[nmag-users] How to save data using the nmag CD

[Thomas Fischbacher]

This issue was raised recently in user support:

While the Knoppix Linux system on the nmag CD which we handed out at
the conference and which also can be downloaded from

http://nmag.soton.ac.uk/cd-images/

automatically recognizes harddrives and memory sticks, it normally does
not mount them in writable mode. So, if you want to save results
produced by some nmag run to a memory stick, you have to mount the
corresponding media in writable mode.

The strategy may depend to some degree on the filesystem you are using
on your storage space. Unfortunately, Microsoft does not publish details
on how NTFS works, so Linux-based support for writing to NTFS partitions
was implemented based on assumptions and observations. Hence, there
always is some residual risk of actually destroying data when writing
from a non-Microsoft operating system to a NTFS partition (thanks to
Microsoft).

For non-NTFS filesystems (i.e. vfat (as it is used on most memory
sticks) or Linux filesystems (such as ext3, ext2, reiserFS, xfs, etc.),
the strategy is straightforward. There are two equivalent ways how to
make a partition writable:

(1) The Desktop approach: Right-click on the drive icon. This will
open a menu. This will have a "Change read/write mode" entry
(unless it is a CD, of course). Click on that and confirm that
you want to make the partition writable.

(2) As root, enter the command "mount -o remount,rw /media/sda1"
(or wherever you mounted your memory stick or partition).

Do not forget to unmount before you unplug your storage device!

--
best regards,
Thomas Fischbacher
t.fisc...@soton.ac.uk