This chapter provides general guidelines for managing removable media in the Solaris OS.
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
The following section describes new removable media features in the Solaris release.
For a complete listing of new Solaris features and a description of Solaris releases, see Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 What’s New.
Solaris 10 1/06: The volume management daemon, vold, is now managed by the Service Management Facility (SMF). This means you can use the svcadm disable command to disable the following new volfs service, if appropriate:
# svcadm disable volfs |
You can identify the status of the volfs service by using this command:
$ svcs volfs STATE STIME FMRI online Sep_29 svc:/system/filesystem/volfs:default |
For more information, see smf(5).
You can use the svccfg command to display and to set additional vold properties. For example, you could temporarily enable vold logging to help troubleshooting a problem. For example:
# svccfg svc:> select system/filesystem/volfs svc:/system/filesystem/volfs> setprop vold/log_debuglevel=3 svc:/system/filesystem/volfs> exit # svcadm disable volfs # svcadm enable volfs |
You can also use the svccfg command to display a listing of settable vold properties.
# svccfg svc:> select volfs svc:/system/filesystem/volfs> listprop vold/* vold/config_file astring vold/log_debuglevel count 3 vold/log_file astring vold/log_nfs_trace boolean false vold/log_verbose boolean false vold/root_dir astring vold/never_writeback_label boolean false svc:/system/filesystem/volfs> exit |
For a description of these properties, see the vold(1M).
Solaris 10 1/06: Removable media management is improved. Previously, vold did not create device links for removable devices that contain no media. Now, device links are properly created for devices that contain no media, similar to the following:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 Jun 13 13:09 /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0 -> /vol/dev/rdsk/c2t2d0/nomedia |
Now, you can use the cdrw and rmformat commands to list devices that have no media when vold is running.
You can revert back to the previous vold behavior by changing the following support nomedia entry in the /etc/vold.conf file as follows:
support media |
Then, restart vold. For more information, see vold.conf(4).
In addition, vold is now hot-plug aware. This improvement means that if you insert removable media, the media is automatically detected and mounted by vold. There should be no need to restart vold manually to recognize and mount a file system from any removable media device.
If you are using a legacy or non-USB diskette device, then you might need to issue the volcheck command before vold can recognize the media.
If the media is detected, but for some reason, is unmounted, then you'll need to run the following commands:
# volrmmount -i rmdisk0 |
Before you hot-remove a removable media device, eject the media first. For example:
# eject rmdisk0 |
Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for managing removable media.
Removable Media Management Task |
For More Information |
---|---|
Access removable media | |
Format removable media | |
Write data CDs and DVDs and music CDs |
The Solaris release gives users and software developers a standard interface for dealing with removable media. Removable media services provide the following benefits:
Automatically mounts removable media. For a comparison of manual and automatic mounting, see the following section.
Enables you to access removable media without having to become superuser.
Allows you to give other systems on the network automatic access to any removable media on your local system. For more information, see Chapter 3, Accessing Removable Media (Tasks).
The following table compares the steps involved in manual mounting (without removable media services) and automatic mounting (with removable media management) of removable media.
Table 1–1 Comparison of Manual and Automatic Mounting of Removable Media
Steps |
Manual Mounting |
Automatic Mounting |
---|---|---|
1 |
Insert media. |
Insert media. |
2 |
Become superuser. |
For diskettes, use the volcheck command. |
3 |
Determine the location of the media device. |
Removable media services automatically perform many of the tasks that are required to manually mount and work with removable media. |
4 |
Create a mount point. |
|
5 |
Make sure you are not in the mount point directory. |
|
6 |
Mount the device and use the proper mount options. |
|
7 |
Exit the superuser account. |
|
8 |
Work with files on media. |
Work with files on media. |
9 |
Become superuser. |
|
10 |
Unmount the media device. |
|
11 |
Eject media. |
Eject media. |
12 |
Exit the superuser account. |
Essentially, removable media services enable you to access removable media just as manual mounting does, but more easily and without the need for superuser access.
If your system has more than one type of removable device, see the following table for their access points.
Table 1–2 How to Access Data on Removable Media
Access |
Insert |
Find the Files Here |
---|---|---|
Files on the first diskette |
The diskette and type volcheck on the command line |
/floppy |
Files on the removable hard disk |
The removable hard disk and type volcheck on the command line |
/rmdisk/rmdisk0 or /rmdisk/rmdisk1 |
Files on the first CD |
The CD and wait for a few seconds |
/cdrom/volume-name |
Files on the first DVD |
The DVD and wait for a few seconds |
/cdrom/volume-name |
Table 1–3 Where to Access Removable Media
Access File Systems With This Path |
Access Raw Data With This Path |
---|---|
/floppy/floppy0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 |
/floppy/floppy1 |
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy1 |
/cdrom/cdrom0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0 |
/cdrom/cdrom1 |
/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom1 |
/rmdisk/rmdisk0 or /rmdisk/rmdisk1 |
/vol/dev/aliases/rmdisk0 or /vol/dev/aliases/rmdisk1 |
/pcmem/pcmem0 |
/vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0 |