Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:50:29 -0400 | From | Gene Heskett <> | Subject | Re: floppy question of the hour |
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On Sunday 01 June 2008, Jan Engelhardt wrote: >On Wednesday 2008-05-28 00:26, Gene Heskett wrote: >>On Tuesday 27 May 2008, Phillip Susi wrote: >>>Gene Heskett wrote: >> >>Also, does anyone know how long after a floppy is inserted before it is >>recognized? From observation today, it appears to be something in the 5 >> minute territory before a getfdprm returns data instead of "/dev/fd0: no >> such device". > >I have a SONY USB floppy drive which used to get read within 2s >after inserting a new floppy. Which means it somehow signalled >the host, probably through an USB command. > >Just as I tried again now (with 2.6.23.17), this does not happen >anymore so I suspect udev or the kernel changed in some way.
This is attached directly to end connector on the 34 pin floppy cable.
What I have found that seems to work, is to put the disk in, then hit it with a junk, 1 block read from dd. That will take about 25-30 seconds to fail with an I/O error.
Then I can do the 'setfdprm' thing, check it with getfdprm, and go ahead and write the disk image with dd.
But if I don't knock on the door & fail once, just relying on getting a good response from getfdprm from the setfdprm operation before trying dd, it will _never_ work. It has to be hammered on by dd before setfdprm and getfdprm will work, and then dd can write to it just fine.
Houston, we have a problem. But I now know how to work around it sorta like McGiver would do I guess, but what about the next user who will never see this thread without a truly diligent search? He will be similarly screwed, but the only heavy breathing will be from frustration.
If the kernel should somehow shrink so it could fit on a floppy again, I'd bet this would be fixed yet this week. :) But we all know what the chances of that happening are. :( It would however, be muchly appreciated by us old farts using floppies to get stuff to/from a legacy computer.
Thanks guys.
-- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Wash: "It's Jayne being so generous with his cut that confuses and frightens me."
Zoe: "It does kind of freeze the blood." --Episode #10, "War Stories"
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