Extract from http://amelia.experiment.db.erau.edu/ldp/LDP/gs/node176.html


                      4.6.2 Using floppies as filesystems
		      ------------------------------------

You can create a filesystem on a floppy just as you would on a hard
drive partition. For example,

	mke2fs /dev/fd0 1440

creates a filesystem on the floppy in /dev/fd0. The size of the
filesystem must correspond to the size of the floppy. High-density
3.5"  disks are 1.44 megabytes, or 1440 blocks, in size. High-density
5.25" disks are 1200 blocks.

In order to access the floppy, you must mount the filesystem
contained on it. The command

	mkdir /a

will create a subdirectory /a and the command
	
	mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /a

will mount the floppy in /dev/fd0 under the subdirectory /a. 
Now, all of the files on the floppy will appear under subdirectory /a
on your drive. The "-t ext2" specifies an ext2fs filesystem type.
If you created another type of filesystem on the floppy, you'll
need to specify its type to the mount command.

  The ``mount point'' (the directory where you're mounting the filesystem)
needs to exist when you use the mount command. If it doesn't exist, simply
create it with mkdir.

See the full  HOWTO, Section 4.8 for more information on filesystems, mounting, and 
mount points.

    Note that any I/O to the floppy is buffered just as hard disk
I/O is. If you change data on the floppy, you may not see the drive light
come on until the kernel flushes its I/O buffers. It's important that you
not remove a floppy before you unmount it; this can be done with the command

	umount /dev/fd0

Do not simply switch floppies as you would on an MS-DOS system; whenever you
change floppies, umount the first one and mount the next.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt Welsh
mdw@sunsite.unc.edu

