Has anyone had any success what-so-ever in getting an LS-120 IDE drive to work with OpenSuSE? I am running the 64-bit version of 11.1, but the drive was installed prior to the OS installation, so should have been correctly setup by the install. Then again, so should the floppy.
> Has anyone had any success what-so-ever in getting an LS-120 IDE drive
> to work with OpenSuSE? I am running the 64-bit version of 11.1, but the
> drive was installed prior to the OS installation, so should have been
> correctly setup by the install. Then again, so should the floppy.
>
> Hardware shows following:
>
> 17: udi =
> ‘/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_LS_120_VER5___00’
(…)
> Based upon a prior thread on this I added the following line to
> /etc/fstab
>
> /dev/sdd /media/ls120 subfs
> fs=floppyfss,sync,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
Try commenting # that line in /etc/fstab and let suse “hal” auto-detect the
drive.
> which creates the following entry in the boot log
>
> mount: unknown filesystem type ‘subfs’
If suse cannot auto-detect the unit, restore that line in /etc/fstab but
define “auto” or “vfat” as filesystem. IIRC, “subfs” was deprecated
sometime ago…
Well, as stated, I installed OpenSuSE on the machine with the drive installed so OpenSuSE should have placed an entry in fstab if HAL actually did anything.
I’m trying to get the ls-120 formatted disks to work, not just 3.5" floppies. I have a 3.5" floppy drive.
> Well, as stated, I installed OpenSuSE on the machine with the drive
> installed so OpenSuSE should have placed an entry in fstab if HAL
> actually did anything.
It is not a requirement to be in /etc/fstab
For instance, usb disks are managed “on-the-fly” and hal does not add a
reference in /etc/fstab unless user wants a static mount point.
> I’m trying to get the ls-120 formatted disks to work, not just 3.5"
> floppies. I have a 3.5" floppy drive.
Try with “auto” or “vfat” in fstab:
/dev/sdd /media/ls120 auto
fs=floppyfss,sync,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
Restart the system and check the output of “dmesg” and “mount” commands.
Also, review “/var/log/messages” and “/var/log/warn” to see what’s going on
with your drive.
With no entry in /etc/fstab you can stick a preformatted 3.5" floppy in and it will show up as a recently plugged in device. Stick a preformatted LS-120 disk in and it churns briefly, then nothing.
I’ve added your line to /etc/fstab to see if that makes a difference, but I seriously doubt it will. I’m also going to boot a live Ubuntu CD/DVD to verify Ubuntu has no problem with LS-120 disks. I know it doesn’t, because when I was using Ubuntu I was using the LS-120 to take daily snapshots of the books I was writing. I want to be able to use the LS-120 for daily snapshots again.
Perhaps the correct drivers for LS-120 are only in Debian distros?
Ubuntu didn’t have a problem with the drive, as I remembered. This problem is specific to OpenSuSE.
Keep in mind I have NO TROUBLE accessing 3.5" floppies in the drive, it is the 120Meg LS-120 disks OpenSuSE is puking on.
Had the following lines in fstab:
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto noauto,user,exec,rw,sync 0 0
/dev/sdd /media/ls120 auto fs=floppyfss,sync,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
Rebooted and found the following in the log:
/dev/sdb5 on /windows/D type vfat (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,gid=100,umask=0002,utf8=true)
mount: you didn’t specify a filesystem type for /dev/sdd
I will try all types mentioned in /etc/filesystems or /proc/filesystems
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
failedLoading fuse module done
Mounting fuse control filesystemdone
I have now changed the ls120 line to read as follows because with the prior line I couldn’t mount a 3.5" floppy as a user.
/dev/sdd /media/ls120 auto noauto,user,rw,fs=floppyfss,sync,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
Please let me stress again. There is no problem in finding the drive or performing read/write against 1.44Meg media. The problem is when 120Meg media is inserted.
