I login as a normal user...and try to access the floppy...
so I mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
the result is, "only root can do this"...
I am running RH7.3
I can't believe that a normal user can't even read a floppy or cdrom???
What have I done wrong??? can anyone help???

The problem is less likely to be that normal users cannot access the floppy. If you try to explicitely mount (i.e. provide both the device and mount-point) a device, then you will probably be given this error. Check your /etc/fstab file to see what permissions have been given to your floppy drive. If they're a bit confusing, post them here and we'll see what we can do for you.

well, this is my fstab:
what should be the setting for /dev/fd0 then???

=========================================================

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=/usr /usr ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda9 /home ext2 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda7 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

Add "user" after owner, comma separated. Hopefully that will take care of that annoying problem, and just a "tip". You can mount devices listed in your fstab by simply typing the location of the mount. Example:
To mount your dev/hda9 in /home all you would have to type is:
mount /home

Cool

I think you can just mount your floppy using
mount /mnt/floppy

I probably did this:
when I was installing redhat 7.3...I didn't put /dev/hda9 to mounting point /home...
so when I finished installing I have to add the line
/dev/hda9 /home....myself...

and I can't seem to mount /home...
fix??

do you have a directory named /home to mount it in, do you have a file system on hda9, what's the error for

mount /home

also you can use

mount /dev/fd0
or
mount /mnt/floppy

During RedHat installation it created a new /home. What you need to do:
1) Log in as root.
2) Rename your current /home (for example to /home_new).
3) Edit /etc/fstab, add there a line:
/dev/hda9 /home ext2 defaults 1 2
Save and exit
4) Create a new /home
mkdir /home

After reboot your old /home should be mounted as /home.
After writing this I've read that you've already added the entry. So just steps 2 and 4 are important.

Here is another problem:
I followed your advise...my floppy seems to mount right now...
but when I switch disk and do:
mount /mnt/floppy
it gives me a message saying /mnt/floppy is already mounted!!
so do I have to explicitly unmount the floppy (and cdrom??) and then mount them again???
is there easier way?...

you cannot just take out a mounted floppy


before taking out the floppy do this

umount /dev/fd0

or umount /mnt/floppy