UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am running AT&T System V R4.

My floppy device is actually located at /dev/dsk/f0 /dev/rdsk/f0
I think only file systems installed are ufs bfs proc fdfs.
There isn't a dtype command.

The disk doesn't have a tar file on it, but could you explain how to put a tar file on a disk without a file system, that might accomplish what i need done.
Thanks for the help

Should be:
tar cvf /dev/rdsk/f0 archive.tar list_of_file_names_to_add

Check with the man page as to multi-volume tar files, and whether a single file can span media.
In this instance the media is a sequential device.
AT&T R4 should be very similar to Novell Unixware version 2.

That's not a tar file on the diskette's file system; it turns the diskette into a tar file, i.e. destroys a file system (that was previously created by mkfs or format). If you go for that, the block device /dev/dsk/f0 might be faster than the raw(=character) device /dev/rdsk/f0.

If you want to look at possible file systems (for mkfs|format|mount), try

Code:

ls /usr/lib/fs/

In this mode, mkfs|format need the raw(=character) device /dev/rdsk/f0, while mount needs the block device /dev/dsk/f0.

I should have checked the manual.
The most common tar files (for SCO anyway) used the raw device, and formatting was all that was required to use the diskette.
So:
#format /dev/dsk/rf0
#tar cvf /dev/dsk/rf0 list_of_files

Because the i'm trying to get the tar file onto the Unix System, I will have to write it to a floppy from another computer.
I have a Ubuntu system, but it has no floppy. I tried using rawrite from Windows to just write the tar file to a disk. If i try to extract files from it using

Code:

tar xvf /dev/dsk/f0

I just get the message

Code:

tar: directory checksum error

Should I try and create a raw floppy containing the contents of the tar file, or try and put a filesystem on the floppy and copy the tar file itself to the hard drive and then extract?

Am I correct in assuming you have the following hardware:
Ubuntu with network access, no diskette drive.
Windows with network access and a diskette drive.
Unix with no network access, and a diskette drive.

1. The tar file that you create on the Ubuntu system should be readable on the unix system if, there are less than 17 levels of directories, and no file name including the path name exceeds 99 characters.
2. Check the unix system to see if it has dos utilities: doscp, dosrm, dosls, dosformat, dosdir. If so you may be able to read a dos formatted diskette.
eg: #doscp a:/mytarfile.tar /tmp/mytarfile.tar
Note that a forward slash is used instead of a backslash.
3. Do you have serial ports on the unix system, and at least one of the others?
The unix system should have uucp installed. You will need to create a null modem cable to connect the serial ports. You may have to install uucp on the ubuntu system. There are windows versions of uucp as well.

Thats pretty much my hardware. Here are some more details...
Windows XP no diskette drive with network access
Ubuntu no diskette drive with No network access (wireless problems )
Windows 98 with diskette drive no network access
Unix with diskette drive no network access

The TAR files i am dealing with are only 1 directory deep and don't have long filenames, so that wont be a problem.

I will check on the Dos utilities, but I fear the worst. It probably has uucp, and all the computers do have serial ports. Will i need one of those Bi-Directional Serial Cables to use uucp?