Linux Kernel Upgrade:Aftermath Problem

Hello,
After successfully (or so I thought) upgrading my kernel from 2.4.2-2 to 2.4.12 I cannot mount a floppy disk. I am running RedHat 7.1 on a 933 PIII 256mb of RAM. When I right click on the floppy icon when in X and click mount it says "you must specify a filesystem". If I try mounting it from terminal "mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy" it says "you must specify the filesystem". If I try "mount -t iso9660 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy" it says "wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/fd0, or too many mounted filesystems." If I "mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy" it says "fs type msdos not supported by kernel". Thats all the input I have for now, I can mount a cdrom, no problem there.

Many Thanks in Advance..
-Jason

Hi Jason,

Try adding:

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user 0 0

to your /etc/fstab file.

-----
root2600

No such luck, when I recompiled my kernel I did a "make oldconfig" so that I wouldn't have to answer any new questions and so that "hypothetically" it should work fine.


-Jason

Okay, first the Disclaimer.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// *Disclaimer*
//
// Although I update my kernel almost bi-weekly, I have only done this
// with the Slackware and Debian Distro's.
//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

When you rebuilt the kernel I am guessing that you may not have selected all of the neccessary file system compatibility options. Essentially Unix does not really like floppies (and neither do I :D). All floppies are treated as MSDOS file systems in most kernel builds that I know of.

So to correct this cd into the directory where you untar'd the 2.4.12 source. Once in that directory run `make xconfig' (without the quotes), a small gui window will pop up. Go to the menu selection labeled `file systms'. Click on it and then select these file system types.

Kernel automounter version 4 support (also supports v3)
DOS FAT fs support
MSDOS fs support
Virtual memory file system support
ISO 9660 CDROM file system support
Microsoft Joliet CDROM extensions
NTFS file system support (read only)
/proc file system support
/dev/pts file system for Unix98 PTYs
Second extended fs support

then click `Save and Exit'

run `make dep'

then run whatever you did in Red Hat to build/install the new kernel (`make bzImage' perhaps?).

don't forget to run lilo to update to the newer kernel image.

root2600 is correct, the manual parameters for mounting the floppy will be located in /etc/fstab.

You should be able to mount the floppy in the usual manner (mount /mnt/floppy) that you were using after the rebuild since the /etc/fstab had not changed.

Please let us know if you need more help.

I am at work now, wish I was at home so I could try that, I have school out of town so if I dont get a chance to try what the "incredibly smart" Uberc0der suggested at lunch I will get to it wednesday.

Thanks ALOT Uberc0der!
-Jason

P.S. I run redhat 7.1, since I am not an "advanced" linux user yet should I upgrade to Suse or Slack? I dont "NEED" the point and click, it is nice though. Any thoughs appreciated.

I have been looking at the slackware.com and suse.com websites. Slackware looks like it want to be the most "UNIX-Like Linux" distro out there. I don't know "ALOT" about Linux, I know enough to install it and get it online/on a network.
After looking at Suse it's going for the "Suse for the Whole Family!", I want usability, friendlyness, stability, and security in a linux distro. My view of Slack is that I would purchase it and spend a week just getting it installed. After reading a few reviews of it on theregister.co.uk I am impressed with Suse. The Register says that Suse has alot of documentation, almost as much as you would expect from M$. I live in a small town, so unless they get Suse at Wal-Mart I might have to stick with Redhat 7.1 for now.

Any Alternative views accepted....

-Jason

I'd always recommend debian to anyone that cared to listen - if you know what hardware you have and the coresponding modules required to use that hardware the installation shouldn't present a problem - if you have a decent net connection you can even install over ftp/http.
As regards your problem - you may need to enter "make mrproper" before "make xconfig" - other than that ubercoders advice is sound - although i'm surprised your machine still boots with a botched kernel.

