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Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 06:34 AM
I just benchmarked my rig with a Inquisitor live CD and saved the results to a floppy, but I can't acess my floppy drive in Ubuntu. I do not think there is a problem with the drive because it was able to read and write the test results though the live CD and also booted up an old copy of a Windows 98 Rescue Diskette. I've tried running the following commands as root

root@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
mount: mount point /mnt/floppy does not exist
root@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~# mount /dev/fd0
mount: can't find /dev/fd0 in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
root@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~# /mnt/floppy
bash: /mnt/floppy: No such file or directory
root@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~#

Any sugestions to get this drive working?

I am runing Ubuntu 8.10 and the drive is a Nippon Labs ICR-EE All-in-one USB + FDD1.44" Card Reader w/ 3.5" FLOPPY DRIVE that I just ordered from newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820816002

Thanks!

pytheas22
January 24th, 2009, 07:17 AM
Try this:


sudo mkdir /mnt/floppy
sudo mount /dev/fd /mnt/floppy

If that doesn't work, try:


sudo mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

If that still fails, please post the output of:


ls /dev

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 06:48 PM
No Dice, sorry the text got mushed together. I attached the .txt file but it doesn't seam to be working.

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=100919&stc=1&d=1232819422


matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$ sudo mkdir /mnt/floppy
[sudo] password for matt:
mkdir: cannot create directory `/mnt/floppy': File exists
matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$ sudo mount /dev/fd /mnt/floppy
mount: /proc/6705/fd is not a block device
matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$ ls /dev
adsp ptyd9 ptyu0 ram15 tty60 ttyq0 ttyw3
audio ptyda ptyu1 ram2 tty61 ttyq1 ttyw4
block ptydb ptyu2 ram3 tty62 ttyq2 ttyw5
bus ptydc ptyu3 ram4 tty63 ttyq3 ttyw6
cdrom4 ptydd ptyu4 ram5 tty7 ttyq4 ttyw7
cdrom5 ptyde ptyu5 ram6 tty8 ttyq5 ttyw8
cdrw4 ptydf ptyu6 ram7 tty9 ttyq6 ttyw9
cdrw5 ptye0 ptyu7 ram8 ttya0 ttyq7 ttywa
char ptye1 ptyu8 ram9 ttya1 ttyq8 ttywb
console ptye2 ptyu9 random ttya2 ttyq9 ttywc
core ptye3 ptyua rtc ttya3 ttyqa ttywd
cpu_dma_latency ptye4 ptyub rtc0 ttya4 ttyqb ttywe
disk ptye5 ptyuc scd0 ttya5 ttyqc ttywf
dsp ptye6 ptyud scd1 ttya6 ttyqd ttyx0
dvd4 ptye7 ptyue sda ttya7 ttyqe ttyx1
dvd5 ptye8 ptyuf sdb ttya8 ttyqf ttyx2
dvdrw4 ptye9 ptyv0 sdb1 ttya9 ttyr0 ttyx3
fd ptyea ptyv1 sdb2 ttyaa ttyr1 ttyx4
full ptyeb ptyv2 sdb5 ttyab ttyr2 ttyx5
fuse ptyec ptyv3 sdc ttyac ttyr3 ttyx6
hidraw0 ptyed ptyv4 sdc1 ttyad ttyr4 ttyx7
hpet ptyee ptyv5 sdd ttyae ttyr5 ttyx8
initctl ptyef ptyv6 sde ttyaf ttyr6 ttyx9
input ptyp0 ptyv7 sdf ttyb0 ttyr7 ttyxa
kmem ptyp1 ptyv8 sdg ttyb1 ttyr8 ttyxb
kmsg ptyp2 ptyv9 sequencer ttyb2 ttyr9 ttyxc
log ptyp3 ptyva sequencer2 ttyb3 ttyra ttyxd
loop0 ptyp4 ptyvb sg0 ttyb4 ttyrb ttyxe
lp0 ptyp5 ptyvc sg1 ttyb5 ttyrc ttyxf
MAKEDEV ptyp6 ptyvd sg2 ttyb6 ttyrd ttyy0
mem ptyp7 ptyve sg3 ttyb7 ttyre ttyy1
mixer ptyp8 ptyvf sg4 ttyb8 ttyrf ttyy2
ndiswrapper ptyp9 ptyw0 sg5 ttyb9 ttys0 ttyy3
net ptypa ptyw1 sg6 ttyba ttyS0 ttyy4
network_latency ptypb ptyw2 sg7 ttybb ttys1 ttyy5
network_throughput ptypc ptyw3 sg8 ttybc ttyS1 ttyy6
