How Solaris Manages CD-ROM and Diskette Devices

This section describes how CD-ROM and diskette devices are managed by the Solaris operating environment.

Volume Management

Volume Management is a program in the operating system that automates the administration of your CD-ROMs and diskettes. For example, in previous Solaris releases (Solaris 2.1 or earlier), to mount and access data on a CD-ROM you had to perform many administrative steps (refer to ""Comparing Automatic and Manual Mounting"""Comparing Automatic and Manual Mounting").

In the Solaris operating environment, Volume Management automatically mounts CD-ROMs and diskettes with file systems at /cdrom/cdrom_name and /floppy/floppy_name respectively. It also keeps track of CD-ROM and diskette file systems during a workstation session (rebooting will clear the in-memory database). To view the media that has been inserted during a workstation session, list /vol/dsk:

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% ls /vol/dsk
supp_sol_2_7_smcc
unnamed_cdrom				unnamed_floppy

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Volume Management uses the configuration file /etc/vold.conf to determine which devices it manages. The default /etc/vold.conf file contains the following information:

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# @(#)vold.conf 1.13     92/10/28 SMI
#
# Volume Daemon Configuration file
#

# Database to use (must be first)
db db_mem.so

# Labels supported
label dos label_dos.so floppy
label cdrom label_cdrom.so cdrom
label sun label_sun.so floppy 

# Devices to use
use cdrom drive /dev/dsk/c0t6 dev_cdrom.so cdrom0
use floppy drive /dev/fd0 dev_floppy.so floppy0

# Actions
insert /vol*/dev/fd[0-9]/* user=root /usr/sbin/rmm
insert /vol*/dev/dsk/* user=root /usr/sbin/rmm
eject /vol*/dev/fd[0-9]/* user=root /usr/sbin/rmm
eject /vol*/dev/dsk/* user=root /usr/sbin/rmm
notify /vol*/rdsk/* group=tty /usr/lib/vold/volmissing -c

# List of file system types unsafe to eject
unsafe ufs hsfs pcfs

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Before you add secondary CD-ROM and diskette drives to a system, update the /etc/vold.conf file by adding the new devices to the "Devices to use" list. The syntax for a "Devices to use" entry is:

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use device type special shared_object symname options

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Each variable item in the device control line is defined in Table 4-3.

Table 4-3 Device Control Syntax Descriptions

Syntax	Description	Supported and Default Values
device	The type of removable media device to be used	cdrom, diskette
type	The class of device: multiple or single media support	drive
special	Path name of the device to be used. Path usually begins with /dev	Default support is for the devices /dev/dsk/c0t6 and /dev/diskette
shared_object	The location of the code that manages this device	The default location is /usr/lib/vold/name_ of_shared_object
symname	The symbolic name that refers to this device; the symname is placed in the device directory, either /cdrom or /floppy	Default values are  cdrom0, floppy0
options	The user, group, and mode permissions for the media inserted	Default values are user=nobody, group=nobody, mode=0666

After updating the /etc/vold.conf file, attach the drive and reboot your system with a reconfiguration boot.

1. ---

   Note -

   For information on booting your system in different modes, see "To Boot After Connecting a Peripheral Device"."

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Note -

Volume Management controls the /dev/dsk/c0t6d0s0 path to a CD-ROM drive and the /dev/diskette path to a diskette drive. An attempt to access a CD-ROM or diskette using these paths will result in an error message.

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Note -

For more information about Volume Management, see man Pages(4): File Formats and the System Administration Guide.

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Comparing Automatic and Manual Mounting

Figure 4-1 compares the steps for manual mounting (without Volume Management) and automatic mounting (with Volume Management). Volume Management performs many of the tasks previously required to manually mount and work with CDs and diskettes.

Figure 4-1 Comparison of Manual and Automatic Mounting

Reference Material for CD-ROM and Diskette Devices

CD-ROM and diskette file systems are mounted in default locations by Volume Management when the media is inserted. See Table 4-4 for more information. These mount points are only created and mounted if a file system is already resident on the diskette.

Table 4-4 CD-ROM and Diskette File System Mount Points

Media type	Mount location	State of media
Diskette	/floppy/floppy0	Symbolic link to mounted diskette in local diskette drive
	/floppy/floppy_name	Mounted named diskette
	/floppy/unnamed_floppy	Mounted unnamed diskette
CD-ROM	/cdrom/cdrom0	Symbolic link to mounted CD-ROM in local CD-ROM drive
	/cdrom/CD-ROM_name	Mounted named CD-ROM
	/cdrom/CD-ROM_name/partition	Mounted named CD-ROM with partitioned file system
	/cdrom/unnamed_cdrom	Mounted unnamed CD-ROM

To inform Volume Management that a diskette with a file system has been inserted into the drive, use volcheck(1). You do not need to use this command if you are going to use fdformat(1) or eject(1).

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Note -

For more information about these commands, see man Pages(1): User Commands and the System Administration Guide.

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If no file system exists on the media, Volume Management provides block and character devices in the /vol file system. See Table 4-5 for the location of diskette and CD-ROM media in the /vol file system.

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Note -

All releases provide a symbolic link in /vol/dev/aliases.

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Table 4-5 CD-ROM and Diskette Device Locations in /vol With No File System Present

Media Type	Device Location:	State of Media
Diskette	/vol/dev/diskette0/unnamed_floppy	Formatted unnamed diskette--block device access
	/vol/dev/rdiskette0/unnamed_floppy	Formatted unnamed diskette--raw device access
	/vol/dev/diskette0/unlabeled	Unlabeled diskette--block device access
	/vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled	Unlabeled diskette--raw device access
CD-ROM	/vol/dev/dsk/c0t6/unnamed_cdrom	CD-ROM--block device access
	/vol/dev/rdsk/c0t6/unnamed_cdrom	CD-ROM--raw device access

Using CDs and Diskettes

Table 4-6 shows the various tasks you can perform using CDs and diskettes. See the System Administration Guide, for details.

Table 4-6 What You Can Do With CDs and Diskettes

Media Type	Task	Available with File Manager?	Available through Command Line?
CD	Load a CD	Yes	Yes
	Examine the contents of a CD	Yes	Yes
	Copy information from a CD	Yes	Yes
	Find out if a CD is still in use	No	Yes
	Eject a CD	Yes	Yes
	Access CDs on other systems	No	Yes
	Make local CDs available to other systems	No	Yes
	Configure a system to play musical CDs	No	Yes
	Stop Volume Management	No	Yes
	Restart Volume Management	No	Yes
Diskette	Format a UFS diskette	No	Yes
	Place a UFS file system on a diskette	No	Yes
	Format a DOS diskette	No	Yes
	Load a diskette	Yes	Yes
	Examine the contents of a diskette	Yes	Yes
	Copy or move information from a diskette	Yes	Yes
	Copy or move information to a diskette	Yes	Yes
	Find out if a diskette is still in use	No	Yes
	Eject a diskette	Yes	Yes
	Access diskettes on other systems	No	Yes
	Make local diskettes available to other systems	No	Yes