Hi there.

I'm downloading Slackware ISO's right now. Since I don't have any more blank CD's, I plan to do a HD install. So, I downloaded the floppy boot and root disk images. I was able to write the boot image (bare.i) to the floppy with no problem with the command: dd if=bare.i of=/dev/fd0. Just to make sure, I viewed the contents of the floppy via nautilus (hey, I'm a GUI fan, what can I say :-) and everything was there.

Then, I stuck another floppy into the drive and tried to look at its contents via nautilus to see if I'd have to format it, and I got the message: Sorry, couldn't display all the contents of "floppy". Even after unmounting and mounting and reformatting, the problem remains. I've tried several different disks to make sure it wasn't the disk at fault. It wasn't.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the dd command, because when I use /dev/fd0 for the output, nothing is written to the floppy until I try to view it's contents (via nautilus or cmd line). Is there something else I need to know about dd? Maybe another command I should issue after dd?

I appreciate any suggestions!

BTW, here's my setup:

Mandrake 9.1 (on a partition)
ASRock MB
AMD 1200 CPU
Everything else is standard/irrelevant

Thanks

sometimes nothing is written until the disk is unmounted. It depends on the way it's setup to cache disk writes to the floppy.