Waht is up with mount?

[Jeff Vian]

Randy Ramsdell wrote:

> What is this all about?
>
> If I mount an ext3 filesystem like this:
>
> mount /dev/hdb1 /backup
>
> It mounts, but  "ls /backup"  produces : Literally !
>
> >??.@??  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.??? ??.%^?  ??.%^?  
> ???.???  ??.4^?  ??.4^?   ?a.?e?  ?a.?e?  ?m"      ?m".?m"
> ???.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.%^?  ??.%^?  
> ??.4^?  ??.4^?  ??.4^?   ?a.?e?  ?a.?e?  ?m"      ?m".?m"
> ???.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.???  ??.%^?  ??.%^?  
> ??.4^?  ??.4^?  ??.4^?   ?a.?e?  ?a.?e?  ?m"      ?n"
>
>
> If I mount like like this:
>
> mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb1 /backup
>
> "ls /backup" shows the actual files correctly.
>
> Since there isn't an entry in fstab for /backup, I am not sure why 
> "mount" actually mounts the drive.
>
> Is this normal?
>
Yes,  it is normal for mount to work this way.  It tries to autodetect 
the fs type and usually works with most filesystems.

Which os version?  FC2?

I don't understand why it does not autodetect the fs type.  Mine does 
the autodetect flawlessly.   This seems to really be your problem.