Floppy disk problem

voitel · 07-15-2001, 02:29 PM

I don't know why, but my linux mandrake system does something strange with the floppy drive. I can not read or write to it. The kind of error messages I receive is "input/output error". Everything is mounted, and theoretically should work, but it does not. What should I do?

Voitel

webtoe · 07-15-2001, 05:05 PM

this is really weird!!!

especially if it mounts properly. usually if something is wrong, mount will spew error messages left right and centre!

i assume that the disk is formatted and has something on it. have you tried other disks or is it just one of them? it might be the disk itself; it might be deterriorating or something.

either that or your floppy drive is broken (or set up wrong). is the lead in properly?

as i said it should be mount spewing errors when you try to u/mount it.

very strange

Alex

voitel · 07-15-2001, 06:57 PM

Even though I am new to linux, i spent quiet a while whith UNIX HP-UX. Can you tell me what to do or how to fix this problem. i am running lnx4win under windows 98. The floppy works find with the windows and I can see it in the linux configuration. Maybe I have do recreate fd0 device, but I don't know how to do that.

HELP

Voitel.

linuxcool · 07-15-2001, 09:47 PM

Check your /dev directory and see if fd0 is in there.

The program to create devices is MAKEDEV. Check out its man page.

When you boot up linux, run the mount command all by itself. It will list the devices that are mounted. See if your floppy is mounted. Could you post a copy a your /etc/fstab file?

By the way, did the info I gave you help you solve your memory problem?

voitel · 07-15-2001, 11:46 PM

The fd0 device is in the /dev dierectory. There is also a ling to fd0 called floppy. I will try to post the copy of the file you asked during my next session. I am runnign lnx4win. I need to reboot.

voitel

voitel · 07-16-2001, 01:35 PM

/initrd/loopfs/lnx4win/linuxsys.img / ext2 loop 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda1 /initrd/loopfs vfat user,exex,umask=0 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,nosuid,noauto,exec,user,nodev 0 0
/dev/floppy /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user,rw 0 0
/dev/zip /mnt/zip auto user,noauto 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/mnt/windows/lnx4win/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

That is it. I still don't know why I can not read or write to a floppy.

voitel · 07-16-2001, 01:36 PM

What should I do?

voitel

webtoe · 07-16-2001, 01:46 PM

i have no idea, it is one weird problem. that looks like a normal fstab file to me. although you might want to change the line with /dev/floppy in it. change the vfat to auto

doubt that will make a difference but i have no idea even vaguely what is wrong. hopefully some brainy munchkin here will suddenly come up with an amazing answer that makes our intellects seem as pathetic as windows' IIS!

webtoe · 07-16-2001, 01:51 PM

have you tried writing to it as root?

ugge · 07-16-2001, 03:12 PM

I've had a similar problem.
Found out that the disks got trashed because of my floppy-drive.
At least that is what is left after trying dozens of times with different disks, all of them getting trashed.
Might be alot of dust in there.
Also post the result from the command:
ls -lap /mnt/floppy
There might be a file right problem.

linuxcool · 07-16-2001, 05:51 PM

OK. You take a vfat formatted floppy with its read/write tab set for read/write and you insert it into your drive. Then you run the command mount /mnt/floppy and you get a message about input/output errors. Could you post the exact error massage?

crash89 · 08-11-2001, 05:40 PM

I am having the exact same problem! When I run mount /mnt/floppy, it returns in about a minute with "/dev/fd0: Input/output error", after another minute, it returns "mount : block device /dev/fd0 is write protected, mounting read-only /dev/fd0: Input/output error. It then hangs for a while and returns an error about the filesystem type or, more often, "you must specify filesystem type. I checked etc.fstab filesystem type is auto. Please help!

voitel · 08-11-2001, 08:10 PM

I think that it is a bug in lnx4win 7.2 Just in case check out the permissions for the /dev/fd0 device. Basically I partitioned my hard drive and installed linux on separate partition. Now it is working just fine.

linuxcool · 08-11-2001, 11:02 PM

voitel, I reread this thread and I found that I completely missed an error in your fstab file. This line:
/dev/floppy /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user,rw 0 0

should read:
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,user,rw 0 0

I missed the ' /dev/floppy '. It should be ' /dev/fd0 '.

crash89 · 08-11-2001, 11:02 PM

Mine had a different problem. It is mounted as a different device! (ls120.0). Works now!