Floppy - how mount

hallergard · May 1, 2011, 8:53pm

There seems to be a change with the new kernels (using Suse 11.4 with kernel 2.6.37.6-0.5) that mount /media/floppy does not work anymore. What should now be the procedure?
In fstab have: /dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto rw,noauto,user,sync 0 0
Help would be appreciated

DenverD · May 2, 2011, 8:47am

On 05/01/2011 09:06 PM, hallergard wrote:
>
> There seems to be a change with the new kernels (using Suse 11.4 with
> kernel 2.6.37.6-0.5) that mount /media/floppy does not work anymore.

i agree it should work, but when you say it “does not work anymore” what
do you mean? that is, what is the error returned to the command line?

no reply is a sign of success…

> What should now be the procedure?

hmmmmmm… three cases below, what happens if you use


mount /media/floppy		<-you already said this doesn't work
mount /dev/fd0			<-what about this?
mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy	<-or this?

–
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[openSUSE 11.3 + KDE4.5.5 + Thunderbird3.1.8 via NNTP]
HACK Everything → http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5b4CCe9pS8&NR=1

johnvv · May 2, 2011, 11:02am

seeing as 3.5 floppy are no loner made ( no new ones except for in warehouses )
and no new computers have a 3.5 drive
the kernel NO LONGER looks for a 3.5 drive by default
so "mount /media/floppy " will NOT work

you need to run modprob first !


su -
modprob floppy

then you will hear it ZZZ – ZZZ as it sees it
then mount it
or put a floppy in and the system should then auto see it .

ken_yap · May 2, 2011, 11:45am

To be honest when I used floppies last century (?) I didn’t mount them but used mtools to access them. Much quicker when you just want to copy a file or two.

You’d have to have a pretty old machine to need floppies. Or have to copy data to some old lab equipment with floppy drive. Any machine made in the last few years handles USB media.

hallergard · May 2, 2011, 5:58pm

Thanks JohnVV - “modeprobe floppy” does not help
Thanks DenverD - with “not anymore” I mean that it worked fine with SuSE 11.3. Then I upgraded to 11.4, and I am not sure if it worked at first, but after upgrading the kernel it definately does not work anymore. It does not give an error message, same applies to “mount /dev/fd0” and “mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy”.
Thanks ken_yep - my machine is one year old Intel Core i3 RAM 8GB. I only rarely “need” to retrieve some 10-25 year old records that I never bothered to copy to the hard disk.

johnvv · May 2, 2011, 6:09pm

Thanks JohnVV - “modeprobe floppy” does not help

That better be a typo???
the command is "modprob " NOT modEprobE

please_try_again · May 2, 2011, 6:32pm

Yes. That’s how we used to do (we didn’t mount them) … in the last millenium actually.

it’s still available :

zypper in mtools

DenverD · May 2, 2011, 6:53pm

On 05/02/2011 06:06 PM, hallergard wrote:
>
> Thanks JohnVV - “modeprobe floppy” does not help
> Thanks DenverD - with “not anymore” I mean that it worked fine with
> SuSE 11.3. Then I upgraded to 11.4, and I am not sure if it worked at
> first, but after upgrading the kernel it definately does not work
> anymore.

ok, now i understand that part…thx

> It does not give an error message, same applies to “mount
> /dev/fd0” and “mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy”.

then i kinda confused, because no reply, no error and return to the
command prompt is supposed to mean: Your command was completed with no
errors… (or something like that)… so, i think it IS mounted

i think you can then issue


umount /dev/fd0

and if it is not mounted (as you think) THEN it should error…if it
does not, then that means success and if you then issue another umount
it must give an error, or something is REALLY strange…

well, i have not read the readme or change notes for 11.4, so maybe
‘they’ took the ability to mount a floppy out (and, that would make this
advice MUCH better than my own, so use it (but copy paste or type
carefully=:


su -
modprob floppy

>
> only rarely “need” to retrieve some 10-25 year old records that I never
> bothered to copy to the hard disk.

i’ve been putting that off also…i have stacks of 3.5 and larger
floppies that i wish i had on something else…sigh…

–
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[openSUSE 11.3 + KDE4.5.5 + Thunderbird3.1.8 via NNTP]
HACK Everything → http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5b4CCe9pS8&NR=1

hallergard · May 2, 2011, 7:24pm

Found the solution! in /etc/fstab change /dev/fd0 to /dev/fd0u1440
That is the only type of floppy I use.

DenverD · May 2, 2011, 7:56pm

On 05/02/2011 07:36 PM, hallergard wrote:
>
> Found the solution! in /etc/fstab change /dev/fd0 to /dev/fd0u1440
> That is the only type of floppy I use.

hey! cool…
but, where did you learn that (i wanna do some reading)

–
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[openSUSE 11.3 + KDE4.5.5 + Thunderbird3.1.8 via NNTP]
HACK Everything → http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5b4CCe9pS8&NR=1

martin_helm · May 2, 2011, 8:01pm

There seems to be a bug related to that
Bug-Entry : http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28522
Subject : Unable to mount FAT-formatted floppy on /dev/fd0, plus WARN_ON
when using /dev/fd0u1440
Submitter : Alex Villacis Lasso <avillaci [at] ceibo>
Date : 2011-02-07 17:21

hallergard · May 2, 2011, 11:53pm

JohnVV, Sorry for the typo, I ment “modprobe floppy” does not work
DenverD, I googled mount floppy + various kernels and stumbled upon a bug notice, don’t remember which distro, but tried it and it worked.

ken_yap · May 3, 2011, 12:52am

The fd0 device probes the media for the geometry, whereas in fd0u1440 it is assumed by the device node. Maybe that will shed some light on why the mount fails.