I have read several frustrating threads .... spent a couple of hours trying to mount the floppy drive from command line, I gots no GUI, no KDE especially no GNOME... and sure enough. Good ol' Debian won't yet...

anyhow, began by checking the line in fstab:
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user, auto 0 0

next I tried to fdformat the disk,
fdformat /dev/fdo formatted fine.

finally after trying commands like:
mount /dev/fd0 /floppy with and without
-t ext3 , -t ext2 , -t auto and -t d#$x do it! None of these worked especially the last one. Errors returned are either ~wrong fs type~ , or when -t auto is used the bewildering ~you need a filesystem type~... did I not just ask the system to find out what was in use... and use it? silly Debian, you never change.
Also tried to create the filesystem on the floppy...
mkfs ext3 /dev/fd0 It would rather not. so...

Today, I've read 1/2 dozen other recent threads, all pretty much the same general dilemma... could be 2.4 Kernel problem? or would appreciate understanding what I should do to mount the floppy drive so I may copy a file onto a disk.... (not flaming, but gee, Bills Windoz is still not afraid of a system which can't even mount and copy a file to a floppy without an afternoon long struggle.) Those "gurus" who improve these flavors might be well served to focus on adding/automating these "simple" tasks to a functional state at install without endless file editing/chasing. But then where would the fun be right?
again thanks for the light from one who knows. I will be grateful to continue normal activity after making a simple copy of a file.
thanks much,
Piratebiter

ya... flaming isn't such a hot idea.
anyhow i've never really had any problem mounting floppies in deb
hmmmm
there is a command in debian to low level format called superformat
as su...
superformat /dev/fd0
then go ahead and make a filesystem
mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0
then mount you new found diskette friend.
mount /dev/fd0 /floppy

now a note about debian.
debian is not a company.
although a really small percentage of the people working on it are paid, and it is so little money for their skills it is almost insulting.
debian is and will probably always be quirky.
but they will never sell your information, or try to trick you, or try to force money out of you.
ever tired to claim the money you gave to mandrake as a charitable deduction?
tried to download a iso image from mandrake lately?
how about a debian iso?
from any of the 100 mirrors out there who kindly donate their space because debian is not a company.
companies like mandrake have done a lot for linux but when push comes to shove the dollar comes first.
do you really believe mandrake only has enough bandwidth for a 13kps download?
or do you think maybe they hope you'll get frustrated and go to the store and shell out 80 bucks
i use debian not because its free but because its honest. i know i can always trust them to be looking out for gnu and linux's (and hurd's!) best interest.
not to mention all of ours.
i'm not trying to put you down i know how frustrating things can get. people like me (and all those debianites) simply appreciate your time putting in the extra effort.
and maybe someday you'll be one of those gurus!

ok im done

Funny. I can't remember when I used a floppy the last time. However, I have the same line in my /etc/fstab as you have. Then I simply use in my terminal and there it is. "cd /floppy && ls" works fine, at least. I'm using my 2.4 kernel right now.

The only problem I can remember about floppies is when you try to make it a Debian boot disk in windows.

I kinda like Debian, first used a 1.8 Version a coupla years ago...'tis honester... a word? I'm using RH8 on the rest of my stuff now, just because, no real reason. My firewall box is Debian and I'm studying IPtables, so I figured to copy and print the scripts to read at leisure. The firewall box doesn't print 'course, so I was simply gonna take the flopy to my RH box and print, but maybe not?

Thanks for the try, response to your kind suggestion is; typed in the superformat comand... got a
~warning: mformat error.... after it did some veryifying cylinders ... hmm... spooky stuff... not afraid yet, so I went ahead? why not. I tried to mkfs.... got a ~bad block counts -dev/fd0...hmmmm... doesn't want to do it yet.
It wil do an fdformat cleanly and the drive itself is sound. So, somehow I am not on the right page yet. Have you heard anything about the late 2.4.20 kernels having any querks? I doubt it but it was a thought. Otherwise is some goof of mine, just can't see what yet. And... I'm tired of Bill smirking, like to get on with it huh? thanks
Piratebiter

Hi Seneca, yea, that is sound thinking I figure too...
response to # mount /floppy is : ~you must specify a filesystem type.
auto should take care of that but doesn't seem to be.... the fs is ext3 for the OS. sheesh... so EZ when ya' know s how.
thanks
P

are you the disk is good?

what happens if you do a..
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0 bs=1k count=1024