Floppy Drive

[seeker]

I previously posted a question pertaining to creating a Grub Boot Floppy, but my problem appears to go deeper than that. I appear to only have limited access to the floppy drive, because I am having a problem even reading them. This problem remains, even when logged in as root. I have checked the permissions as far as I know how to, to give read, write and execute permissions to both the root and root group. The floppy works perfectly under Windows, so I doubt that there is any kind of hardware problem. To be brief, I created a device icon on the desktop, set the path and permissions to the floppy, and I also looked at /dev/fd0, but at this location, it says that these are only links, and have no permissions attributes. Is there something more that I can look for?

[chunkey]

symlinks?


ls -l /dev/fd0
(goes where?)
or can you access /dev/.static/dev/fd0?

[seeker]

There does not appear to be any symlinks. Here is the terminal output:


linux:~ # ls -1 /dev/fd0
/dev/fd0
linux:~ #
linux:~ # whereis .static
.static:
linux:~ # which .static
linux:~ #

I also looked in the file manager via the path that you gave, and found nothing.

[chunkey]

linux:~ # ls -1 /dev/fd0
/dev/fd0



Hmm, something is wrong...
are you sure you _typed_ "ls -l /dev/fd0"? (a small "L" not 1)

(maybe you need to load the module... modprobe floppy)

[seeker]

I had used an "l" in the command and a "1" in the switch. I ran it again with all "l"s and this is the output:

wallwalker@linux:~> ls -l /dev/fd0
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 2, 0 2004-10-01 22:17 /dev/fd0
wallwalker@linux:~>

However, I'm not really sure what this means.

[chunkey]

I had used an "l" in the command and a "1" in the switch. I ran it again with all "l"s and this is the output:

wallwalker@linux:~> ls -l /dev/fd0
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 2, 0 2004-10-01 22:17 /dev/fd0
wallwalker@linux:~>

However, I'm not really sure what this means.

Ok, /dev/fd0 looks good... (do you know, if your _wallwalker_ is in the _disk_ group?)

anyway can you please post _cat /proc/devices_?

[seeker]

Yes, Kuser shows wallwalker in every group.

[code]
wallwalker@linux:~> cat /proc/devices
Character devices:
1 mem
2 pty
3 ttyp
4 /dev/vc/0
4 tty
4 ttyS
5 /dev/tty
5 /dev/console
5 /dev/ptmx
6 lp
7 vcs
9 st
10 misc
13 input
14 sound
21 sg
29 fb
81 video4linux
108 ppp
116 alsa
128 ptm
136 pts
171 ieee1394
180 usb
188 ttyUSB

Block devices:
1 ramdisk
2 fd
3 ide0
7 loop
8 sd
9 md
11 sr
22 ide1
65 sd
66 sd
67 sd
68 sd
69 sd
70 sd
71 sd
128 sd
129 sd
130 sd
131 sd
132 sd
133 sd
134 sd
135 sd
253 device-mapper
254 mdp
wallwalker@linux:~>

[evilghost]

Here's a stupid question, you're not trying to read /dev/fd0 directly are you? You're mounting it right?


sudo mkdir -p /mnt/floppy
sudo mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
cd /mnt/floppy


df -h should show the floppy as being mounted too if you're mounting it.

[seeker]

The desktop icon shows the green triangle on the lower right, which I believe indicates that it is mounted, but if df -h is supposed to list the floppy as mounted, then perhaps not:


wallwalker@linux:~> df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hdc3 26G 7.5G 18G 30% /
tmpfs 501M 36K 501M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/hdd1 19G 7.3G 12G 39% /windows/D
/dev/hdc1 25G 3.3G 22G 14% /windows/C
wallwalker@linux:~>

If this shows that it is not mounted, how do I mount it?

[evilghost]

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/floppy
sudo mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy


The floppy is then mounted at /mnt/floppy, make sure you have a disk inserted when you mount it. You would also "sudo umount /dev/fd0" if you want to unmount it.

