[FF103]

Hello All, can anyone offer any help as to why this internal Iomega 100 mb zip drive won't work, Heres my fstab /dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdb,fs=udf:iso9660,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=udf:iso9660,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
none /mnt/zip supermount dev=/dev/sda4,fs=vfat,--,user,umask=0,codepage=850,sync,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
When I load a disk it whirrs for a couple seconds and then just sits there,It works on the windows side,and it worked on Mandrake 9.1 but when I updated to 9.2 (kernal 2.4.22-10mdk) I can't get it to work.Also does anyone know where File Manager-Super User Mode,went in 9.2? Thanks for any help in advance,I really appreciate it.

[lynch]

Ugh.....Supermount.I always rewrite my fstab to get rid of Supermount when I install a new version of Mandrake.(That is,when I forget to deselect it during install ).
Your fstab seems okay ;have you tried unmounting/mounting it manually?
As root:

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip
or
umount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip
HTH
lynch

[FF103]

Thanks for the reply lynch,I tried your advice and got this: mount: can't find /dev/sda4/mnt/zip in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
I'm pretty sure I saw it there?? The first couple of times I tried to read a disk it said something to the effect"can't enter file system" or can't read file system" I don't remember exactly,it doesn't give any error now,just sits there.Any ideas? or should I just nail a board over the slot and give up. Thanks for any help.

[lynch]

Did you put a space between /dev/sda4 and /mnt/zip?If so,you can try using those commands as root and see if it's a permissions thing and if it does work,you can edit the fstab line to make things a little simpler.
I strongly suggest you make a copy of /etc/fstab before you do any editing:
as root,type:
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old
Then as root,open /etc/fstab with a text editor and change the line:

none /mnt/zip supermount dev=/dev/sda4,fs=vfat,--,user,umask=0,codepage=850,sync,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0

to

dev/sda4  /mnt/zip  auto noauto,user, 0 0

Give that a try.
lynch

[FF103]

I tried ,As root, "mount /dev/sda4 mnt/zip"with the spaces after "mount and between "sda4 and mnt and I got a "permission denied" how can that be? I thought "root " could do anything. Anyway ,haven't tried changing the fstab yet as per your last post,I try that first chance I get.Thanks for your help.

[lynch]

Try switching to root like this:
su -
then enter root password.
lynch

[FF103]

Thanks for the reply lynch. Yes I did use the su command to log in as root,entered my password and got the root@localhost prompt and then entered the mount command as previously described and got a "permission denined".

[FF103]

Can any one add anything to help me out with this #%*^#** zip drive ,I've googled everything I can think of and looked at everything about zip drives but none of it seems to work in this case. I have a internal iomega zip 100, and when I put a disk in and click on the desktop icon,(KDE and Mandrake 9.1) konqueror opens and then gives me the error "could not enter directory /mnt/zip" Here is the fstab file.
/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/hdb,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/removable auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0
none /mnt/zip supermount dev=/dev/sda4,fs=vfat,--,user,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-0 0 0
/dev/sdb4 /mnt/zip2 auto user,iocharset=iso8859-1,kudzu,codepage=850,noauto,umask=0,exec 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
And scanbus does see it,and it is the secondary slave. Any help would be greatly appreciated,I'm at my wits end trying to get this thing to work,Its become some what of an obbsession. Thanks for any assistance.

[codejockey]

OK. on the chance that it's only a typo ...

I tried ,As root, "mount /dev/sda4 mnt/zip" ...

Unless you are already in the root directory (/), I think that should be: mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip (note leading forward slash before mnt); this also assumes that /mnt/zip is a directory and has been previously created. You are correct -- root can do anything -- but that doesn't include (transparently) making directories where none previously existed. You can verify that /mnt/zip exists with the command:

ls -ld /mnt/zip

The output should look something like:

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 40 Mar 15 2002 /mnt/zip

Then review the permissions on /mnt/zip; note that in my example, only root can write to the directory, although all users can read it. Regardless, root should be able to mount the device if the directory exists. You may get some additional clues by trying the following command to mount your drive:

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip; echo $?

and looking at the output. If the mount is successful, you will see a single zero at the left margin; otherwise, you will see another number that reflects the error. If you're really ambitious, you can use strace to capture a blow-by-blow execution of the mount command -- but let's keep that in reserve for now.

