[TriLUG] Problems with /etc/mtab

[Steven Blanchard]

Janyne Kizer wrote:
> Hmmm.  I removed the user from /mnt/floppy (owner was already there) and
> then logged in via SSH as a regular user.  When I tried to mount the
> drive, I got the following error:  "mount: only root can mount /dev/fd0
> on /mnt/floppy."  When I put user back in /etc/fstab, I could once again
> mount the device just fine as a regular user.  This isn't really what we
> are looking for.  Typically there are 10-20 people on each linux system
> (RH 7.2 at this point) logging on via x-terms.  If they would like to
> use a floppy disk, they need to go to the server and insert it and then
> mount it either from the server console or from their terminal.  
> 
> This is what the current /etc/fstab looks like.  
> 
> /dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy             auto   
> user,noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0


I did not realise that you would be trying to use the floppy on a remote 
machine. If you are mounting the floppy on a remote server, then the 
user option is required. Basically, the difference is that the user 
option allows a user to mount a floppy, and only the user who mounted 
the floppy can unmount it. The owner option allows whomever is logged in 
*locally* to mount and unmount the floppy. There is also a third option: 
users. The users option allows any user to mount or unmount the device, 
regardless of who mounted it originally. I would not be surprised if 
there were security implications with mounting the floppy as users, but 
maybe I am just paranoid ;-)

Your best bet might just be to keep the user option, teach the users to 
unmount floppies before removing them, and to remove stale mounts from 
/etc/mtab when necessary

Hope that helps
~Steven