[RndTbl] command line question, cat and dd

millward millward at Ms.UManitoba.CA
Thu Aug 8 21:12:54 CDT 2002


I'm trying to write the file  eb-5.0.7-via-rhine.lzdsk
to a floppy diskette in /dev/fd0.
When I did the following command:
  cat   /home/ed/eb-5.0.7-via-rhine.lzdsk  /dev/fd0
the screen filled with zeros and wierd characters and
stayed that way after the command supposedly had
finished writting the file to the floppy. I had to boot
<Ctrl> <Alt> <Delete> since the keyboard was useless.
   No harm done. Everything seems OK after the boot.
Using another floppy, I tried:
 dd if=/home/ed/eb-5.0.7-via-rhine.lzdsk of=/dev/fd0 obs=18k
No problems with dd. The copy seemed to work quicker.
My question is, are the two commands, dd and cat, equivalent
for writting data to a floppy? And why did cat screw up my
keyboard?





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