When I try to use mke2fs command I am told, "Command not found." However, if I search the man pages (man mke2fs) I see an explanation of it.

Is there something I need to do to "activate" commands that are "not found?"

I have researched this, but have nothing so far.

I am running RH8.

Thank you in advance.

You need to be root to run mke2fs. So type 'su', enter root password and you can use mke2fs.

I did do it as root. It doesn't matter. Same thing.

have you tried "locate"? Type "updatedb" then "locate mke2fs" It should be under /sbin. So you can run it as root by typing "./sbin/mke2fs" or switching to /sbin and typing "./mke2fs"

If you're in an X session when you su, it won't work. Try opening another another console (Alt-F2), login as root and then run the command from there.

Ubien (et al) thank you. I was able to run the command ./mke2fs /dev/fd0 from within sbin. (I'll have to remember that)

Unfortunately, the command has not helped me trouble shoot my floppy access problem as suggested by another linux friend. It just sits there--the command that is.

I'll return to the hardware forum to pursue this further.

Thank you again and happy new year!

Thomas

/sbin is not in the Red Hat path by default... I learned that after many hours of hitting my head against the keyboard.

LOL! Good Knight, you should see my forehead!

I built this machine a couple of weeks ago and have not been able to run BIOS update from motherboard website due to the floppy not being accessible.

But like I tell my kids... perseverance builds character!

It is not in the user path, but is definitely in root's path. Make sure you login as root or 'su -' to root instead of a plain 'su'. Almost all binaries in /sbin and /usr/sbin are written for execution by the superuser. Although there are 'harmless' binaries like /sbin/lsmod that can be run properly by a normal user. If Redhat started including /sbin and /usr/sbin in the default user paths, I'd flame them to death .. because /sbin for superuser-binaries that root needs before the /usr filesystem is mounted. And /usr/sbin the ones not so essential ones that can wait.

hmm... well alright, I usually use su instead of logging in as root though. the only time I login as root is when I know I'm gonna be doing alot of work on my system, like when I recompile the kernel.

If you can't find mke2fs, why not just use mkfs? Works the same and will let you format more than ext2.

Please consider this matter closed. I thank you all and am very embarrassed to confess that the damned floppy drive had no power to it.

Sorry to all, but thank just the same. I did learn some things about commands being found in different files.

Happy new year and sincere regards,
Thomas

I got a good hardy laugh from that!
I had the same problem with my cd writer i was going nuts and finally i looked inside the case and whammo no power!
You are not the only one!
commuter

commuter,

That makes me feel a whole lot better. Thanks, buddy. I needed that.

(putting the revolver away now.)

LOL. Don't worry, it happens to all of us. I once disconnected the ide ribbon from the controller without realizing it, I was going nuts. hehe