Does debian have X windows? I know what hardware I have, dont know much about "modules" though. I am at debian.org what all does it support or what are the advantages of it over Redhat or Suse, or Slack? I am getting a copy of a 6.x release of slackware to try. If I had DSL at home I would download Slack and try it too. I know slack is more unix based, I only know linux, and I only know it a little. So I don't think SlackWare is for me, but SuSE might be.


Thanks
-Jason

Most distros can have X windows - apart from some of the micro distros. X is just a client/server that sits on linux, the server displays graphics on a screen and takes input from mouse/keyboard and the client is the program that uses an X server to display, this makes more sense if you think the client need not be on the same machine as the server - they can can be ran together on seperate machines over a network.
Debians package management is prolly its strongest point - apt-get install whatever is a handy way to add packages - and it does a lot to keep dependencies in check too - specially if used in conjunction with debfoster. You would be better researching on the net which modules your hardware needs as debian won't do much to help guide you - people ask the debian developers why they don't improve the installer - they say its because you only need to use it once!
~Afaik, slack isn't more unix based per se - it just hasn't got the bells and whistles that a lot of other distros do, and SLS - slacks first incarnation - was one of the first distros, which is nice.
If you're so keen to stay true to unix why not use one of the bsd's? just a thought.

I was saying that SlackWare is close to the Unix, but Linux is all I know and I don't know it well. So I think I might stick with RH for now, like I said I am getting a 6.x copy of SuSE, I will try it. I have two linux pc's in my room now. My main one is a 933 pentium and the secondary linux pc (the tester) is a 200mhz Packard Bell I found in a wal-mart parking lot. (No joke)


-Jason

Awesome, I re compiled my kernel and now I can mount floppies!
thanks UberC0der and Travis_Bickle, back to work, I am now very happy.

Thanks Everyone..
-Jason

Glad to hear that you are mounting floppies again! :D

jason-mis, I hope you don't mid me answering a couple of the questions I missed out on.

Slackware is more Unix like than the others, but what this really means is that it currently does not support .rpm's, it does not have any gui config menus, and it does not have any package manager/installer other than `pkgtool' which is pretty low tech compared to YAST2 (Suse), gnorpm & redcarpet (Red Hat), `apt-get' (Debian) and other similar tools. The directory tree, kernel, modules, config files and all that are just like they are in any other Distro and they are in the same place.

One of the reasons Slackware got the 'Most Unix Like' label was a few versions ago they did not use glibc, which no Unix Flavors use either; but all Linux Distro's do use glibc. Glibc was added because the Linux kernel later required the glibc libraries, and so do all modern Linux packages that are written in C or C++. (most C/C++ packages for Linux want gcc-2.9.x or better, slackware was using the Unix standard cc)

Debian is fantastic and it does come with all of the popular window managers except KDE. It does not have KDE because it is not 100% compliant with the GPL and GNU standards. Debian aims to be 100% Open Source and is always striving for the approval of Richard Stallman.
If you ever notice, the full title of Debian is 'Debian GNU/Linux' which is earned by richard Stallman's nod. The coolest thing about Debian in my opinion is that it is put together completely by volunteers, many of which have never even met before.

It is worth mentioning that Slackware is maintained by just one person, Patrick Volkerding.

Suse is a very good Distro, I feel that they offer everything that Red Hat does, and I hope they stick around for a while. I think that the best thing about Suse is that they are aiming directly at the `Desktop User', If anyone is going to make Linux a contentder on the Desktop it just might be Suse. The only issue that I have with Suse it that YAST2 is not 100% Open Source, other than that I think they are great for the Linux newbie and the experienced Linux hacker alike.

Anyway, glad to hear that you are enjoying Linux. Just take it one step at a time and you will be an `Uber Power Linux User' before you know it.

Catch ya later jason-mis

I am taking it one step at a time. I am going to purchase Suse 7.3 Pro the first time I see it. I went to a few book stores today but I didn't see any copies of it. Thank again for your input and help. I don't think I will go with Slack or Debian, I think SuSE is for me!

-Jason