Re: [seul-edu] Samba CD server...

[Dan Yonker <dyonker@zeeland.k12.mi.us>]

Doug Loss wrote:

> Ryan Booz wrote:
>
> > >Dan Yonker wrote:
> > >I have set up a linux box serving iso images of various cd-roms using the loop
> > >device.....
> >
> > I'm showing that I still have a lot to learn about Linux.  But I'm wondering why
> > I would want to use the loop device rather than just mounting the CD ISO images as
> > seperate file systems?  My understanding of the loop device is that it can map a
> > file (like ISO) onto it's own virtual device.  Are we just talking semantics here?
>
> Using the loop device is a way of letting the ISO image be mounted in the same way as
> the actual CD-ROM in its drive would be.  Me, I'd just load the CD-ROM into the drive,
> do a cd -R * [/whatever_your_shared_directory_is], and then share the contents of the
> CD from the ext2 (or whatever) filesystem.
>

On occasion I have run into software that wants the CD. The loop device is a way to make
the machine believe it has the CD-ROM.  Sharing the files often works as Doug pointed
out, however if you run into a stubborn program the ISO trick is great.