thank you very much Carey ! the magic word was "append=" in lilo.conf . I only had "floppy=thinkpad" .
AND I also have to insert the floppy just after the systems starts to boot ! so that when it gets to the mount from /etc/fstab it also mounts the floppy correctly ! STRANGE ! If I do NOT include in /etc/fstab : "/dev/fd0 /floppy msdos defaults" The system will NOT mount it later ! complaining "/dev/fd0 is not a block device" ! To change floppies I have to : umount /dev/fd0 mount -a ( while the /dev/fd0 entry is uncommented in /etc/fstab ) However , If I use umount /dev/fd0 /floppy mount -a the system complains "/dev/fd0 is not a block device" ! Do YOU have any idea why the extra "/floppy" would cause this ? It seems the append="floppy=thinkpad" in lilo.conf only takes effect on BOOT TIME ! ( When boot mounts the floppy ). If I boot WITHOUT inserting the floppy after the boot is in progress, ( and /etc/fstab file has the /dev/fd0 entry as above ) the boot process will error several times trying to mount the floppy and timeout and eventually continue with the boot. Then when I issue a "mount -a" it will mount the floppy but making it only READ-ONLY ! Subsequent "mount -t msdos -rw /dev/fd0 /floppy" complains with : block device /dev/fd0 is write-protected, mounting read-only mount: block device /dev/fd0 is not permitted on its filesystem only a "mount -a" mounts the floppy ! What makes the /dev/fd0 READ-ONLY ? Is there an entry in /etc/fstab that sets this or is it in the boot process ? Thanks, frank naranjo At 09:31 PM 10/7/97 +1300, Carey Evans wrote: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >> Problem : >> The suggestion to put "floppy=thinkpad" >> into the lilo.conf did not work. > >My lilo.conf looks like the following. I have a non-standard CD-ROM >(a Sony CDU-33A), so put the command for the non-standard floppy in >the same place. > >boot=/dev/hda1 >root=/dev/hda1 >compact >install=/boot/boot.b >map=/boot/map >vga=normal >delay=10 >message=/boot/message > >image=/vmlinuz >label=Linux >append="isp16=0x340,10,Sony cdu31a=0x340,10" >read-only > >-- > Carey Evans <*> http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/c.evans/ gc > >kernel: Warning: possible SYN flooding. Sending cookies. >kernel: validated probe(100007f, 100007f, 11557, 5010, -1645409555) > > >-- >TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] . >Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > > -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .