Help File Library: Mounting a Parallel Zip Drive (100 or 250) on SuSE 8.0

1. First create the directory that the zip drive will mount to:
   mkdir /mnt/zip
2. Open the file boot.local with pico
   pico /etc/rc.d/boot.local
3. In the file itself, it tells you where to add information. This is what you add:
   insmod parport
   insmod imm
4. Save changes to boot.local.
5. Open fstab in pico
   pico /etc/fstab
6. Add the following information making sure to leave a blank line at the end of the file:
   

   /dev/sda	/mnt/zipdrive	vfat	users,noauto	0	0

7. Save changes to fstab

Why does this look a bit different from the other help files on this subject?

• Upon opening the files I was directed to here on linuxnewbie.org, the information in the # lines said that if I wanted to add information I should add it to boot.local. This probably has something to do with how Yast2 does system management, so I listened!
• It seems that insmod imm runs my parallel zip drive. It knows that the device itself is SCSI, but insmod ppa kept saying that there was no device there. So, maybe ppa is for an internal? or USB zip? I don't know.
• I used vfat instead of msdos in the fstab file. The msdos command did mount the drive BUT it showed the file with shortened DOS names. The vfat command supports long names.

The above information allows me to mount, read, and write to zips under linux. It only allows me to use one zip disk per boot up. Inserting another disk and trying to mount it gives me a "too many mounted filesystem" error.

But I have found a workaround!

I keep two console windows open: one is my user, and the other has root open at the command line.

If the root user issues:
mount /mnt/zip
umount /mnt/zip
then multiple zips can be mounted. If root changes the folder permission for /mnt/zip to 755
chmod 755 /mnt/zip
then the user can open the directory by surfing to it (in Konqueror for example) and read and write to it!ite to it!