Hope this helps. Additional info appreciated.

[FF103]

Thanks for the reply codejockey,Here are the results of the querys that you asked me to run.
[root@localhost ray]# mount /dev/sda4/mnt/zip
mount: can't find /dev/sda4/mnt/zip in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
[root@localhost ray]# ls -ld/mnt/zip
ls: invalid option -- /
Try `ls --help' for more information.
[root@localhost ray]# ls -ld /mnt/zip
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Nov 6 19:39 /mnt/zip/

If it means anything, the /mnt/zip/ after the date and time is in blue.and why would it say it can't find sda4 in fstab or mtab when it's obvious they are there? Thanks for your time,I really appreciate any help.

[codejockey]

root@localhost ray]# mount /dev/sda4/mnt/zip
mount: can't find /dev/sda4/mnt/zip in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

If you typed it exactly this way, then you're missing a space after sda4. The command should b:

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip

The basic form of the mount command is mount <device> <directory>. Without the space, you are telling mount to look for a device named /dev/sda4/mnt/zip, which is probably not in /etc/fstab (/dev/sda4 is there, but not /dev/sda4/mnt/zip). Try the mount command with the space after sda4:

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip; echo $?

Your listing for the /mnt/zip directory shows that it exists and the permissions are fine -- no worries there.

Hope this helps.

[FF103]

O.K., Still plugging along, Here's what I got after that query.
[root@localhost ray]# mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip
/dev/sda4: Input/output error
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
I might also add that this same disk that I'm trying to open was written to on a windows machine,but I can open it on my other linux machine with an external zip drive.(don't know if thats pertinent info but I'm kinda grabbing at straws here now). Thanks for your help.

[codejockey]

You might try:

mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip

and see if that improves things. This assumes you have an MS-DOS filesystem on the disk being read.

You might also see what you're doing on your other Linux system that seems to be working (e.g., can you mount the drive? If so, what filesystem type is displayed?).

Hope this helps.

[FF103]

O k tried that, heres what I got
[root@localhost ray]# mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda4,
or too many mounted file systems
I did go to the other machine and copy the fstab word for word and still nothing.It has to be something really simple that I'm missing here. I checked dmesg and it calls the zip drive hdd so I tried that to with no luck.I afraid I'm wearing your patience thin codejockey,but I really appreciate your effort on this ,Thanks.

[codejockey]

Hey, I'm happy to (try to) help -- after all, you're doing the real work! (). Anyway, if your zip drive is /dev/hdd, then you might try mounting various (possible) partitions on /dev/hdd instead of /dev/sda4. In the worst case, you can try commands such as:

mount -t vfat /dev/hdd1 /mnt/zip
mount -t vfat /dev/hdd2 /mnt/zip
etc. ...

You can't hurt anything by doing this, so it doesn't hurt to try. If you run fdisk -l /dev/hdd and look at the output, you may get some info about what Linux thinks is really on /dev/hdd; use the filesystem type reported and the partition in the mount command and see if things improve.

Finally, is it possible that you have not let the kernel recognize your zip drive as a (pseudo-) SCSI device? For example, CD-RW drives are typically addressed as SCSI devices, even though they use an ATAPI interface. In order to make this bit of magic happen, the kernel needs to know, at boot time, which device(s) should be considered "pseudo-SCSI". You tell the kernel about these devices by passing a parameter at boot time, specifying the device name(s) of the pseudo-SCSI device(s). For example, on my system, my CD-RW is /dev/hdc, so in order to use its burning capability, I pass the following parameter to the kernel at boot time: hdc=ide-scsi. In your case, you would use hdd=ide-scsi, since your zip drive is /dev/hdd. You can supply this parameter on the command line when you boot, or add it to your lilo.conf or grub.conf file.

Hope this helps -- and I think you're right that whatever the problem is, it's just some silly little thing that got overlooked (which always turns out to be the most difficult to solve!).