You can substitute /mnt/floppy for the mount-point of your choice. Hope this helped.

Sorry for my lack of experience with Fedora, I've only delt with RH in a console-only server environment and currently use Ubuntu/Debian for my workstation/server needs. I couldn't tell you what the green triangle means.

[seeker]

I have no idea of what this means, but it didn't appear to work:

wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mkdir -p /mnt/floppy

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these two things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.

Password:
wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mkdir -p/mnt/floppy
mkdir: invalid option -- /
Try `mkdir --help' for more information.
wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mkdir -p /mnt/floppy
wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mount /dev/fd0/floppy
mount: can't find /dev/fd0/floppy in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
wallwalker@linux:~>

[evilghost]

Seeker, slow-down, re-read what I said to type, you're mangling the commands. :)

"sudo mount /dev/fd0/floppy" != "sudo mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy"

[seeker]

I think that I corrected the command, but still got about the same result:


wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mount /dev/fd0/mnt/floppy
Password:
mount: can't find /dev/fd0/mnt/floppy in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
wallwalker@linux:~>

I may not be understanding, but I'm really not used to all of this. Even in Windows, my usage of DOS was minimal.

[evilghost]

mount[space]/dev/fd0[space]/mnt/floppy where [space] is the spacebar.

Man, you must have some insane font selection or something :)

[seeker]

Unless I messed up again, there is still something wrong:


wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
Password:
/dev/fd0: Invalid argument
mount: /dev/fd0: can't read superblock
wallwalker@linux:~>

[evilghost]

Got a disk in the drive?

[seeker]

Ehh, I had forgotten to insert a floppy, as you told me to. Now the result is as follows:

wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
Password:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
wallwalker@linux:~>

Does this mean ext2, DOS, etc.? Would this mean that it would be limited to this choice?

[evilghost]

That floppy formatted? Looks like it's type raw..

If you know how to use IRC or got an MSN Messenger account (ie, GAIM) I guess I could hop on IRC/MSN and walk you through it; probably be more efficent than this.

I have no problem with trying to help you out, everyone has to start somewhere, and you're doing pretty well so far. :)

[seeker]

I'm not certain. It was a reject from when I tried to make a Smart Boot Manager floppy. I would have assumed that it was formatted, because it did copy one of the two files that I wanted. The other file would not copy though. Should I just do this again with another floppy? I do not believe that I have any good floppys made with SuSe. I don't really want to destroy any of my Windows floppys though.

[seeker]

I just checked the mount point for the desktop icon, and it shows /media/floppy. I would have assumed that it should be /mnt/floppy, but there is no option to change it.

[evilghost]

Do a:
floppy --format /dev/fd0

[evilghost]

I just checked the mount point for the desktop icon, and it shows /media/floppy. I would have assumed that it should be /mnt/floppy, but there is no option to change it.


sudo umount /dev/fd0
sudo rm /mnt
sudo mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy

[seeker]

If you know how to use IRC or got an MSN Messenger account (ie, GAIM) I guess I could hop on IRC/MSN and walk you through it; probably be more efficent than this.

I have a bad habit of skip reading, and missed this. I wouldn't mind using a messenger to get help, but at the moment, I have none installed. I rarely ever use them.

[seeker]

I didn't get the result that I expected from any of this:


wallwalker@linux:~> sudo umount /dev/fdo
Password:
umount: /dev/fdo: not found
wallwalker@linux:~> sudo rm /mnt
rm: cannot remove `/mnt': Is a directory
wallwalker@linux:~> sudo mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
wallwalker@linux:~> floppy --format /dev/fdo
bash: floppy: command not found
wallwalker@linux:~>

[evilghost]

seeker, what font are you using?

fd0 (foxtrot delta zero) is the floppy device.


sudo umount /dev/fd0
sudo rm -r /mnt
sudo floppy --format /dev/fd0
sudo mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy


Try cut and pasting into a terminal to avoid typos/transposing/character substition. :)