Here’s the part which really burns my backside. You see all kinds of messages in this forum about how people installed OpenSuSE onto LS-120 drives, then you do a Web search and find messages like this one:
seasoned geek wrote:
> Here’s the part which really burns my backside. You see all kinds of
> messages in this forum about how people installed OpenSuSE onto LS-120
> drives, then you do a Web search and find messages like this one:
>
> ‘Linux-Kernel Archive: Re: LS-120 floppy support. Any driver? If not
> let’s get some people…’
> (http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9705.2/0374.html)
>
> claiming full support was added to kernel 2.1.x back in 1997.
>
>
> Then you come across a very detailed article at:
>
> ‘LS-120 drive (with linux)’
> (http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/hardware/ls120.html)
Why does that burn your backside? That article has to be at least 10
years old. Just look at the kernel versions that are mentioned.
> With no entry in /etc/fstab you can stick a preformatted 3.5" floppy in
> and it will show up as a recently plugged in device. Stick a
> preformatted LS-120 disk in and it churns briefly, then nothing.
Have you ever tried to mount the unit manually? I mean, once the system
boots, go to console and try someting like:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdd /mnt
> I’ve added your line to /etc/fstab to see if that makes a difference,
> but I seriously doubt it will. I’m also going to boot a live Ubuntu
> CD/DVD to verify Ubuntu has no problem with LS-120 disks. I know it
> doesn’t, because when I was using Ubuntu I was using the LS-120 to take
> daily snapshots of the books I was writing. I want to be able to use
> the LS-120 for daily snapshots again.
>
> Perhaps the correct drivers for LS-120 are only in Debian distros?
Just check the logs and the output of the commands I told you to get any
clue from the drive. Things are not always as easy as we’d like
> Ubuntu didn’t have a problem with the drive, as I remembered. This
> problem is specific to OpenSuSE.
>
> Keep in mind I have NO TROUBLE accessing 3.5" floppies in the drive, it
> is the 120Meg LS-120 disks OpenSuSE is puking on.
And what happens when you insert any ls-120 disk on the drive? :-?
Just insert one, go to /media/ls120 and tell us what’s the result (any
message error, empty media…).
Also, after inserting and accessing the disk, go to console and
type “dmesg”. Then put the relevant logs here.
> Ubuntu didn’t have a problem with the drive, as I remembered. This
> problem is specific to OpenSuSE.
>
> Keep in mind I have NO TROUBLE accessing 3.5" floppies in the drive, it
> is the 120Meg LS-120 disks OpenSuSE is puking on.
>>And what happens when you insert any ls-120 disk on the drive? :-?
It chirps twice and stops trying.
>>Just insert one, go to /media/ls120 and tell us what’s the result (any
message error, empty media…).
Nix nada nien in /media/ls120. btw, that is a directory I had to manually create.
>>Also, after inserting and accessing the disk, go to console and
type “dmesg”. Then put the relevant logs here.
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] READ CAPACITY failed
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Add. Sense: Cannot read medium - unknown format
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write Protect is on
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 66 10 80
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] READ CAPACITY failed
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Add. Sense: Cannot read medium - unknown format
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write Protect is on
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 66 10 80
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
And this is with a brand-new-just-took-the-wrapper-off-it Imation brand preformatted SuperDisk.
Current /etc/fstab entries
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto noauto,user,exec,rw,sync 0 0
#/dev/sdd /media/ls120 auto noauto,user,rw,fs=floppyfss,sync,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
When you stick a 3.5" 1.44 floppy in it you get the following from dmesg
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] 2880 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.47MB/1.40MiB)
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 66 24 00
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] 2880 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.47MB/1.40MiB)
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 66 24 00
sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
sdd:
>> >>And what happens when you insert any ls-120 disk on the drive? :-?
>>
>> It chirps twice and stops trying.
>>
>> >>Just insert one, go to /media/ls120 and tell us what’s the result
>> (any
>> message error, empty media…).
>>
>> Nix nada nien in /media/ls120. btw, that is a directory I had to
>> manually create.
>>
>> >>Also, after inserting and accessing the disk, go to console and
>> type “dmesg”. Then put the relevant logs here.
