phantom floppy drive

English Hardware
1

Hello all,

I don’t have a floppy drive on my machine. However, /dev/fd0 has
recently shown up after an update, and I would like to get rid of it. It
is mostly kind of an annoyance, as it is always there in the device
notifier in KDE. I don’t know what my machine is detecting (see machine
specs below), but here is the device list:


# ls -l /dev | grep fd
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root            13 Oct 25 05:57 fd -> /proc/self/fd
brw-rw----  1 root   floppy      2,   0 Oct 25 05:57 fd0
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root             4 Oct 25 05:57 stderr -> fd/2
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root             4 Oct 25 05:57 stdin -> fd/0
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root             4 Oct 25 05:57 stdout -> fd/1

–
G.O.
Box #1: 12.3 | KDE 4.10 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 16GB
Box #2: 12.3 | KDE 4.9.2 | AMD Athlon X3 | 64 | 4GB
Laptop: 12.3 | KDE 4.10 | Core i7-2620M | 64 | 8GB

2

Maybe you can turn it off/disable it in the BIOS settings?
AFAIK the kernel queries the BIOS whether a floppy drive exists or not.

3

On 2013-10-26 12:06, wolfi323 wrote:
>
> Maybe you can turn it off/disable it in the BIOS settings?
> AFAIK the kernel queries the BIOS whether a floppy drive exists or not.

In 13.1, tested under vmware, there is no floppy created, yet I get a
floppy icon in XFCE.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

4

Maybe, but the floppy drive should disappear in KDE’s device notifier if it is disabled in the BIOS.

5

On 2013-10-27 09:46, wolfi323 wrote:

> Maybe, but the floppy drive should disappear in KDE’s device notifier if
> it is disabled in the BIOS.

What I mean is that I suspect that despite the bios, the kernel tries
and creates the device. If there is a device, desktops display an icon.
A desktop doesn’t look at the bios.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

6

No. The kernel asks the BIOS whether a floppy drive is there.

If I disable the floppy drive in the BIOS on my real hardware, no /dev/fd0 is created and the device notifier doesn’t show a floppy drive, even though it is still present physically.

And it’s the same the other way round of course.
If there is no floppy drive but the BIOS says there is, the kernel will create /dev/fd0 and the desktop will show it.

That’s why I suggested to the OP to look into the BIOS settings and disable the floppy drive if possible.

If there is a device, desktops display an icon.
A desktop doesn’t look at the bios.

Of course not, but the kernel. That’s what I said.
If the floppy drive is disabled in the BIOS, the kernel won’t create /dev/fd0 and the desktop won’t see it either.

Regarding VirtualBox:
I don’t have a /dev/fd0 there either (in a VM with 13.1), unless I add a floppy controller to the VM.
So check your settings.

7

100% correct. If /dev/fd0 is created whilst the floppy drive is disabled in the BIOS, something’s seriously wrong. But, I cannot manage to force that on real hardware.

8

To clarify:
Just adding a floppy controller doesn’t make /dev/fd0 appear there either.
You have to add a floppy drive to the controller as well.

But there are buggy BIOSes out there that tell the kernel a floppy drive is present when it actually isn’t. (unless you disable it manually of course)

9

On 2013-10-27 15:46, wolfi323 wrote:
>
> wolfi323;2593882 Wrote:
>> Regarding VirtualBox:
>> I don’t have a /dev/fd0 there either (in a VM with 13.1), unless I add a
>> floppy controller to the VM.
>>
> To clarify:
> Just adding a floppy controller doesn’t make /dev/fd0 appear there
> either.
> You have to add a floppy drive to the controller as well.
>
> But there are buggy BIOSes out there that tell the kernel a floppy drive
> is present when it actually isn’t. (unless you disable it manually of
> course)

I found the problem I had with vmplayer:

Despite the floppy being removed in the virtual hardware list (it is
added by default), you also need to go into the bios config screen and
disable there the floppy.

Just as in a real hardware machine…

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

10

On 10/27/2013 10:46 PM, wolfi323 wrote:
>
> wolfi323;2593882 Wrote:
>> Regarding VirtualBox:
>> I don’t have a /dev/fd0 there either (in a VM with 13.1), unless I add a
>> floppy controller to the VM.
>>
> To clarify:
> Just adding a floppy controller doesn’t make /dev/fd0 appear there
> either.
> You have to add a floppy drive to the controller as well.
>
> But there are buggy BIOSes out there that tell the kernel a floppy drive
> is present when it actually isn’t. (unless you disable it manually of
> course)
>
>

I must have a buggy BIOS. I had not enabled the floppy drive in the
BIOS, but I went into the BIOS to look and sure enough, there was the
floppy, enabled. Don’t fully understand why. From time to time we get
power outages, and my UPS is undersized (long story), so my pc just
shuts off when the power goes out. Maybe that caused the BIOS to adjust
itself.

–
G.O.
Box #1: 12.3 | KDE 4.10 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 16GB
Box #2: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | AMD Athlon X3 | 64 | 4GB
Laptop: 12.3 | KDE 4.10 | Core i7-2620M | 64 | 8GB

11

grglsn wrote:
> On 10/27/2013 10:46 PM, wolfi323 wrote:
>>
>> wolfi323;2593882 Wrote:
>>> Regarding VirtualBox:
>>> I don’t have a /dev/fd0 there either (in a VM with 13.1), unless I add a
>>> floppy controller to the VM.
>>>
>> To clarify:
>> Just adding a floppy controller doesn’t make /dev/fd0 appear there
>> either.
>> You have to add a floppy drive to the controller as well.
>>
>> But there are buggy BIOSes out there that tell the kernel a floppy drive
>> is present when it actually isn’t. (unless you disable it manually of
>> course)
>>
>>
>
> I must have a buggy BIOS. I had not enabled the floppy drive in the
> BIOS, but I went into the BIOS to look and sure enough, there was the
> floppy, enabled. Don’t fully understand why. From time to time we get
> power outages, and my UPS is undersized (long story), so my pc just
> shuts off when the power goes out. Maybe that caused the BIOS to adjust
> itself.
>
Talking about floppies i wish all modern day optical drives(cd,dvd,bd)
etc had a built in protective sheath like floppies . Would definitely
reduce scratches on them.

–
GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop