setup of floppy drive have big problems
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
There MUST be a serious bug in the setup for floppy drives in ubuntu.
I don't have much experience with linux or unix, but I have a lot of experience with DOS and floppy drives from PET in 1979, Apple II, AMIGA, and different PC's with DOS and Windows versions.
During 30 years I have NEVER got problems with floppy drives as in linux. The problems were there 10 years ago, when I tried Open Linux, and they exists in ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10.
I can see from questions, that many people have had problems, and I have tried some of the proposals given in the answers. They did not work on my system, but I have found a solution, which works for me in ubuntu in an upgraded version 9.10: The command in terminal:
mount /media/floppy0
works, and I get an icon Floppy0 on the desktop.
Although it works, the disk utility (Palimpsets) tells unknown size and no media in floppy disk drive at /dev/fd0 : It seems to check the drive; the light shows up, but nothing happens ??
In an old machine I have an Imation 120 MB drive, and this one is recognised at once by ubuntu 9.04 and works, but not so good as in Windows.
At a newer PC with upgraded ubuntu 9.10 I can use a usb disk drive - also without problems, but at both machines the build-in floppy drives gives problems. I have dual boot, and all drives works well in Windows.
I don't ask for workarounds. In all the systems I have known, the floppy disk drive works at the ever first setup!
So the conclusion must be, that there is a serious bug in ubuntu, and I just do not understand, why it has not been solved long ago.
description: | updated |
I have reached a further step in analysing the bug:
I have installed the program StartUp-Manager in ubuntu 9.10, and with this program I have made a bootable Rescue Grub floppy disk.
It worked in my build-in floppy drive (although I had not mounted the drive), and the floppy disk can boot my computer in the same build-in floppy drive.
This tells me, that it is very unlikely, that there is any problems in the drive or in the driver for floppy drives.
The solutions given in answers to problems with floppy drives is also commands, and if it were problems in drive or driver, commands would not help. My drive works with the mount command.
The problem seems to be the in the interface and especially in the GUI interface.
In Filehandling (translated from Danish) I have a possibility with the Danish name: diskettedrev (floppy disk drive). If I click with left mouse button (one or two times) nothing happens. If I use the right button, I get the possibilities of: OPEN - nothing happens; or FIND MEDIA - the light of the drive turns on, and there is heard a bit noise - but nothing more.
The computer knows, that there is a drive, but cannot handle it from the GUI interface. It is the same, which I already have mentioned happens in disk utility (Palimpsets). It knows, that the drive exists, and where it is, but cannot handle it.
I can open my disk with a click on the icon: Floppy0 on desktop, when I have mounted the drive in /media/floppy0 .
Why can't the GUI interface open the floppy disk with a click?
I my experience, (I think), it has been able to do it a few times, but not now! This unstableness might give a hint of, where to find the bug.