sudo mount -o rw /dev/fd0 /media/floppy -t vfat # -t msdos
sudo mount -o rw /dev/fd0 /media/floppy -t vfat # -t msdos
mformat a:
It doesn't record bad block information to the Fat, use mbadblocks for that.
mbadblocks - tests a floppy disk, and marks the bad blocks in the FAT
mbadblocks a:
fdformat /dev/fd0
fdformat does a low level format on a floppy disk. Still need mformat to add the MS-DOS filesystem to floppy.
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Date: 1998/04/05
: 2: How do I format a floppy disk?
Format a floppy-disk is actually two-step process 1. low-level format 2. Creating a filesystem
In DOS both are performed with format command. In Linux they are separate, becouse there are lot of ways to use floppy disk. You can dos-format it, you can create native linux file system or you can just write data to raw floppy using tar (which is most portable way to transfer data between unix system) or put kernel on it to make Linux boot disk
First step is performed via fdformat command. For example, if you have 1.44MB floppy on /dev/fd0 (dos A:) you can format it with command
fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
/dev/fd0H1440 is actual device in /dev, not an abbreviation.
There is number of such files for other formats of floppies. Typically files for 3-inch formats have capital H and for 5-inch ones have small h
Second step depends: for DOS format simpliest way is 'mformat a:' (assuming that your mtools are properly configured) for Linux native
mke2fs /dev/fd0
for using raw floppy - just write to /dev/fd0 using program of choice. For example
cat /vmlinuz >/dev/fd0 for making boot floppy
or
tar cf /dev/fd0 some files to archive
Victor Wagner
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Date: 1995/12/18
>: It's nice to be able to use a diskette with a bad block. >: If you get a dozen, throw the disk out. >I have a growing collection of 3.5" HD diskettes that won't format >because they have track 0 errors. >This may be a problem with my floppy disk drive, but I have a suspicion >that it's something to do with Linux's formatting tools (mformat, >fdformat or superformat). >Does anyone else have similar problems?
I have this problem from time to time in DOS as well. I don't know what causes it, but waving a really strong magnet over the disk a few times (to erase it) it sometimes fixes the problem (Honest! I have done this in the past using big donut shaped magnets taken from old DEC hard disk packs). A bulk eraser would probably work even better. Also, try formatting the bad disk on a different computer, as some floppy drives seem to deal with this problem better than others. Once you get the disk to format successfully, you should be able to reformat it on your own machine without any problem.
Paul Secinaro
>>Does anyone else have similar problems? >I have this problem from time to time in DOS as well. I don't know
I've had a few disks like this… It usually happens when I do something stupid with the disk/drive (hook up cables wrong, eject during a write, etc..). Generally, a format /u takes care of it under DOS… I haven't seen a disk with this problem under linux, so I can't say what to do with linux :)
Larry Daffner
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Date: 2001-11-19 05:32:12 PST
> I got an error message which said that /dev/fd0 was an > unknown device.
Then the file is not pointing to the correct kernel driver, or the driver itself is not loaded. Check with lsmod if the driver for the floppy is loaded as a module, try recompile the kernel.
Davide
This was a problem discussed on mandrakeforum.com. It occurs when the pnp bios disagrees with the linux PNP autodetection. To quote their errata page:
Why: The PNP_BIOS does not initalize the floppy controller like the BIOS. Because of this, you may have difficulty access the drive with applications like mount or dd, and will receive errors such as "/dev/fd0: No such device or address" or "Input/output error".
Solution: Boot your kernel with the "nobiospnp" option specified at the boot command line.
Brandon Darbro
Get rid of the devfs Ie, change the append=" devfs=mount..." to append=" devfs=nomount" in /etc/lilo.conf
Now you will again have a /dev/fd0 which probably works. Note also that you could also try mount -t vfat /dev/floppy /mnt/floppy since /dev/floppy on the devfs file system is supposed to point to the right drive. Also you should have a floppy line in /etc/fstab, so you could just try mount /mnt/floppy
Bill Unruh
Thanks to everyone who replied to my question. I followed Brandon Darbro's advice, passed the option nobiospnp to the kernel, and now my floppy drive is working.
TLY
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux Date: 2001-11-23 11:39:23 PST
> I am using Mandrake8.1 and neither as root or a normal user I am able > to mount my floppy drive in Linux. 'mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0' > returns 'mount: /dev/fd0: unknown device'.
The file /dev/fd0 exists, doesn't it? What are it's major and minor number? You can find it out with (ls -l /dev/fd0). It would give something like: brw-rw---- 1 lurch floppy 2, 0 Aug 30 22:30 /dev/fd0 The major number is 2 and the minor number is 0
Check if the major number in /proc/devices
cat /proc/devices
If you don't have the /dev/fd0 at all, try creating one with mknod: cd /dev; mknod fd0 b 2 0
Try this: Reboot your system, and at the boot prompt (press ESC if you have a graphical LILO boot screen), type "linux nobiospnp".
According to Mandrake 8.1 Errata: "The PNP_BIOS does not initalize the floppy controller like the BIOS."
If this trick works out, then to make this permanent, edit your "/etc/lilo.conf" file to have a line something like
append=" devfs=mount nobiospnp"
located under the section of your currently used kernel.
Chris