suspect I'd be able to sort out the floppy issue if I had this.

Sorry if these problems sound dim-I'm learning about computers as I go along, and have some massive gaps in my knowledge!

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Bajtalan Hunor (cerebellum) said : 		#1

Hello,

Being always root in Linux is not a smart thing because this security service does not allows hackers and for other harmful programs to destroy your system. That's the point in Linux. So making yourself root is not good for you and for your system.

As you have seen when you need root privilegedges than Linux asks your password. You always have to use your password everywhere.
You can be root in terminal by using sudo in front of any command.

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Silmaril (phoenixpen) said : 		#2

Thankyou! That explains that at least . . .
Still can't mount floppy :(

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Paul Stotts (pauls127) said : 		#3

Hi Silmaril,
I had that problem and I THINK it was Bug # 17562.
At any rate, I'm running Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy), and fixed it by updating "pmount" to v.0.9.6.
The package is located in the breezy-backports.
You'll also have to edit /etc/apt/sources.list to uncomment those sites.
   Good luck.

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Silmaril (phoenixpen) said : 		#4

How do I uncomment? I know how to edit source.list, but I simply don't know what to type/delete to uncomment those lines.

I have already downloaded the update, and I'm still getting the first error message.

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Mike Perry (mike.perry) said : 		#5

Is that floppy a real floppy disk or a usb stick? I ask this because usually /dev/sda is reserved for SCSI things and the like.

You can get root access with the "sudo" command I highly recommend reading the following short tutorial:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RootSudo

As for your flopppy this will probably help:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MakeFloppyDriveAvailableToEveryone

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Silmaril (phoenixpen) said : 		#6

Floppy problem still not solved, but at least I'm learning a lot.

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Terminus (yourprovider) said : 		#7

I also did all the things mentioned above, it just doesn't seem to work.
Floppydrive drives me crazy :S

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