[linux-help] Re: Setting up a Zip drive with Linux...How?

[Greg House <ghouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 05 Apr 2000, you wrote:
> I have a parport zip "250" (239 Mb) and I use it with Linux (duh :).
> To load the modules required (as root) type:
> insmod parport
> insmod parport_pc
> //sets up parallel port
> insmod imm
> // newer zip drives or
> insmod ppa
> //older zip drives

If you use "modprobe ppa" (or imm), it'll automatically do parport for you.
That's what I always do when I use my ppa zip drive.

> then to mount assuming msdos/vfat fs on /mnt/zip type:
> mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip

Be sure you create /mnt/zip before you do this, as it's not there by default.
Also, you might want to create the directory for the mount point somewhere else
if you're not using Red Hat (or another Red Hat-based distro). On my Slackware
system, it's /zip. On my Mandrake system, I used /mnt/zip.

>// if you don't have other scsi devices.
>(This allows long names)

Yeah, I prefer "-t vfat" to "-t msdos", either will work though. If you have
other SCSI devices, you can get the device name from dmesg after you do the
modprobe|insmod. For example: 

[root@bother greg]# modprobe ppa    
[root@bother greg]# dmesg | tail
ppa: Found device at ID 6, Attempting to use PS/2
ppa: Communication established with ID 6 using PS/2
scsi0 : Iomega VPI0 (ppa) interface
scsi : 1 host.
  Vendor: IOMEGA    Model: ZIP 100           Rev: D.13
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Detected scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 6, lun 0
SCSI device sda: hdwr sector= 512 bytes. Sectors= 196608 [96 MB] [0.1 GB]
sda: Write Protect is off
 sda: sda4
[root@bother greg]#                    

Note that it also gave the partition number for the disk that was mounted in
the drive (sda4). I have some other disks that I repartitioned to use partition
1, and the last line for one of them reads " sda: sda1" instead. If you don't
have a disk in the drive it'll give you a message saying it couldn't read the
partition table.

> you can use mke2fs to make an ext2 fs
> mke2fs /dev/sdaX where X is the partion you want.

I thought you had to use fdisk to repartition it first? It's been quite awhile
since I've done one. Most of the time I mount & use them in their preformatted
state (vfat) since I often use them to transfer stuff between my Linux system
and Windows systems. 

Greg

-- This is the linux-help@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi