> I've just been trying to use KFloppy to format a floppy disk from
> within the K Desktop Environment. As I was logged in as an
> ordinary user (jmorley) and a member of an ordinary group (users)
I might be viewed as a right-wing conservative, but I'm of the opinion
that ordinary users should not be able to access raw devices, period. That's
why the Unix permission scheme exists, among other things.
Of course, it's a bit inconvenient to ask root to format the floppies for
you, and in Linux's case, you happen to be root as well. That's one of
the things that root is supposed to do, so switch hats and do the
operation as root.
Still, many suggest that even that is less convenient than just doing
the thing as a user, so various means to "circumvent" these restrictions
have arised. Personally speaking, I haven't really bothered with them - I
still typically mount/unmount/format things as root.
> my attempt to access the /dev/fd0h1440 device (owned by root.floppy,
> permissions brw-rw----) failed.
OK, if you are not a member of the floppy group, or have ownership of the
device, you can't use it. Seems fine to me.
>
> added my ordinary username (jmorley) to the entry for floppy:
>
> floppy:x:19:jmorley
Adding yourself to the floppy group is a workaround. I don't see why
you can't access the device at that point. You shouldn't have to 'newgrp
floppy' because 'floppy' already exists. You might have to relogin again.
What happens with 'fdformat /dev/fd0' once you're a member of the floppy
group? If you can do that it would prove you have (group) access to the
floppy device and can format floppies. If you can do that and still can't
use kfloppy it would be a problem with the latter.
> The obvious solution would be to change the ownership of /dev/fd0*
> to jmorley but I'm reluctant to do that until I've considered all
> the ramifications.
Don't. That circumvents the whole point of the permissions. Really, I'm
kind of appalled at all this 'new-fangled' methodology to make Unix
resemble DOS :).
> John Morley ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
------------------------------------------------------------------------
David E. Fox Thanks for letting me
[EMAIL PROTECTED] change magnetic patterns
[EMAIL PROTECTED] on your hard disk.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
