Mounting and Unmounting (Floppy/CDROM/Hard-drive Partitions)

GNU/Linux Command-Line Tools Summary
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9.1. Mounting and Unmounting (Floppy/CDROM/Hard-drive Partitions)

Allowing Users to mount partitions

By default a UNIX system will allow normal users to unmount partitions. However unless given permission by the superuser, users will not be allowed to mount partitions.

The commands listed below will not work for normal users unless users have permission to mount that device.

If your particular distribution is setup not to allow users to mount partitions its not very hard to change this, simply edit the /etc/fstab file (as root) and:

Replace the word "defaults" with "user" or

Add "user" to the end of the options list for the particular partition(s).

mount

Mount a device. Attach the device to the file-system hierarchy (the tree ( / )). This needs to be done so you can access the drive (see below, Section 9.1 for an example).

umount

'Unmount' a device. The command umount (no 'n') unmount's a device. It removes it from the file-system hierarchy (the tree ( / )). This needs to be done before you remove a floppy/CDROM or any other removable device (see below, Section 9.1 for an example).

smbmount�//wincomp/c�/mnt/win

Where “win” would be the place you want it mounted and “wincomp” is the IP address or name of your windows computer.

Please note

Using ping/smbmount/ssh or other UNIX system programs with a computer name rather than IP address will only work if you have the computer listed in your /etc/hosts file. Here is an example:

192.168.1.100 new

This line says that their is a computer called “new” with IP address 192.168.1.100. Now that it exists in the /etc/hosts file I don't have to type the IP address anymore, just the name “new”.

smbmount is a tool from the samba package, it can mount a remote windows file-system onto your current computer.

Un-mounting uses the same syntax as 'umount', as listed above, or you may like to use:

smbumount /mountpoint

Here are some more examples of how to mount a file-system:

mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy 
mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom 
mount -t iso /tmp/image_file /mnt/iso_file/ -o loop

: The windows filesystem is known as vfat (standard on Windows 9x) or NFTS (standard on Windows 2000 and XP).
: for CDROM's
: This will mount an image file (usually a CD image file) so you can view/change the files (it will appear to be like any other device).

	The -t option
	On any system running a newer version of the Linux kernel the -t option is not always necessary and can be left out.

Examples of how to unmount a file-system (necessary before you eject/remove disk):

umount /mount_point

An example unmount point could be “/mnt/floppy” or “/mnt/cdrom”

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