[SOLVED] Slackware 15.0

bitfuzzy · 04-28-2022, 03:55 PM

I've upgraded a PC from 14.1 to 15.0 (Clean install and a new HD) and have a situation where something is being identified as a floppy disk (fd0)

dmesg reports: 0.492124] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is unknown type 13 (usb?)

There is no floppy drive installed
There is no bios floppy option
The kernel "floppy" module is not loaded

Kernel: 5.15.27
MB: GA-78LMT-USB3/GA-78LMT-USB3 rev 5.0
CPU: AMD FX(tm)-6300
Memory: 16GB

I'm not seeing this issue on two other machines running similar hardware, though the Motherboards are rev 6.0

I don't know if this could be the issue, but I've compared lspci output with one of the similar machines and the only unexpected difference I see is with one PCI Bridge listing

Problem Machine:
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)

Other Machine:
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (ext gfx port 0)

Any insight would be appreciated

Thanks

fresh_orange_0 · 04-28-2022, 07:48 PM

Wouldn't fd0 be a floppy disks device?

bitfuzzy · 04-28-2022, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fresh_orange_0

Wouldn't fd0 be a floppy disks device?

Ordinarily yes, however there isn't a floppy device

Something is being misidentified

hazel · 04-29-2022, 04:33 AM

I once had that on an old tower machine. There was no floppy drive but the kernel definitely thought there was one. It didn't do any harm though, apart from the silly message.

If it's an old motherboard, does it maybe have a floppy controller?

bitfuzzy · 04-29-2022, 05:44 AM

Hello Hazel,

Yea, there are controllers and they appear to be detected correctly via dmicode, and I have verified the kernel "floppy" module is not loading.

Quote:

It didn't do any harm though, apart from the silly message.

I wish that's all it was

It's reported as a unmounted removable drive, so there are drive mount listings where there shouldn't be.

I can ignore that, however because it's listed as a block device when ever you run anything pertaining to disks

lsblk, fdisk -l, cfdisk etc it takes forever to process because it's trying to access a device which doesn't exist

Code:

$ lsblk -o KNAME,PTUUID,PTTYPE,PKNAME,HCTL,VENDOR,TRAN,REV
KNAME PTUUID                               PTTYPE PKNAME HCTL       VENDOR   TRAN    REV
fd0                                                                                 
sda   535afbff-7cc1-7343-b558-69ad95584982 gpt           1:0:0:0    ATA      sata   1A01
sda1  535afbff-7cc1-7343-b558-69ad95584982 gpt    sda                               
sda2  535afbff-7cc1-7343-b558-69ad95584982 gpt    sda                               
sdb   07e033b8                             dos           2:0:0:0    ATA      sata   1A01
sdb1  07e033b8                             dos    sdb                               
sdb2  07e033b8                             dos    sdb                               
sdc   e9bfdfb7-a418-8e4d-9ef4-0c5333903d23 gpt           3:0:0:0    ATA      sata   1K02
sdc1  e9bfdfb7-a418-8e4d-9ef4-0c5333903d23 gpt    sdc                               
sr0                                                      0:0:0:0    ASUS     sata   1.00

I think something is being misidentified, and I've tried everything I can think of to try to identify the component (so far) with no success

philanc · 04-29-2022, 01:02 PM

If you look at /sys/block, can you see any link that could match device fd0? (I have no PC with a floppy here. Cannot check what would be the name)

If yes, assuming the linkname is 'fd', you can check directory /sys/block/fd/device. Maybe there is a file /sys/block/fd/device/inquiry

The content of this file contains a string that could give you a hint about what the device is.

bitfuzzy · 04-29-2022, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Maybe there is a file /sys/block/fd/device/inquiry

No such luck, already thought of that. In fact I went through pretty much every directory in /sys and got nowhere

elcore · 04-29-2022, 07:00 PM

BIOS normally has the option to disable a floppy controller.
Note that it may revert to default enabled once the cmos battery runs out.
Only reason why I know this is because I had a board where fd0 just appeared for no reason at all.

emmet · 04-29-2022, 08:10 PM

Clearly, the solution is to install a floppy drive posthaste.

bitfuzzy · 04-30-2022, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcore

BIOS normally has the option to disable a floppy controller.
Note that it may revert to default enabled once the cmos battery runs out.

That was the absolute first thing I looked for.
I went through every option and found nothing relating to floppy, which didn't surprise me since there isn't a floppy IDE port on the board

bitfuzzy · 04-30-2022, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmet

Clearly, the solution is to install a floppy drive posthaste.

Nice lol

tramtrist · 04-30-2022, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmet

Clearly, the solution is to install a floppy drive posthaste.

Came here to applaud this

elcore · 04-30-2022, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitfuzzy

That was the absolute first thing I looked for.
I went through every option and found nothing relating to floppy, which didn't surprise me since there isn't a floppy IDE port on the board

Update BIOS to most recent one, maybe there's a new version where this is addressed.

Other than that, I'd recommend you a kernel built with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD unset.
Slackware has CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y and this is what creates a block device.

I built mine with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD not set, and I get no fd0 device even tho I have a controller.

bitfuzzy · 04-30-2022, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcore

Update BIOS to most recent one, maybe there's a new version where this is addressed.

Other than that, I'd recommend you a kernel built with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD unset.

That's a valid suggestion elcore and I don't see why that wouldn't work, but I'd rather not build a custom kernel just for this if possible

The MB in this box is similar to two other boxes except that this the board version is 5.0 where they are 6.0 and are not experiencing the issue.

Currently I'm invested in trying to figure out what/why, but your suggestion is a definite "Plan B"

Thank you

Chuck56 · 04-30-2022, 09:36 AM

Have you looked at your /etc/fstab file? You might have a legacy reference to /dev/fd0. If you do either comment the line or remove it completely.

Code:

#/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy       auto        noauto,owner     0   0

Just a thought...