Floppy Drive Not Recognized

[Rex Backus]

Made my initial installation last Spring from the DVD in "The Official
Ubuntu Book" 2nd Edition. Went smoothly and my Floppy Drive was
recognized, although I suspect it was not fully installed as I have
not (ever) been able to Format a disk.

I have sequentially up-graded to 8.10 and I didn't notice fd0 was gone
until after the most recent upgrade although it was there while I was
operating 8.04.

After some searching, I found that I had several packages installed
which should format a floppy, however when I went to try them out, my
floppy had disappeared from Nautilus, and when I issue from command
line:

"fdmount" it replies: "=drive fd0 does not exist".

On suggestion from a user on another list:

I issued "sudo modprobe floppy -v" to receive verbose messages;

entered password; response was;

insmod /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-generic/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko

Next I issued "fdmount"

response "fdmount () Must run with EUID=root" (seemed strange)

then entered "sudo fdmount"

response was;
fdmount (/dev/fd0): Can't access /fd0: No such file or directory

How do I get fd0 back?

Bios knows it is there and I can boot into DOS
using a floppy boot disk.

Thanks,

Rex

[Rex Backus (rabackus)]

I was just looking for help. I don't understand the babel of help
forums etc.

I have been in contact with at least one other user who has had this
problem with release 8.10 and I suspect there is a bug in how the floppy
module is loaded.

A heads-up and a caution to check the file /etc/modules would probably
help others.

Thanks,

Rex Backus

On Wed, 2009-02-18 at 07:51 +0000, Dougie Richardson wrote:
> Hi Rex,
>
> Why do you feel this is an issue for the Documentation Team? Is this
> something you feel should be added to the system documentation or wiki
> and if so where would you have expected to find it?
>
> ** Changed in: ubuntu-doc
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Dougie Richardson (ddrichardson)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

[Rex Backus (rabackus)]

Problem has been partially solved by Joe Farruggio on ubuntulinux at yahoo.

I did as he suggested, and can now mount and read floppies, although I still have work to do to format a disc.

Thanks,

Rex Backus

Re: Floppy Drive has been lost & found

Thank you Joe,

Your suggestion was exactly what I needed. after adding "floppy" to
/etc/modules, My Floppy drive reappeared in Nautilus just as it had
previously. I was able to mount and read floppies just as I should,
however I still can't format a disc.

I have been advised that I should 'right-click' the icon on the
desktop and select "format" but that is not an available choice,
neither in active or grayed form.

I have not been able to sort out the correct commands for "fdformat"
and although "Synaptic" tells me that "gnome-utils" is installed, I
can't execute it nor can I find any information neither in "man" nor
using 'on-line help'.

I am beginning to believe that my installation is crippled in some way.

Again thanks to Joe, and thanks too to those of you who suggested
things which I had already tried, and thanks even to those of you who
suggested I should just give up, a practical alternative to some, but
just withdrawing support for some hardware or software that people are
productively using is just "so Microsoft".

Rex Backus

--- In <email address hidden>, Joe Farruggio <jfarrug@...> wrote:
>
> joe Farruggio wrote:
>
> In Ubuntu open a terminal and type
>
> "sudo gedit /etc/modules"
>
> without the quotation marks. A file should open looking something like
> the attached file
> at the end of the file and on a new line add
>
> "floppy"
>
> without the quotation marks
> Save the file and exit the terminal and reboot. After the boot is
> completed go to Places, and select removable media
> You should see the floppy disk icon. Insert a disk and click on the icon

> # /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
> #
> # This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
> # at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
>
> fuse
> lp
> sbp2
> imm
> floppy
>
>

[Dougie Richardson (dougierichardson)]

Hi Rex,

Why do you feel this is an issue for the Documentation Team? Is this something you feel should be added to the system documentation or wiki and if so where would you have expected to find it?

[miketan63 (miketan63)]

Floppy Activation for Ubuntu 8.10 – 20 Feb 2009 - <email address hidden> (Windows,Macintosh,Linux)

Run Update Manage & Reboot

1. Run (Alt + F2) : gksu gedit /etc/modules

1A. For msdos usage - Add the line :

      floppy

      to the end of the list. Save the file & Close document.

