File system in DSL
Forum: User Feedback
Topic: File system in DSL
started by: afflusso
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 27 2006,15:25
I know it's probably not identical to Windows, but how does the filesystem work on DSL? I just installed it to my old 4GB computer and it's working pretty well.Is there someway to navigate to the C: drive or its equivalent and find out how much empty space is there? Also, how would I explore a floppy I put it? And how do I save files to the desktop? Thanks in advance.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 27 2006,17:49
You might want to do some reading about unix-like systems in general:< http://www.tldp.org/guides.html >
Of particular interest to you might be the Intro to Linux, Bash Beginner's Guide, and the Filesystem Hierarchy
Specific to your post, and to DSL....
DSL doesn't mount any drives automatically. use the mount command, or the mount application in the bottom right corner of the screen, to mount harddrives and floppies. Once mounted they are accessible through the /mnt directory.
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 29 2006,14:53
Thanks for the link. I haven't managed to mount the floppy drive. I did mount a cdrom, but I can't get the floppy to mount. I'm too frustrated to use terminal anymore, and clicking on the mount application in the bottom right only switches between cdrom and hda. I know it's probably simple, so could someone give me a brief explanation of how to copy files from a floppy onto the hard drive? Thanks.
Posted by underdog5004 on Aug. 29 2006,15:44
| Code Sample |
sudo mount /dev/sda1 sudo mount /dev/hda1 sudo cp /dev/sda1 /dev/hda1/Whatever_folder |
I think that should work...
-Matthew
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 29 2006,16:28
underdog,When I tried your first command, it said that /dev/sda1 couldn't be found. In another tutorial it said that fd0 should be the floppy drive, so I tried this command:
sudo cp /dev/fd0 /home/dsl
And it sounded like it was reading the floppy drive. So when I went to look in /home/dsl, it added a file called fd0, which was 1.41 MB, about the size of the floppy. On the floppy I had a 250kb picture. When I try to open the file it created (fd0) it just shows about five random letters. I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong. Isn't there an easy way to do it without using terminal? If not, then what else could I try?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 29 2006,18:43
You can't access the contents of a mounted disk by copying the device itself. It must first be mounted and then you access it through the /mnt directory. What you did was basically make an image of the floppy disk (I don't know if it's a useable image, but it's definitely not the contents of the disk). I believe Underdog should have used "/mnt" where he used "/dev"To mount a floppy, there must be a readable disk in the drive. Use the command mount /mnt/floppy in a terminal and see what message you might receive.
Posted by underdog5004 on Aug. 29 2006,20:21
ok. Sorry to any and everyone who tried that command and had it result in total failure. I wasn't totally sure that was it, I was just shooting from the hip, as it were. My bad. -Matthew
Posted by u2musicmike on Aug. 29 2006,21:24
afflussoI hope that I won't cause more confusion by suggesting using emelfm. Click on the file cabinet icon and emelfm shows your directories and if you have a floppy in the drive just right click on the floppy directory and choose mount.
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 30 2006,13:59
Mikshaw, when I tried your command, I got this message.Can't find /mnt/floppy in etc/fstab or etc/mstab
u2musicmikke, your method sounds easier, but I'm not sure what to do exactly. Do you mean the floppy directory in the main, or /mnt/floppy?
And after doing that, where would the floppy's contents be?
Thanks.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 30 2006,15:02
Sorry....I didn't realize until looking into it that in a live cd or frugal system, /mnt/floppy is apparently a link to /mnt/auto/floppy...at least in my system. I suppose it might instead be /floppy depending on your setup.What I would do is look in /etc/fstab to see if floppy is even listed there. If not, the device was not detected.
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 30 2006,17:34
Thanks so much. I got it working. I just had to say:mount /floppy
and the picture was there! Now another question.
How do I write files to the floppy?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 30 2006,18:29
You might need to be root in order to write to it. I hardly ever use floppies anymore, so I couldn't tell you for sure.However, since you were apparently user dsl when you mounted it (i didn't see "sudo" in your mount command), there may be another issue.
Could you tell us how you have tried to write files to it so far?
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 30 2006,20:36
I haven't really tried at all... I don't really have a clue. I guess I was thinking that it would be simple like in Windows, and you can just drag and drop... but I guess it's not. It's not very important that I know, but I was just wondering.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 30 2006,21:22
Oh...i see.Well, drag and drop is typically a feature of your desktop environment. In Windows that would be Windows Explorer. Linux has desktop environments available to it -- such as KDE, Gnome, and Xfce -- which allow drag and drop between applications (I'm not sure if Xfce does this). However, DSL is a tiny distro, which means tiny applications and the lack of a lot of stuff that by some peoples' standards is considered unnecessary. There is no "desktop environment" in DSL, but rather the choice of two window managers. I won't go into the differences between desktop environments and window managers here, apart from saying that window managers tend to focus mainly on the manipulation of program windows and desktop environments add a lot more user-friendly features to control the desktop's behavior beyond simply managing windows.
In DSL manipulating files is left up to the shell (Bash) and the two included file managers (Emelfm and Midnight Commander). If you want to copy or create a file while remaining in a familiar "mouse click" environment I'd suggest opening Emelfm and using that to manage your files. Emelfm displays buttons with which to do the common actions such as copying, deleting, and creating files. If you want to copy from one directory to another, have your source directory displayed in one panel and the target directory displayed in the other. Select the file you want to copy from the source directory, and click the "copy" button to copy it to the target directory (or press F5). The F5 shortcut is also available in midnight commander, although I wouldn't immediately recommend mc to someone who has been depending on drag and drop.
If you have plans to explore the true power of Linux in the future, beyond simply using it as a GUI replacement for Windows, I recommend learning as much about the shell as you have time to learn. Bash is a very powerful tool, and even though it may seem archaic to some, it can give the user the power to do much more than he could ever accomplish in windows.
Posted by afflusso on Aug. 31 2006,00:45
Your explanation really clarified a lot of things. I guess DSL didn't give me a very good first impression of Linux. I was actually just planning on using it as a GUI replacement for Windows, just as something that would actually work on my old computer and to give Linux a try. I'm not sure that I'll be getting to excited with using Bash anytime soon, but maybe in the far future.