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Chapter 4. Diskettes and CD-ROMs
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Figure 4-2. gfloppy
Insert a diskette and change the settings in gfloppy to suit your needs; then click Format. The status
box will appear on top of the main window, showing you the status of formatting and verification (see
Figure 4-3). Once complete, you can eject the diskette and close gfloppy.
Figure 4-3. gfloppy Status Box
4.1.3.2. Using mke2fs
The mke2fs command is used to create a Linux ext2 file system on a device such as a hard drive
partition or (in this case) a diskette. mke2fs essentially formats the device and creates an empty,
Linux-compatible device which can then be used for storing files and data.
Insert your diskette into the drive and issue the following command at a shell prompt:
/sbin/mke2fs /dev/fd0
On Linux systems, /dev/fd0 refers to the first diskette drive. If your computer has more than one
diskette drive, your primary diskette drive is /dev/fd0, your second /dev/fd1, and so on.
The mke2fs utility has a number of options. The -c option makes the mke2fs command check the
device for bad blocks before creating the file system. The other options are covered in the mke2fs
man page.
Once you have created an ext2 file system on the diskette, it is ready to be used with your Red Hat
Linux system.