[PLUG] fstab entry

[Denis Heidtmann]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 11:16 AM, Galen Seitz <galens at seitzassoc.com> wrote:

> On 08/28/15 08:20, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > I needed to use the floppy disk on my ubuntu 14.04 system (why is a
> > separate story).  I found that the default setup had the floppy owned by
> > root. Even when I made myself a member of the group floppy, I did not
> have
> > write access. It appeared as if the drive was not a member of the group
> > floppy.
> >
> > On searching for a solution I came across a change to /etc/fstab which
> > solved the problem.  My question is, I would like to understand what
> these
> > changes do and what the entries mean, and make sure that the changes do
> not
> > have any flaws. Could the dropping of the utf8 option produce a problem?
> >
> > Original entry (as provided by the installation):
> > /dev/fd0   /media/floppy0  auto   rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8  0     0
> >
> > New entry:
> > /dev/fd0   /media/floppy   auto
> rw,user,noauto,exec,gid=floppy,umask=007 0
> >  0
>
> Do you really need to mount the floppy?  For occasional use, it's often
> easier to use mtools.
>
> <http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/>
> <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/+package/mtools>
>
>
> galen


Since Ubuntu supports the floppy though the GUI, and I now have user rights
to it, I do not see the advantage of mtools.  I only use it to transfer
files to and from an ancient windows 3.1 system a former colleague and I
are trying to resurrect.  I suppose if I wanted to do something less
routine with the floppy, I would benefit from mtools.

With regard to the ancient system, how might I clone the HD so that in case
the HD fails we will still have a functional system?  We do not  have the
installation disks for the SW that is part of the system (win 3.1, IDL
3.6.1, and custom C code).

Thanks
-Denis