Since the T8U write blocker doesn't work as expected with floppies (see https://github.com/KBNLresearch/ipmlab/issues/26), software-based write blocking on a Linux machine could be an alternative. This should be implemented at the level of the host machine, and the Ipmlab documentation should describe how to do this.
First I looked at the BitCurator Safe Mount procedure:
But for imaging the device doesn't need to (and shouldn't be) mounted at all (hence the "umount" command in ipmlab). So it seems we just have to prevent auto-mounting. From the BitCurator QuickStart guide:
The BitCurator environment has been customized to prevent the device management service from automatically mounting any media.
The procedure for disabling the automount feature varies slightly depending on the distro used. For Linux Mint Mate, (which uses the Caja file manager) I found this:
TODO: I'm assuming running the gsettings command as above only affects the current user. How to make this work for all users. Do we even need this?
Also, a user (operator of the workflow) will still be able to mount the floppy manually. But for preventing accidental write actions this is probably suffficient.
bitsgalore
commented
1 year ago
Since the T8U write blocker doesn't work as expected with floppies (see https://github.com/KBNLresearch/ipmlab/issues/26), software-based write blocking on a Linux machine could be an alternative. This should be implemented at the level of the host machine, and the Ipmlab documentation should describe how to do this.
First I looked at the BitCurator Safe Mount procedure:
https://confluence.educopia.org/display/BC/Safely+Mount+Devices
But for imaging the device doesn't need to (and shouldn't be) mounted at all (hence the "umount" command in ipmlab). So it seems we just have to prevent auto-mounting. From the BitCurator QuickStart guide:
The procedure for disabling the automount feature varies slightly depending on the distro used. For Linux Mint Mate, (which uses the Caja file manager) I found this:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=254941
Command:
For other Linux flavors the command slightly varies according to file manager, e.g.:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/89244/how-to-disable-automount-in-nautiluss-preferences
TODO: I'm assuming running the gsettings command as above only affects the current user. How to make this work for all users. Do we even need this?
Also, a user (operator of the workflow) will still be able to mount the floppy manually. But for preventing accidental write actions this is probably suffficient.