FRJ's Linux Zip Drive

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Getting stuff from one system to another is a real task. I do not have SAMBA running yet. So can not move files using my LAN from my Win95 system to my Linux system. I do have a Zip drive.

Linux-Mandrake does support the parallel version of the Iomega Zip drive. The first thing to do is to install the drive under Win95 to be sure it is working. Then you are ready for Linux to find the drive.

Boot from your Linux floppy. Choose a Custom install. When it asks if you have any SCSI devices answer yes. One of the choices from this menu will be "Iomega PPA3 (parallel port Zip)"
Select that choice and then autoprobe the device.

This may make any 100 MByte cartridge unreadable by Win95.

So for goodness sake do not put one of your important cartridges in the drive.
Then finish your Linux installation.

To see what is on your Zip drive do this:

  #mount -t msdos /dev/sda4 /mnt        #mount the zip drive using /mnt
  #startx                               #start your desk top

From the KDE desktop do a files and in the location bar put /mnt
You will be now looking at your Zip drive.
Now you can copy or what ever else you want to do.
I had downloaded Word Perfect 8.0 from Corell's site to my zip drive.
The pwreadme.txt file was there so I was off to the races.

Now if you really want to get fancy do this:

  #mkdir mnt/zip                        #make a mount point
  #mount -t vfat /dev/sda4 mnt/zip      #mount zip to mnt/zip and use long filenames
  #startx                               #launch desktop

If put /mnt on the files location bar and you will see /cdrom /floppy as well as /zip drives displayed.

If something has happened to your Zip drive such that Win95 can no longer read it.
Do the following from the BASH shell [(hint) right after root login]:

	# fdisk /dev/sda          #use fdisk on the first scsi drive which is the zip drive
	p                         #display partition information
	n                         #create a new partition if one does not exist
	p                         #'extended or primary' is prompt
	4                         #'partition number (1 - 4) ' is prompt
	1                         #'First cylinder (1 - 96) ' is prompt
	96                        #'Last cylinder ...' is prompt
	t                         #going to set the type now
	1                         #'Partition number (1 - 4) ' is prompt
	6                         #'Hex code ... ' is prompt. type 6 = DOS 16 bit >=32M
	a                         #make it bootable
	1                         #'Partition number (1 - 4) ' is prompt
	p                         #just to be sure you got it right
	w                         #write the partition information and depart fdisk

Now you might ask yourself why in the world did the folks at Iomega start with partition 4.
The answer is.......I haven't a clue.

This also will remove a ext2 file system (and everything in it of course) if you had created one.

If you want to make the zip drive accessible to all users you must do more work. From the command line do the following:

  #mkdir /mnt/zip             #make a mount point
  #vi /etc/fstab              #edit the file and add at the end of this file
  /dev/sda1   /zip   ext2   noauto,rw,user,nosuid,sync
  /dev/sda4   /zip   vfat   noauto,rw,user,nosuid,sync,mode=07
  :w                          #write the file 
  :q                          #quit vi

To see more on Zip drive see Kyle Dansie's excellent write up. Zip Drive HOWTO