Hello all,

Am having difficulty accessing floppy. This is becoming more and more urgent because I have yet to install BIOS and need floppy to do so. This is a new machine built by yours truly running Red Hat 8.

Currently, when I try to access it through shell (mount /mnt/floppy) I get the following:
$ mount /mnt/floppy
/dev/fd0: Input/output error
mount: block device /dev/fd0 is write-protected, mounting read-only
/dev/fd0: Input/output error
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified
$

Do I need to chmod the fd0 or do something with the filesystem parameter or both? Or neither?

More info...

$ ls /mnt
cdrom cdrw floppy
$ ls -l -a /mnt/floppy
-rw-rw---- 1 Thomas floppy 72603 Aug 31 19:49 /mnt/floppy
$ ls -l -a /dev/floppy
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Dec 28 11:57 /dev/floppy -> fd0

And within the /etc/sysconfig/hwconf... (note the "detached" line)

class: FLOPPY
bus: MISC
detached: 1
device: fd0
driver: unknown
desc: "3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive"

I really would appreciate any help pyou could offer.

Thank you.

you could try this

fdformat /dev/fd0u1440

mkfs -t msdos /dev/fd0u1440

mount /mnt/floppy

David,

I appreciate your suggestion. I tried what you suggested, but upon hitting enter after the first line (fdformat /dev/fd0u1440) I get:

/dev/fd0u1440: Read-only file system

So I never got to the rest of it.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

you need to turn off the write protect tab on the floppy


you understand this will format the floppy?

then you can put files on it.

normally a bios upgrade requires you to make a bootable floppy from dos or windows and boot it.

Are we sure what we're trying to do here? I'm not.

David,
Please rest assured that the tab on the diskette is, in fact, in the unlocked position.

Regarding my objectives, they are (in order): 1. gain access to the floppy drive, i.e., get it working 2. use it to download BIOS update from motherboard web site 3. boot using floppy to run the update.

One of your comments has me a bit confused... Are you telling me that because I am running Linux only on this machine that I do not need to update BIOS? When I boot it says no BIOS installed--I didn't think this was possible for a machine to boot with literally no BIOS. I assumed, when I saw the message during boot, that there is a stripped donw BIOS of sorts allowing me to boot.

I thank you for your interest and I anxiously await your comments.

Sincerely,
Tom

that usually means you have a scsi card yet you have no scsi hard drive on it or you have some other device like an onboard raid controller

When I try to run the command on mine with the floppy locked I get the same error, I don't know why it would see it as read only, unless maybe it's mounted

OK guys and gals... please forgive me for my ignorance. I really am trying. I am doing a lot of research on my end. (I don't want anyone to think that I am just waiting for an answer to be handed to me. I don't operate that way.)

If I may back up for a moment and ask a very basic question about the physical/mechanical... I have a ribbon cable connected to the floppy channel on the mother board and the other end goes to the floppy drive. There is also a five (I think) pin outlet on the back of the drive and nothing is connected to it. I found no cable to fit it in the box that the drive came in and the motherboard instructions did not address it. Am I missing something here?

Yes, a power cable is required

you can usually tell if a floppy drive is hooked up right by the light on it.

if the light stays on all the time the ribbon cable is reversed. If it does not come on at all during boot. It may be bad or not connected, no power, etc..

If it comes on briefly during boot it should be ok.

David,

Hello again. I guess I will be opening up this puppy again to see what's what, but I do not remember the pins looking like a power connection. I seem to remember they were flat--not round like the other power pins in the box. I'll look now. And if it is simply a missing cable that has caused all my frustration I will probably shoot myself! And to think I just got counted! LOL.

It's a much smaller connector than the standard four pin power connector

OK guys, I don't deserve to live. I am taking up valuable space. The F@#%*ing drive didn't have power connected to it!

Please accept my sincere apologies.

If I may be so bold to ask a new question now? (Daring, I know)

When I click on the icon for the floppy I now get a new message:
Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: mount point /mnt/floppy is not a directory

Anyone still want to talk to me?

the icon is probably using /etc/fstab to decide where to mount the floppy

it sound like you have your mount point /mnt/floppy defined in /etc/fstab and the folder does not exist

as root do this

mkdir /mnt/floppy

that's it

David,

What! No ribbing?! I was under my desk in a fetal position prepared for some kicks to the stomach. LOL!

Thank you kind sir. I first removed the floppy dir (rm /mnt/floppy) and then recreated (mkdir /mnt/floppy) and all appears to be well. I am so relieved. I will now go on to update the BIOS from the motherboard web site.

Thank you very much, David, and everyone else.

I promise someday I will make up for this confusion.

Thomas

no problem

this was a good drill