>>
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] READ CAPACITY failed
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
>> driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Add. Sense: Cannot read medium - unknown format
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write Protect is on
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 66 10 80
>> sd 4:0:1:0: [sdd] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t
>> support DPO or FUA
O.k… there are 2 messages I’m worried about:
[sdd] READ CAPACITY failed
[sdd] Add. Sense: Cannot read medium - unknown format
First one dunno how to solve it. It seems cannot handle the capacity of the
medium. Jump to console and type “fdisk -l /dev/sdd” and put the output.
The second one may be solved by mounting the unit as vfat (instead
of “auto”) or just indicates that currently has no format…
>> And this is with a brand-new-just-took-the-wrapper-off-it Imation brand
>> preformatted SuperDisk.
Did you previously give any format to the ls-120 disk?
Imation branded disks come preformatted with a label printed on them telling you to never format them.
Things seem to be much more deeply pooched than initially thought.
linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sdb
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000553e3
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 243 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2 244 121601 974808135 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 244 2675 19535008+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 2676 20668 144528741 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 20669 81456 488279578+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 81457 121601 322464681 83 Linux
linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sdc
Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0005713f
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 1020 8193118+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc2 3825 30401 213479752+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdc3 * 1021 3824 22523130 83 Linux
/dev/sdc5 3825 30401 213479721 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition table entries are not in disk order
linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sdd
Disk /dev/sdd: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cf7ab
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 121601 976760001 83 Linux
linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sde
It appears OpenSuSE has some significant issues with SATA and IDE being used together on the same machine. I have a pair of 1TB drives along with a 250Gig drive which has all of the boot partitions on it.
Drive now appears to be coming up as SDA
When you put a 1.44Meg floppy in the drive you get the following:
linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sda
You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.
Disk /dev/sda: 1 MB, 1474560 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
Remove that and stick in an ls-120 disk and you get the following:
linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sda
The only thing which could have changed the drive lettering is when removing the /etc/fstab entries I removed hdd=ide-scsi from the boot options since I was trying to get back to absolute square one.
dmesg output looks much the same
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] READ CAPACITY failed
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Cannot read medium - unknown format
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Write Protect is on
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 66 10 80
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] READ CAPACITY failed
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE,SUGGEST_OK
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Cannot read medium - unknown format
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Write Protect is on
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 66 10 80
sd 0:0:1:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn’t support DPO or FUA
> Imation branded disks come preformatted with a label printed on them
> telling you to never format them.
Never trust manufacturers
If you are sure the ls-120 superfloppy disk is empty and there is no data on
it, just give vfat format, the same way you do with standard floppy disks.
Testing this will not hurt
> Things seem to be much more deeply pooched than initially thought.
> linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sde
>
>
> It appears OpenSuSE has some significant issues with SATA and IDE being
> used together on the same machine. I have a pair of 1TB drives along
> with a 250Gig drive which has all of the boot partitions on it.
>
> Drive now appears to be coming up as SDA
O.k. Then let’s do things in the right way.
Latest linux distributions do not use the old nomenclature to designate
devices (sda, sdb, sdc…) and partitions (sda1, sdb1, etc…), but do use
a unique way to get them linked right, that is, mounting them “by-id,
by-label or by-uuid”. So, forget about the idea /dev/sdd to be your ls-120
super-floppy forever as it will/may change on every boot
To handle this, open a console and run:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-id
And put the output here. This way you could properly identify you ls-120
drive in your /etc/fstab.
> When you put a 1.44Meg floppy in the drive you get the following:
>
> linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sda
> You must set cylinders.
> You can do this from the extra functions menu.
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 1 MB, 1474560 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x00000000
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
>
>
> Remove that and stick in an ls-120 disk and you get the following:
>
> linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sda
It does not see anything? No output?
> The only thing which could have changed the drive lettering is when
> removing the /etc/fstab entries I removed hdd=ide-scsi from the boot
> options since I was trying to get back to absolute square one.
Well, I think the mess is due to the new way kernel handles devices. They
must be properly defined in /etc/fstab.
> Imation branded disks come preformatted with a label printed on them
> telling you to never format them.
>>Never trust manufacturers
>>If you are sure the ls-120 superfloppy disk is empty and there is no data on
it, just give vfat format, the same way you do with standard floppy disks.
