How do I...

[gubder]

What is the syntax to address files on an ms floppy disk? I want to bring *.deb files onto my linux only hd from my only floppy drive and the files are on a ms floppy format. Where do I put the .deb files when I copy them? Thank you to all of you that have been holding my hand. It is appreciated.
:D

[quandary]

Try mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy (or maybe /mnt/floppy depending on your distro). If it doesn't work, man mount for more details. You can just copy them over to your home directory.

[gubder]

Originally posted by quandary:
Try mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy (or maybe /mnt/floppy depending on your distro). If it doesn't work, man mount for more details. You can just copy them over to your home directory.

Tried the above and got:

mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device

I can't find 'man' on my hd anywhere. I installed debian 2.2 from floppies and I am seemingly dead in the water now. I'm TOTALLY ignorant of linux and don't know even the basics. I've got 4 books on linux but nothing seems to specify the basic 'how to' of getting started. I would like to get my dsl up but I haven't been able to get to the info necessary to set it up even after reading all the docs I can get my hands on.
:confused:

[quandary]

Hmm...try ls /dev/fd0 -l and see what response you get. If nothing, then try looking at the thread just below this one entitled "Someone erased my FD0" for advice on how to create the device.

On the other hand, if it is there, and if you installed Debian from floppies it's possible that the kernel isn't set up to allow FAT (windows file-system) support, and this could also be why it's not mounting. Debian isn't the most newbie-friendly distro btw...have you considered trying something like Mandrake?

[DMR]

Take a look in /dev and make sure that fd0 (that's a zero, BTW, not a capital "o") exists. If not, see the thread quandry mentioned for the fix.
Also, Try substituting msdos for vfat when mounting floppies:
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

As for books, hmmm... Running Linux from O'Reilly Press is a good place to start. It explains the basics of almost all aspects of Linux.

[gubder]

Originally posted by quandary:
Hmm...try ls /dev/fd0 -l and see what response you get. If nothing, then try looking at the thread just below this one entitled "Someone erased my FD0" for advice on how to create the device.

On the other hand, if it is there, and if you installed Debian from floppies it's possible that the kernel isn't set up to allow FAT (windows file-system) support, and this could also be why it's not mounting. Debian isn't the most newbie-friendly distro btw...have you considered trying something like Mandrake?

Went in and did a:
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy
at root and all went as it was supposed to go it seems... anyway, I was able to copy the files. One thing... when I changed out the floppies, I got a nasty error message. I used the mount command again and got a message that the floppy was already mounted but I was able to read succeeding floppies.

One small step for gubder...

Thanks to all of you for your help on this. I'll probably burn you guys out with plenty of dumb questions.
:D

[bdg1983]

Always to remember to unmount the device before removing the media. Goes for the CD as well.

Insert diskette

mount mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy
after your done
umount /floppy (Notice it's umount and not 'un')

Remove diskette