Floppy devices in /dev

Thymox · 06-29-2003, 08:21 PM

Ok, this isn't really important, I was just wondering...

I have the following in my /dev dir, using Mandy 9.1 with devfs:

Code:

/dev/fd@        /dev/fd0u1040@  /dev/fd0u1600@  /dev/fd0u1743@  /dev/fd0u1920@  /dev/fd0u800@
/dev/fd0@       /dev/fd0u1120@  /dev/fd0u1680@  /dev/fd0u1760@  /dev/fd0u360@   /dev/fd0u820@
/dev/fd0H1440@  /dev/fd0u1440@  /dev/fd0u1722@  /dev/fd0u1840@  /dev/fd0u720@   /dev/fd0u830@

They are all links to floppy/something, as they would be with devfs, but that's not important right now. Onto my question: I have fd0H1440 and fd0u1440. In the kernel docs it mentions the following:

Code:

                40 = /dev/fd?h1440     5.25" 1440K in a 1200K drive(1)
                28 = /dev/fd?u1440     3.5"  1440K High Density(1)

It also says, a little further down:

Code:

                NOTE: The letter in the device name (d, q, h or u)
                signifies the type of drive: 5.25" Double Density (d),
                5.25" Quad Density (q), 5.25" High Density (h) or 3.5"
                (any model, u).  The use of the capital letters D, H
                and E for the 3.5" models have been deprecated, since
                the drive type is insignificant for these devices.

in which case, why have I got H and u? And which should I use with fdformat?

Cheers muchly.

Electro · 06-30-2003, 01:14 AM

Use /dev/fd0H1440 if you have a 1.44 megabyte disk. You can do a low-level format for other capacities if you have an old computer like a 8086 or a Apple.

Thymox · 06-30-2003, 06:53 PM

Ok, cheers - I'll bear that in mind, however, I am still mistified as to why I would have fd0H1440 when the docs specifically say that the use of capital H has been deprecated?

As I said - just curious. Oh, and also, anyone know where I might get the utils to build non standard filesystems onto floppies? Such as adfs, affs, befs, hfs, hpfs, etc?

Electro · 06-30-2003, 10:03 PM

You can use also use /dev/fd0u1440 or /dev/fd0. Make sure your floppy is unmounted.

Thymox · 07-01-2003, 05:03 PM

Yeah, I know. What I am asking is, why do I have an entry for what should be a deprecated device on my new(ish) kernel running with devfs? Surely it shouldn't be there?