Subject: Mounting PC card partitions

From: Theo Markettos <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 00:19:17 +0000 (GMT)

According to the Filesystems Supported page, the DOS support provides:

> DOS
> Self explanatory. It allows reading of PC Emulator partitions, and
> MSDOS floppies. For PC Emulator partitions, you must use the loopback
> device.

I can't see anything in the FAQ about this, so can someone explain what
the loopback device is?  There's nothing obvious in /dev, and

mount -t msdos /mnt/adfs/Win95 /mnt/pc

doesn't like the fact that the partition isn't a block device.  I'm
probably being dense here, but what is the correct procedure?  Also, ISTR
that there is some partition table at the start of PC card partitions - if
so, is there any way of calculating the offset that needs to be used, and
how is it used in the mount command? 

Thanks,
Theo 

-- 
Theo Markettos                      [email-masked] (atm26)
Gonville & Caius College            [email-masked]
Cambridge, UK                       http://www.marketto.demon.co.uk/

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---

From: Matthew Wilcox <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 13:37:47 +0100

> how is it used in the mount command? 

Russell, please add to the FAQ:

In order to access a PC partition, you need to use the loop device with an
offset to skip the partition table.

Example:
	losetup -o 8704 /dev/loop0 /adfs/IDEDisc4/PC/Drive_C
	mount -t msdos /dev/loop0 /dos/c

[I'm not sure if the /dev/loopN entries are created by redhat at installation
 or not.  Can someone check for me and if not, add the following:

First, you need to create the loop devices in /dev.  To do this, run
	/dev/MAKEDEV loop
as root.  This only needs to be done once.
]

-- 
Matthew Wilcox <[email-masked]>
"I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms.  There are
better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of
one's contributions to computer science."  -- Donald E. Knuth, TAoCP vol 3
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