Using Gnome.
Linux fedleft 2.6.29.6-217.2.3.fc11.i686.PAE #1 SMP Wed Jul 29 16:05:22 EDT 2009 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

No floppy icon in Desktop Computer or Places>Computer or Places>Removable Media. No floppy icon on desktop after mounting floppy. Normal???

Also no CD listed in Places>Removable Media. Normal???

I'm not having problems mounting anything. Just that I expect to have ICONS in certain places and Places>Removable Media to list floppy and CD, even if they aren't mounted. But I don't know what's normal. F10 has everthing in place.

So, what's normal?? Any guesses as to what's wrong if the above isn't normal are welcome.

Thanks

Did you already check the gconf-editor settings? Hit alt+F2 (or run the command from a terminal emulator) and run
From there, navigate the tree on the left to apps, there nautilus, there desktop. There you should be able to un/check the boxes for various icons, or for "volumes_visible" which might do it. I say "might" because my computers haven't had a floppy drive for some time..not that I'd need one, but on the other hand, it'd be nice to see it there

If that doesn't help, there still might be a setting you can tune in gconf-editor, or then it's just something else. I know that the usual mounted drive icons are controlled that way, in addition to the computer/home/trash icons. I guess the reason for taking those icons off is that a lot of people today dislike having them there, and rather prefer a "clean" desktop (but why are they still using Gnome/KDE and don't go for really clean desktops?)

Hope it helps!

Edit: if you're interested, the gconf-editor isn't the same as Windows registry (not close) and it isn't a magical place for all the hidd3n settingz. You could do it all without the graphical app too, but it's just more convenient that way..if you want, try this:
(the "~" stands for your home directory) You should see an xml file there, which holds the settings gconf-editor shows you. So basically you can modify the stuff as easily as any other file (but if you don't use gconf-editor, make sure you do it right and don't mess the files up).

b0uncer,Thanks, I check it out in a little bit. Iu'll probably stick w/ the GUI. Let you know later.

Much obliged for a useful tip.

b0uncer, had to install it gconf-editor.

The only things listed in /apps/nautilus/desktop (check "visible" or not)are "computer_icon_name", "home_icon_name", "network_icon_name", trash_icon_name", "volumes_visible". The last only relates to volumes appearing or not on the Desktop when they are mounted.

No way to control what appears listed in "computer_icon", and apparently a floppy isn't considered a volume, because when I mount it, the icon doesn't appear anywhere.

The only reference to a floppy in gconf-editor is gfloppy, which is a floppy formatting app in Applications>System Tools.

Close, but no cigar. I had hopes.

Somebody told me that what appears in Desktop Computer and Places>Computer is controlled by "/sys/devices/". But in my case, it looks fine - /sys/devices/platform/floppy.0/block/fd0 and from there, about 16 links, files and directories.

I can't find what controls what icons or items appear when you open the "computer" icon.

What's really ridiculous is that I have a line under Places>Computer that says "Removable Media", and listed there are 8 partitions on fixed IDE drives. No even the CD is listed. Apparently most people don't have this Removable Media line.

If you've got any more ideas, be glad to hear them.

I've got a thing about keeping my windoz MBR clean.
I use floppys to boot into a grub menu. I can make a bootable floppy in about 3 minutes starting w/ a formatted floppy. Making a bootable thumb stick is a pain and space wasteful. Making a bootable CD is worse, and not easy to edit.
It's easier to repair Linux than windoz and if the worst happens I always have a floppy with the current MBR and BOOTSECTOR saved w/ a M$ prog called "disksave".

If you come up w/ any other ideas or thoughts, I'd be glad to hear them. I'm running on empty.

Thanks.

Well not really, except for one: try adding an entry for your floppy to your fstab file and see if that helps. I cannot try that out, but since you have a floppy drive, give it a try..add a line like this to your /etc/fstab:

Customize it to your needs. And do check that the fd0 device exists (or use appropriate one). 'auto' should detect the filesystem automatically, 'noauto' not mount it automatically during bootup (or with 'mount -a'), 'user' should allow ordinary users to mount the device and 'rw' give you read-write permissions on it, if I remember this correctly. Or if that doesn't help, no harm done, just remove the line from fstab and think of something else..

I'm sorry for the delayed answer and that I couldn't come up with anything else right now.

I'll give it a try. Like you say, can't hurt. But otherwise I'm waiting for F12. The live CD acts normally, although I had no luck after 4 trys at installing it. Always wound up w/ "file not found" in grub.

Thanks for the tip. If it works I'll let you know.

BTW, there are LOTS of people out there who have had problems w/ F11 & floppy behavior. I'm lucky. It works, even if I never see a floppy icon, even when mounted. Other people don't even get fd0 as a block device.

Thanks again.

I hope this didn't involve any "floppies are extinct" thoughts. Could be true for a lot of casual desktop users, but not everyone.

b0uncer,
Definitely not here. I got a usb floppy case for my laptop and tried to make a bootable grub floppy (In Mandriva). Ran Loaded the floppy w/ stage1 & stage2 & menu.lst. Then tried the create grub floppy routine.
When I ran "grub> setup (fd0), I got the message that fd0 wasn't a block device (although I could see it in /dev).
To make a long story short, I ran "mount" and found /dev/sdb mounted as /media/floppy. After trying to substitute 'sdb' or '/dev/sdb' for (fd0) w/ no luck I gave up.
Didn't occur to me until later that I should have tried grub> root (hd1,0).

I'll try that in a few. If it works I'll let you know.

In he meantime I wish someone would write a program that creates a floppy sized partition on a thumb drive, and just uses that partition to boot the computer, leaving the rest of the thumb drive space free. Right now I'm using a 512MB thumb drive to emulate a 1.44MB floppy and the rest of the space on it is unavailable. It also need windows and a working grub floppy or grub floppy image and a 40MB compaq program to do it.

l8r