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S.U.F.F. - SUSE USB Floppy Formatter - Version 1.30

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3 Comments
by
jdmcdaniel3
, 10-Sep-2011 at 16:28 (3534 Views)
After one of our users had issues formatting a USB connected floppy disk, it came to me that I might want to automate this procedure. This works with openSUSE 12.2 & 12.3!



Please find below my bash script I called S.U.F.F. for SuSE USB Floppy Formatter. S.U.F.F. requires no run time parameters, it can install the required ufiformat if allowed, should it be missing. All floppy disk sizes are support as well as setting a volume label when complete.

To create suff, Copy and Paste the text of this script into a text editor and save it as the file suff in your home area bin folder (~/bin/suff). The script is too large to be posted in a message here and is now included in SUSE Paste.

S.U.F.F. - SUSE USB Floppy Formatter - Version 1.30

Open the above Link in a new Tab. Select the Download option in the top right and then select Open with Kwrite or other text editor and then save the bash script text file as ~/bin/suff. It is possible to directly download suff using the following terminal command (You must delete or rename the old version of suff first should one exist):

Code:
rm ~/bin/suff
Code:
wget -nc http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/903210 -O ~/bin/suff
To mark S.U.F.F. executable, open up a terminal session and run the following command:

Code:
chmod +x ~/bin/suff
It is even possible to string all three of these commands together as one. Copy the following command, open up a terminal session, paste it in and press enter:

Code:
rm ~/bin/suff ; wget -nc http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/903210 -O ~/bin/suff ; chmod +x ~/bin/suff
To use S.U.F.F. , just open up a terminal session and type:

Code:
suff
If you have any issues or comments about the S.U.F.F. bash script file, please let me know. SUFF does not yet work with openSUSE 12.1 because the ufiformat package is not yet in the repositories.

Thank You,

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Updated 22-Apr-2013 at 18:45 by jdmcdaniel3

Categories
Technical Advice , openSUSE Software

Comments

  1. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    S.U.F.F. - SUSE USB Floppy Formatter has been updated to Version 1.30 and now works with openSUSE 12.3 and its color engine has been replaced to work with no desktop loaded.

    Thank You,
  2. BeloSolo's Avatar
    Your script fills a real need and is just what I was looking for. Found it after several days of searching the 'net, and discarding several other solutions. Your script works 'a treat' for producing FAT-formatted floppies!

    When I first came across it, I thought it might offer the user an option of more than one type of format, but after I ran it several times, I realized it was designed exclusively producing floppies with the FAT format.

    At the risk of 'looking a gift horse in the mouth' -- would it be much trouble to add a Menu choice at the top, for the user to select the type of format? The options 'FAT' and 'Ext' came to mind. There may be better terms for the Menu choices, but those were the first I thought of ...

    I haven't looked into this, but I didn't specify which 'Ext' I was thinking of, because I was assuming Ext2 is the best choice for floppies? You may know this right off the 'top of your head', but I do not.

    With this addition, your script would be a one-stop solution for whatever floppy-formatting needs one might have. Reason for the request is, I sometimes like to have an Ext-formatted floppy, because when a file is transferred from one system to another, I know the GNU/Linux permissions will remain the same. It depends upon what I want to do with the file ...

    Ron
  3. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BeloSolo
    Your script fills a real need and is just what I was looking for. Found it after several days of searching the 'net, and discarding several other solutions. Your script works 'a treat' for producing FAT-formatted floppies!

    When I first came across it, I thought it might offer the user an option of more than one type of format, but after I ran it several times, I realized it was designed exclusively producing floppies with the FAT format.

    At the risk of 'looking a gift horse in the mouth' -- would it be much trouble to add a Menu choice at the top, for the user to select the type of format? The options 'FAT' and 'Ext' came to mind. There may be better terms for the Menu choices, but those were the first I thought of ...

    I haven't looked into this, but I didn't specify which 'Ext' I was thinking of, because I was assuming Ext2 is the best choice for floppies? You may know this right off the 'top of your head', but I do not.

    With this addition, your script would be a one-stop solution for whatever floppy-formatting needs one might have. Reason for the request is, I sometimes like to have an Ext-formatted floppy, because when a file is transferred from one system to another, I know the GNU/Linux permissions will remain the same. It depends upon what I want to do with the file ...

    Ron
    I am very happy you are enjoying using my SUSE USB Floppy Formatting bash script. I can't say that I have ever seen a floppy disk formatted with any other partition type than FAT. If you could point out examples of using EXT, I could emulate it I guess. The bottom line is that floppy disks are going out of style fast and I am not sure who is even making them any more. With the advent of USB thumb drives and the ability to boot from one, the last usage for a floppy disk I had of updating a PC BIOS is just no longer required.

    Thank You,

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