Testing this will not hurt
Well, I use Kfloppy to format floppy disks and it only sees Standard and Secondary or some such thing. It would not identify the LS-120 as a floppy…sigh…
>>O.k. Then let’s do things in the right way.
>>Latest linux distributions do not use the old nomenclature to designate
devices (sda, sdb, sdc…) and partitions (sda1, sdb1, etc…), but do use
a unique way to get them linked right, that is, mounting them “by-id,
by-label or by-uuid”. So, forget about the idea /dev/sdd to be your ls-120
super-floppy forever as it will/may change on every boot
>>To handle this, open a console and run:
>>***
>>ls -l /dev/disk/by-id
>>***
>>And put the output here. This way you could properly identify you ls-120
drive in your /etc/fstab.
> When you put a 1.44Meg floppy in the drive you get the following:
>
> linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sda
> You must set cylinders.
> You can do this from the extra functions menu.
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 1 MB, 1474560 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x00000000
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
>
>
> Remove that and stick in an ls-120 disk and you get the following:
>
> linux-j7oz:/home/roland # fdisk -l /dev/sda
>> Well, I use Kfloppy to format floppy disks and it only sees Standard
>> and Secondary or some such thing. It would not identify the LS-120 as a
>> floppy…sigh…
Do you have an external ls-120 unit or an IDE one? If using an external usb
case or usb->ide adaptor the unit should be handle as any other usb flash
device, that is, it will be automounted when plugged, under /media.
>> contents of fstab
>> #/dev/sdd /media/ls120 auto
>> noauto,user,rw,fs=floppyfss,sync,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8
>> 0 0
I would definitely keep that line commented. First try to make the device to
work by manually mounting before adding any entry in /etc/fstab.
seasoned geek wrote:
> BTW, the drive doesn’t show up in the Yast partitioner. I just tried
> in case you wanted to push that issue.
>
> This is just plain broken. LS-120 support was diligently added to the
> kernel back in/around 1997 and it is buggered now.
This may be a classic case of bit rot. If no one uses a device, it
becomes unusable.
Do you have the driver for the LS120 loaded? The name is ide-floppy.
Use the command ‘lsmod | grep floppy’. If you see “floppy”, that is
the wrong one. You need “ide-floppy”.
>> >O.k… did you try with yast partitioner?
>>
>>
>> No, I didn’t try yast partitioner because these are Super Floppies, not
>> partitioned drives.
O.k. then. I was thinking you could be using an external box (usb to ide)
and suse was detecting the unit as another storage media device.
>> >Wait… I cannot see your device being listed here.
>>
>> >Unless it’s an usb device.
>>
>> >Do you have an external ls-120 unit or an IDE one? If using an
>> external usb
>> case or usb->ide adaptor the unit should be handle as any other usb
>> flash
>> device, that is, it will be automounted when plugged, under /media.
>>
>>
>>
>> You don’t see it because this is a Super Floppy. If you look closely
>> you will see nothing is listed for my CD-ROM or my floppy drive. ls
>> will only show what is MOUNTED or has an entry in fstab…unless I’m
>> consuming pharmacuticals again.
O.k.
The above command just listed all detected devices that can be
mounted “by-id” in /etc/fstab. So if your unit is no listed there, it
cannot be used that way.
>> >I would definitely keep that line commented. First try to make the
>> device to
>> work by manually mounting before adding any entry in /etc/fstab.
>>
>>
>>
>> We are a long way from being able to manually mount.
>>
>> When there is no 1.44Meg floppy in the drive it shows up in the
>> nardware listing as follows:
System detects the unit but has problems with high capacity disks.
> BTW, the drive doesn’t show up in the Yast partitioner. I just tried
> in case you wanted to push that issue.
>
> This is just plain broken. LS-120 support was diligently added to the
> kernel back in/around 1997 and it is buggered now.
What puzzles me is that standard 3 1/2 floppy disks are properly handled :-?
I’m out of ideas :-). Maybe you can boot from Ubuntu LiveCD and test from
there so you can have more clues on how to manage this unit in modern
kernels. IIRC, you said the unit was working right in Ubuntu.
