Using fresh install of Mepis 6.0 and have two floppy icons on KDE desktop.
1. floppy
2. floppy device

I have checked the fstab and floppy is in there.
user is listed in /etc/group
cannot access or mount as user or root

Searched this forum and google and changed fstab to recommended , but no but no satisfaction. There are loads of information on how floppydrives are mechanical devices and about loading ide-floppy modules and devfs etc etc.

What seems to be the issue with linux and floppy drives? AFAIK floppy drives have been around for twenty years. I can't get them working in Mandriva, PCLOS, FC, BLAG, Puppy, etc, etc. Is there some technical reason for this difficulty?

I need schoolkids to access floppy drives.

Any help appreciated.

Does it work in windows? Could be a hardware problem. Try blowing some of the dust out of the drive. I have trouble formatting floppies in linux but reading isn't usually a problem. Haven't really checked in a while.

works in windows. also replaced floppydrive - same problem