OR

1B. For Linux Native (ext2) usage - Add two lines :

      #To load floppy module

      floppy

      to the end of the list. Save the file & Close document.

1C. Reboot

2. Run : sudo mkdir floppy0

                 sudo chmod g+rwx floppy0

                 sudo chmod o-rx floppy0

                 sudo modprobe floppy

                 sudo mount /dev/fd0 floppy0

2A. Reboot

3. Go to Main Menu : System/Administration/Synaptic Package Manger - Quick search -

     type floppy - Check - fdflush / fdutils - Mark for Installation - Apply

3A. Reboot

4. To activate Floppy Formatter :

     In a Root Terminal , type : sudo gfloppy (enter)

5. To mount floppy : Right Click on Floppy Drive - Mount - in Nautilus (File Browser).

     Do not use Double Click.

     To open floppy : Double Click or Right Click - Open. Umount floppy after use.

6. Works alright on Quick Format but not so on Standard , Thorough , ext2 for all the

     above command. Still some bugs, hopefully subsequent updates could be corrected.

7. Reboot if floppy unable to mount or fail.

[miketan63 (miketan63)]

Root Terminal hidden in Main Menu as per Instruction 4. Hopefully your previous sudo do not corrupt the registry, it did for mine. Restore from backup and works fine for mine from a clean registry.

[Dougie Richardson (dougierichardson)]

@miketan63 are you happy to include this information in the Community Documentation? I can put it in for you if it helps.

[miketan63 (miketan63)]

Do whatever you like.

Floppy Activation for Ubuntu 8.10 – 24 Feb 2009  -  miketan63
(Windows,Macintosh,Linux)
Run Update Manage – Click Check – Reboot.
Backup OS.
1.    Run   (Alt + F2)     :     gksu gedit /etc/modules
1A.  For msdos usage  -  Add the line  :
      floppy
      to the end of the list. Save the file & Close document.
OR
1B.  For Linux Native (ext2) usage  -  Add two lines  :
      #To load floppy module
      floppy
      to the end of the list.  Save the file & Close document.
1C.  Reboot.
2.    Run   :    sudo mkdir floppy0
                 sudo chmod g+rwx floppy0
                 sudo chmod o-rx floppy0
                 sudo modprobe floppy
                 sudo mount /dev/fd0 floppy0
2A. Reboot.
3.   Go to Main Menu  : System/Administration/Synaptic Package Manger -
     Quick search - type floppy - Check - fdflush / fdutils -
     Mark for Installation  -  Apply.
3A. Reboot.
4.   To launch Floppy Formatter  :
     In a Root Terminal , type     :    sudo gfloppy  (enter)
     (To display Root Terminal, Go to Main Menu :
     System/Preferences/Main Menu/System Tools -
     Check – Root Terminal – Close)
5.   To mount floppy : Right Click on Floppy Drive - Mount Volume -
     in Nautilus (File Browser).
     Do not use Double Click.
     To open floppy  : Double Click or Right Click - Open.
5A. Unmount floppy after use.
6. Formatting works perfectly on good quality floppy but not
     for Standard & Thorough on degraded floppy from the above command
     executed on a Clean Registry. Previous handled command by user
     may corrupt registry.
7.   Reboot if floppy unable to mount or fail.
Floppy activated successfully with full read & write access plus
formatting upon boot up.

[miketan63 (miketan63)]

Updated document for your necessary action. mike

[Dougie Richardson (dougierichardson)]

Sorry I've been busy:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FloppyRecognition

[bert07 (marien.bert)]

Jaunty beta for desktop i386.
Floppy drive not recognized, even after editing the /etc/modules file.

Message:
Cannot mount volume.
Invalid mount option when attempting to mount the volume.

[bert07 (marien.bert)]

Other message:
Unable to mount 1.5 MB Media
DBus error org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message did not receive a reply (timeout by message bus)

"Noreply" and following might be due to the fact that I didn't see the message and react on it. (Was busy with other things.)