Hi. I am trying to back up the /etc directory to a floppy. I figured that I have managed to mount the floppy, but have failed with the rest. Can anyone help? I type the following

[root@spc1-seve2-5-0-cust105 /]# mount /dev/fd0/mnt/floppy
mount: can't find /dev/fd0/mnt/floppy in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
[root@spc1-seve2-5-0-cust105 /]# mount /mnt/floppy
[root@spc1-seve2-5-0-cust105 /]# tar cvfz /mnt/floppy/etc.tgz/etc
tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
Try `tar --help' for more information.
[root@spc1-seve2-5-0-cust105 /]#

You didn't manage to mount the floppy. Try:
with the emphasis on the space in-between the device and the mount point.

I have tried this and it tells me that it is already mounted or busy.

[root@spc1-seve2-5-0-cust105 /]# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
mount: /dev/fd0 already mounted or /mnt/floppy busy
mount: according to mtab, none is already mounted on /mnt/floppy
[root@spc1-seve2-5-0-cust105 /]#

Your terminal session may be in /mnt/floppy or you may have a window open on that directory, which is what is making it "busy". Close any windows that are accessing it, then try this:

1. Move to another directory: cd /home/<user> (where <user> is your regular username)
2. As root, unmount it: umount /mnt/floppy
3. Remount it: mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
4. Copy /etc: cp /etc /mnt/floppy
5. Unmount: umount /mnt/floppy

That should do it. -- J.W.

The problem with this is a space as well; "/mnt/floppy/etc.tgz" and "/etc" need to be seperated.

J.W. I tried
cp /etc /mnt/floppy
and got this
cp /etc /mnt/floppy
cp: omitting directory `/etc'

Poetics I tried whats and got a tar error and result told me I had a broken pipe

tar cvfz /mnt/floppy/etc.tgz /etc
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
etc/
etc/profile.d/
etc/profile.d/ssh-client.sh
etc/profile.d/alias.sh
etc/profile.d/xhost.csh
etc/profile.d/xhost.sh
etc/profile.d/10lang.csh
etc/profile.d/10lang.sh
etc/profile.d/inputrc.csh
etc/profile.d/inputrc.sh
etc/profile.d/tmpdir.csh
etc/profile.d/tmpdir.sh
etc/profile.d/glib20.csh
etc/profile.d/glib20.sh
etc/profile.d/msec.csh
etc/profile.d/msec.sh
etc/profile.d/configure_keyboard.sh
etc/profile.d/gtk2.csh
etc/profile.d/gtk2.sh
etc/profile.d/kde3.sh
etc/profile.d/alias.csh
etc/profile.d/proxy.sh
etc/profile.d/numlock.sh
etc/profile.d/screen.sh
etc/profile.d/proxy.csh
etc/rpm/
etc/rpm/macros
etc/rpm/macros.cdb
etc/sysconfig/
etc/sysconfig/console/
etc/sysconfig/console/consolefonts/
etc/sysconfig/console/consolefonts/lat0-16.psf.gz
etc/sysconfig/console/consoletrans/
etc/sysconfig/console/consoletrans/iso15.acm.gz
etc/sysconfig/console/consoletrans/iso15.sfm.gz
etc/sysconfig/console/default.kmap
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-aliases
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown.d/
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-ipv6
tar (child): /mnt/floppy/etc.tgz: Cannot open: Input/output error
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-post
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-ppp
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-sit
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifdown-sl
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup.d/
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-aliases
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-ipv6
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-ipx
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-plip
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-plusb
etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-post
Broken pipe

here is exactly what I did to do this.
But I would like to point this out...


Its too big for a floppy disk. I would think yours might be too.

Well you can try: cp -R /etc /mnt/floppy

That will recursively copy /etc and all its subcontents. -- J.W.

"du -k" in /etc will show you how big it is.