[Techtalk] Loop devices Was Re: Bad Superblocks

[Judith Elaine Bush]

On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 10:45:32AM +0000, Conor Daly wrote:
> ARRGGHHH!  NOO!
> I didn't mean that!  I guess I should have detailed it...  
> 

Yup, figured out it had changed the image file after it didn't work by
comparing the hexdump of the beginning of the image file to the
device. So, indeed, i dd'ed the device again and created a new image,
this time changing it to read-only. Interestingly, the process only
messed with the leading block. The rest of the blocks were the
same. (Hopefully the back up superblocks would have been in the same
positions....)

> filesystem in a file.  Here, however, you already _have_ such an "fs in
> file" so you simply want to loop mount _that_.  That's just a one-liner:
> 
> mount -o loop -t ext2 /User/blondie/TIA3/roar /TIA3-B/part2
> 

IT was worth the try, but it didn't work. I'm planning on finding some
DOS HD utilites, and making a boot floppy, and muck around the system
in the New Year. (I've a new OS for my laptop top play with now.)

> Sorry I didn't detail the command earlier but I've been using 
> "mount -o loop" for years now and I'd just assumed people would know...

So i've run across this before but haven't really paid attention. Why
DO you use mount as a loop device? I've recall one person who
described how he was encrypting his life and it seemed he had to mount
an encrypted file as his home directory -- would that use the loop
device? Any other useful bits?

Thanks for the advice!

Cheers,
judith