-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At some point hitherto, Michael Bovee hath spake thusly: > Hi again, > 1) does fd0 strictly mean floppy disks or can that generically be > used for zip disks, too?
The short answer is yes, and no respectively. The longer answer is that IIRC, the device file associated with your zip drive will depend on what type it is, i.e. parallel port, SCSI, or IDE. See the zip drive howto (on linuxdoc.org, or search for it) for details. The confusing answer is the actual NAME of the device file is truly arbitrary. You could call it /dev/my_zip_drive if you really want to. What defines it as being the right file is the major and minor number associated with the file. For example, the major and minor number for the first partition on the first SCSI device are 8 and 1, as shown here: $ ls -l /dev/sda1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 Mar 23 2001 /dev/sda1 Each device has a corresponding major and minor number. The major number corresponds loosely to the specific driver that the device uses, and the minor number corresponds loosely to the nth device out of a possible m devices... > 2) if there's any value in adding lines to /etc/fstab for Mac and PC > formatted zip disks, can I call them special devices of my own > choosing such as /dev/hdc1 and /dev/hdc2 or perhaps /dev/hdb? See, > I'm unclear on the rules of naming devices, basically. Well, yes. But: a) you probably should stick to the well known names, for the sake of clarity and consistency to documentation. On the other hand, it's your system, so do what you want! b) You will likely (well, assuredly) need to create the device file with the mknod command, specifying the correct major and minor numbers. Easier to use those provided by your distro. > 3) if I set up zip devices and they work, is it still inadvisable to > remove the fd0 entry? I believe you're referring to the entry in /etc/fstab here... If you're never going to use it, it really doesn't matter. :) But you might want to leave it kickin' around, in the event that you someday have a use for it. I personally would delete it. - -- Derek Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] - --------------------------------------------- I prefer mail encrypted with PGP/GPG! GnuPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D Retrieve my public key at http://pgp.mit.edu Learn more about it at http://www.gnupg.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE85a/YdjdlQoHP510RAirvAJ9q6lFn93SIWjhhc1naPnjg17hAxACdFujU ZvGCR9nP4dAyt6oF3LBiXs4= =C3Ul -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
