Cannot access the floppy drive

tkpmep · 09-18-2005, 07:25 PM

I installed Ubuntu Linux on a PC, used Open Office to create a Word document and then tried to copy it to a floppy disk. Unfortunately I get the following error message:

Error when copying to /media/ floppy0
You do not have permission to access this folder.

Oddly enough, I can copy files from the floppy to the PC. What do I need to do in order to copy files the other way?

Thomas Philips

J.W. · 09-18-2005, 08:06 PM

Based on your description, your user lacks the necessary write permissions to the /media/floppy0 directory. You can use the "chmod" command to modify file permissions (run "man chmod" without the quotes in a terminal console to bring up the manual on chmod)

Also, since you're dealing with a floppy, be sure that the "lock" on the physical disk is open. Good luck with it and Welcome to LQ -- J.W.

conner19 · 10-15-2005, 05:11 PM

ok, I just tried the same thing and got the same error. now I know how to change permissions on specific files, but how do you do that on a folder like /mnt/floppy? do I chmod 777 /floppy from the /mnt prompt?

ioerror · 10-15-2005, 06:04 PM

Add yourself to the floppy group (create it if it doesn't exist) and chgrp floppy /dev/fd0, then
chmod g+w /dev/fd0.

You'll have to log out and back in to register your addition to the floppy group.

DaneM · 10-19-2005, 05:09 AM

I've been having the same problem.

I followed ioerror's suggestion and chgrp'ed /dev/fd0, but that didn't work. I then chmod'ed /media/floppy0 to 777, which fixed the problem. This, however, created a new problem: anybody can now mess with that directory all they want (even delete it!). Do you have any idea what I can do about this new problem?

Thanks

--Dane

freakyg · 10-19-2005, 06:21 AM

you may need to add something to your /etc/fstab
it might look like this:

Code:

/dev/fd0  /mnt/floppy  auto   owner,users,rw    0  0