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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.net.uk!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!jraynard.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: james@jraynard.demon.co.uk (James Raynard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: help a novice. (PART II) Date: 2 Jul 1996 01:51:25 -0000 Organization: A FreeBSD Box Lines: 85 Message-ID: <4r9vat$4a6@jraynard.demon.co.uk> References: <31d76f64.6864854@news.axxcess.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost X-NNTP-Posting-Host: jraynard.demon.co.uk In article <31d76f64.6864854@news.axxcess.net>, shaun. <handyman@axxcess.net> wrote: > >1a. How do I access the floppy drive?? DOS floppies - install the mtools package (it even allows you to use DOS-style commands like 'mcopy a:*.* /tmp' to copy everything from the floppy into the /tmp directory). FreeBSD floppies - 'mount /dev/fd0a /mnt' and then use Unix commands like 'cp /mnt/* /tmp'. >2a. When I type in...fdformat(1) or another command that uses the >()'s, it say "Badly placed ()'s", where do i place them? The expression "fdformat(1)" is a shorthand for "the command is 'fdformat' and it's described in section 1 of the manual". The error message is from the shell (the program that reads what you type at the command prompt); brackets have a special meaning for the shell and it gets confused if you use them when it wasn't expecting them. So 'fdformat blah blah' will invoke the command, 'man 1 fdformat' will display the "man page" (a description of how fdformat works. Unfortunately man pages are generally designed as references for people who already know how the command works, rather than a tutorial for new users). A couple of caveats: fdformat will only format the disk and not put a filesystem on it - you'll need to use newfs(8) for that. The good news is that newfs can make intelligent guesses at how to do this, so you don't have to work out values for all the strange parameters - the bad news is that is thinks everything's a hard disk and puts 600k of inodes at the start, so you only end up with half the floppy useable, if you're not careful. Personally, I've never found FreeBSD-formatted floppies very useful - I always use DOS floppies for things like carrying files around or making simple backups. >Okay, as the subject says, i know very little about UNIX, but i am >learning, so if you could answer the below stupid questions, i would >be enormously appreciative: Well, everyone has to start at the beginning and there's nothing stupid about your questions:- >1. How do I change the permissions? I am the administrator, but i >can not even make a directory, nor download a file. chmod(1) - that means the command is 'chmod' and help is available by 'man 1 chmod' (see - you're getting the hang of it already!) Another useful one is chown(8), which changes the owner of a file. mkdir(1) creates a directory. >2. What command do i use to access the floppy drive (a:)?? See above. >3. Is there an online guide for the stupid? Try the FreeBSD handbook - 'more /usr/share/doc/handbook/handbook.ascii'. Or, if you've got a Web browser working on your FreeBSD system, go to file://localhost/usr/share/doc/handbook/handbook.html If you want the very latest version, try http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/ (the one on your system is the version that was available when the last release came out, in November). By the way, I've typed example commands in single quotes to help separate them from the rest of the text. Don't type the quotes when you actually give the commands! -- James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland james@jraynard.demon.co.uk http://www.freebsd.org/~jraynard/