fstab

[Bob Warren]

Hi Chris!
See comments below.

Chris Kassopulo wrote:
 >
/etc/mtab is created on boot and is modified by the system "on the run".
It includes the mounted devices for the file system.  fd0 should appear
there when a floppy disk is mounted.
-----------------------
That's exactly what I have discovered in practice, except that it 
doesn't apply to ALL distros (but to the great majority as far as I've 
seen, yes).

 >
fstab is a fixed file, created on installation that includes mountable
devices and their mount points. I cannot mount a floppy without a valid
entry for the floppy drive in fstab.
 >
 >From my fstab on Ubuntu Breezy:
/dev/fd0   /media/floppy0  auto rw,user,noauto  0  0
-----------------------
That's how it used to be, but not necessarily any more. And this does 
not necessarily apply only to Ubuntu. Some other distros reflect this 
change too. In Ubuntu Dapper Drake (later than Breezy Badger), the 
cd-rom appears in the fstab, but not the floppy. The floppy (once 
mounted (?) through the distro) only appears in mtab. And now, if I try 
to mount the floppy programmatically as I did before, using:-

get shell("mount/media/floppy0")

- then it doesn't work any more, presumably as you said, because there 
is no entry in the fstab for it being a "mountable device".

Or putting it another way, the floppy is a mountable device to THEM (the 
distro makers), but it is no longer a mountable device to US 
(programmatically), and this is correctly reflected by the 
non-appearance of the floppy in the fstab.

What you said turns out to be absolutely true, but you won't find this 
in your fstab on Ubuntu Dapper:
/dev/fd0   /media/floppy0  auto rw,user,noauto  0  0

Sorry about the garbled explanation.
Hell!

Bob