umount: /mnt/floppy: device is busy
 

Logged in as root, I'm unable to umount /dev/fd0. I get "umount: /mnt/floppy: device is busy". I realize that I need to be in some other directory than the mounted directory. I couldn't umount while sitting at /etc.

This has happened to me a couple of times before and I simply rebooted the machine... but it seems to me, that's the Windows approach to correcting a problem. I'm hoping to learn how to do this right. Is there a process that could be reloaded or restarted to get the floppy drive to respond again? I popped a disk out this morning without umounting it. Then, this afternoon, I edited the /etc/fstab file to add nosuid,nodev, to /dev/fd0 but, when I discovered I was having a problem with it, I commented out the line that I added with those params or args and uncommented the line I was using before I made the change. I don't know, for sure, if that means it should be back to the configuration it was prior to the change I made... but I do know it's not busy, even though it says it is.

TIA for any help on this...
tryangle

Shrike Tike

lol...

your working directory is probably still in the floppy.
when u use the su command, you are working as 2 users, root, and normal user.
make sure you cd our of the /mnt/floppy as root, and as normal user, and issue the umount command as the same user who issued the mount command.

to be honest, you shouldnt really need to su at all to access the floppy.

As far as I know, the easiest way to fix the problem of umounting a floppy after removing it is to put the original floppy back into the floppy drive and then umount it.

You don't mess with /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab. Bad things can happen.

What happens when you mount something is that there is an entry made in /proc/filesystems. (You really don't want to screw around with that either.) This means that the mounted filesystem exists in ram--which is why rebooting clears it. Yes, it can be done, but you probably really don't want to go there. (That is a hint.)

Doh! I have had a floppy or cd refuse to umount as root as well. I'm sure of it, because I've been too lazy to su and logged in as root. Maybe its just me.

Thanks qwijibow
 

Yeah... that's pretty funny. I was sure I was off the floppy... I was, logged in as root. But I didn't realize that I was still on the floppy as a user... or that it mattered. I exited out of root and sure enough, there I was sitting on the floppy. I got off and umounted, no problem.

Thanks again...
tryangle

Shrike Tike

your welcome....
you wouldnt believe how many times i re-booted my system just cos of that...
and how stupid i felt when i worked out why....

(i have an a-level in computing, and a second year computer science degree student, lol)