Charles A Edwards wrote: > I have another bit of strangeness for you.
There is nothing strange here. > Look at the following terminal output: > > [charles@localhost .gnome-desktop]$ mount /mnt/zip > mount: special device /dev/sda4 does not exist > [charles@localhost .gnome-desktop]$ su > Password: > [root@localhost .gnome-desktop]# mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip > mount: special device /dev/sda4 does not exist > [root@localhost .gnome-desktop]# mount /dev/sda /mnt/zip > mount: you must specify the filesystem type > [root@localhost .gnome-desktop]# exit > exit > [charles@localhost .gnome-desktop]$ mount /mnt/zip > [charles@localhost .gnome-desktop]$ umount /mnt/zip > [charles@localhost .gnome-desktop]$ mount /mnt/zip > [charles@localhost .gnome-desktop]$ > > I boot the system with no disk in the USB zip so of course could not mount it with >mount /mnt/zip then when I su to root and try to mount /dev/sda /mnt/zip I get the fs >type error. > At this point I exit back to user and can now mount and umount the disk > and then mount a different disk. > /dev/sda* files are links created by defvsd. When there is no disk in drive, devfsd removes these link. That is reason for "/dev/sda4 does not exist". /dev/sda always exist and is the link to the whole disk. When you access it, it makes driver to rescan partition tables, thus creating files for partition. It is irrelevant that you then exited back to user, it is just coincidence. That is why I always say that using old-style names is bad in case of devfs. > /lib/dev-state/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0 remains enpty but > /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0 contains the block device entries disc and part4. > /lib/dev-state is changed only when you change permission/modes or manually create file. It does not matter what is there. -andrej
