Today’s Linux installation procedures are pretty slick. Even if you are installing Linux for the first time, you probably won’t need to do more than take a quick glance at the installation manual, and you’ll be up and running in no time. These days, the hard part is not installing Linux, it’s getting Linux to do exactly what you want it to after you have installed it.
Figure One: This railroad track diagram shows the syntax of the mount command.
Today’s Linux installation procedures are pretty slick. Even if you are installing Linux for the first time, you probably won’t need to do more than take a quick glance at the installation manual, and you’ll be up and running in no time. These days, the hard part is not installing Linux, it’s getting Linux to do exactly what you want it to after you have installed it.
Most people come to Linux from a different operating system (like MacOS or Windows), and they are used to a certain way of doing things. Because Linux is so different from those systems, making the switch can be somewhat disorienting. One area that particularly trips up new users is the procedure for mounting filesystems — particularly filesystems associated with removable media (such as CD-ROM disks). Since this area is the cause of so much confusion, we’re going to spend this month and next month looking at the whys and hows of mounting filesystems.
Where Are the Drive Letters?
One of the first things users moving from Windows to Linux notice is that there are no drive letters under Linux. “How do I access the a: drive?” and “How do I access the…
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