floppy pause
 

When dragging files to a floppy disk, the file immediately appears on the target, but the actual copying (LED flashing) starts only about 30 secs later (RHEL4). The same with deletion.
Why this pause?

Your system probably mounts the floppy with the "async" option. This causes the I/O stuff to be done asynchronically. Try to add "sync" and "dirsync" to your floppy's mount options and that should stop, but in my experience the disc write could take much longer.

Sorry, but how do I get to the mount options?

Type "mount" (if the device is mounted) at the command prompt or open your /etc/fstab file (it's the fourth column). From the manpage (man mount) about the "defaults" that you will probably see in /etc/fstab: "Use default options: rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async."

Thank you. 'mount -o sync' helped.
I tried to add sync to fstab via mc, saved the file, rebooted, and then...
The file 'etc/fstab' was unchanged again. like I never modified it.
How can I set this option permanently?

Usually by just editing it :-| I had this once with Mandrake I think. You should read the documentation, it's a RHEL specific thing I guess. A quick search showed that at least "kudzu" is one program on RHEL that might automatically change /etc/fstab entries.