Unable to read windows floppies
 

HI all!

My problem is that I cannot get vector linux (based on slack) to read any "windows formatted" floppy disks sucessfully. I think this is a more linux based issue than a distrobution specfic one...

Some details ...

I mount my floppy disks using mount /mnt/floppy. I then do a ls /mnt//floppy only to find the file names of the floppy are all scrambled. This only occurs with windows formatted floppy disks. Ext2 floppy disks are fine!

My fd0 line in fstab reads as:

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy/ auto defaults,noauto,user 0 0

I think the problem is that my system doesn't have modules support loaded in for the file system (perhaps!)


I tried doing a modprobe /sbin/vfat which should load the correct driver at least I think... but it comes up not found. how can I check all the proper filesystem drivers are loaded in?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Thanks in advance!

Tom

The command needs to be /sbin/modprobe vfat.

um yeah agreed it does! Just a typo though! I was typing the correct version when trying it.

I just get a cant "locate module vfat" error.

Just to confirm vfat is needed to read windows formatted floppies isn't it?!?!

Thanks

Tom

Hmmm...

Been a few days now and I still am having trouble with reading windows formatted floppy disks....

I stared using slack 9.0 & still get the same problem. I know that there is an option when comiling the kernel to enables vfat as a module... does anyone know if slackware 9.0 has support for window floppies "turned on" by default???

Please can anyone help I am getting desperate... aside from this using slackware has been almost painless(!)

Thanks

Tom

My fstab looks like this for fd0.
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0

Also it should be modprobe fat. Floppies are formatted using the fat file system.

Check out /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. In that file there is modules that can be loaded on boot time. Check it out and uncomment the /sbin/modprobe fat line.

Nope no luck...

modprobe fat produces the usual not found error...

Interestingly "modprobe ntfs" works fine! Pity I dont have any NTFS disks in the system (!)

I am beginning to think that my copy of slack doesn't have support for fat compiled as either a module or built into the kernel....

I also noticed something in rc.modules which looks interesting... it was an entry for a modprobe ide-floppy... funny enough this doesn't work when typed into the command line either!

I am going to try and reinstall and then if that doesn't work try a reinstall... if this doesn't work I'll swap to back to Mandrake... :(

Tangle just out of interest what is your output from lsmod...

My lsmod looks like this:
ide-scsi 7456 0
3c509 7968 0
isa-pnp 27432 0

Did you try to uncomment the /sbin/modprobe fat and restart ? If this doesn't work I do not have a clue. Sorry

Yeah I did uncomment the line and restart... no luck...

I think my copy of slcakware is fine... I try something else like mandrake 9.0 on this particular machine ...

I'm eager to try slackeware though so my copy will probably get tested on another machine... hope the same problem doen't occur again!

Thanks for you help though!

Opps,

Figured what was going on. In my systems BIOS the floppy disk drive had been specified as the wrong type... i.e. the old 5 1/2 inch drive....

I only figured this out after reinstalling win98 on the machine! Time to but slackware back on!

Feeling a little dumb right now <grin>.

Still dunno why this only affected fat formatted floppies and not ext2 or ext3 formated floppies!