null ptypd ptyw4 shm ttybd ttys2 ttyy7
nvidia0 ptype ptyw5 snapshot ttybe ttyS2 ttyy8
nvidiactl ptypf ptyw6 snd ttybf ttys3 ttyy9
oldmem ptyq0 ptyw7 sndstat ttyc0 ttyS3 ttyya
parport0 ptyq1 ptyw8 sr0 ttyc1 ttys4 ttyyb
port ptyq2 ptyw9 sr1 ttyc2 ttys5 ttyyc
ppp ptyq3 ptywa stderr ttyc3 ttys6 ttyyd
psaux ptyq4 ptywb stdin ttyc4 ttys7 ttyye
ptmx ptyq5 ptywc stdout ttyc5 ttys8 ttyyf
pts ptyq6 ptywd tty ttyc6 ttys9 ttyz0
ptya0 ptyq7 ptywe tty0 ttyc7 ttysa ttyz1
ptya1 ptyq8 ptywf tty1 ttyc8 ttysb ttyz2
ptya2 ptyq9 ptyx0 tty10 ttyc9 ttysc ttyz3
ptya3 ptyqa ptyx1 tty11 ttyca ttysd ttyz4
ptya4 ptyqb ptyx2 tty12 ttycb ttyse ttyz5
ptya5 ptyqc ptyx3 tty13 ttycc ttysf ttyz6
ptya6 ptyqd ptyx4 tty14 ttycd ttyt0 ttyz7
ptya7 ptyqe ptyx5 tty15 ttyce ttyt1 ttyz8
ptya8 ptyqf ptyx6 tty16 ttycf ttyt2 ttyz9
ptya9 ptyr0 ptyx7 tty17 ttyd0 ttyt3 ttyza
ptyaa ptyr1 ptyx8 tty18 ttyd1 ttyt4 ttyzb
ptyab ptyr2 ptyx9 tty19 ttyd2 ttyt5 ttyzc
ptyac ptyr3 ptyxa tty2 ttyd3 ttyt6 ttyzd
ptyad ptyr4 ptyxb tty20 ttyd4 ttyt7 ttyze
ptyae ptyr5 ptyxc tty21 ttyd5 ttyt8 ttyzf
ptyaf ptyr6 ptyxd tty22 ttyd6 ttyt9 urandom
ptyb0 ptyr7 ptyxe tty23 ttyd7 ttyta usbdev1.1_ep00
ptyb1 ptyr8 ptyxf tty24 ttyd8 ttytb usbdev1.1_ep81
ptyb2 ptyr9 ptyy0 tty25 ttyd9 ttytc usbdev1.2_ep00
ptyb3 ptyra ptyy1 tty26 ttyda ttytd usbdev1.2_ep81
ptyb4 ptyrb ptyy2 tty27 ttydb ttyte usbdev2.1_ep00
ptyb5 ptyrc ptyy3 tty28 ttydc ttytf usbdev2.1_ep81
ptyb6 ptyrd ptyy4 tty29 ttydd ttyu0 usbdev2.3_ep00
ptyb7 ptyre ptyy5 tty3 ttyde ttyu1 usbdev2.3_ep01
ptyb8 ptyrf ptyy6 tty30 ttydf ttyu2 usbdev2.3_ep82
ptyb9 ptys0 ptyy7 tty31 ttye0 ttyu3 usbdev3.1_ep00
ptyba ptys1 ptyy8 tty32 ttye1 ttyu4 usbdev3.1_ep81
ptybb ptys2 ptyy9 tty33 ttye2 ttyu5 usbdev4.1_ep00
ptybc ptys3 ptyya tty34 ttye3 ttyu6 usbdev4.1_ep81
ptybd ptys4 ptyyb tty35 ttye4 ttyu7 usbdev5.1_ep00
ptybe ptys5 ptyyc tty36 ttye5 ttyu8 usbdev5.1_ep81
ptybf ptys6 ptyyd tty37 ttye6 ttyu9 vcs
ptyc0 ptys7 ptyye tty38 ttye7 ttyua vcs1
ptyc1 ptys8 ptyyf tty39 ttye8 ttyub vcs2
ptyc2 ptys9 ptyz0 tty4 ttye9 ttyuc vcs3
ptyc3 ptysa ptyz1 tty40 ttyea ttyud vcs4
ptyc4 ptysb ptyz2 tty41 ttyeb ttyue vcs5
ptyc5 ptysc ptyz3 tty42 ttyec ttyuf vcs6
ptyc6 ptysd ptyz4 tty43 ttyed ttyv0 vcs7
ptyc7 ptyse ptyz5 tty44 ttyee ttyv1 vcs8
ptyc8 ptysf ptyz6 tty45 ttyef ttyv2 vcsa
ptyc9 ptyt0 ptyz7 tty46 ttyp0 ttyv3 vcsa1
ptyca ptyt1 ptyz8 tty47 ttyp1 ttyv4 vcsa2
ptycb ptyt2 ptyz9 tty48 ttyp2 ttyv5 vcsa3
ptycc ptyt3 ptyza tty49 ttyp3 ttyv6 vcsa4
ptycd ptyt4 ptyzb tty5 ttyp4 ttyv7 vcsa5
ptyce ptyt5 ptyzc tty50 ttyp5 ttyv8 vcsa6
ptycf ptyt6 ptyzd tty51 ttyp6 ttyv9 vcsa7
ptyd0 ptyt7 ptyze tty52 ttyp7 ttyva vcsa8
ptyd1 ptyt8 ptyzf tty53 ttyp8 ttyvb xconsole
ptyd2 ptyt9 ram0 tty54 ttyp9 ttyvc zero
ptyd3 ptyta ram1 tty55 ttypa ttyvd
ptyd4 ptytb ram10 tty56 ttypb ttyve
ptyd5 ptytc ram11 tty57 ttypc ttyvf
ptyd6 ptytd ram12 tty58 ttypd ttyw0
ptyd7 ptyte ram13 tty59 ttype ttyw1
ptyd8 ptytf ram14 tty6 ttypf ttyw2
matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$

pytheas22
January 24th, 2009, 06:56 PM
Alright, please give this a try:


sudo mkdir /media/floppy-disk
sudo mount /dev/fd /media/floppy-disk

This would mount it at /media/floppy-disk. Any luck? If not, please post the errors that you get.

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 07:22 PM
Okay this is what I got through the terminal

matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$ sudo mkdir /media/floppy-disk
mkdir: cannot create directory `/media/floppy-disk': File exists
matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$ sudo mount /dev/fd /media/floppy-disk
mount: /proc/6293/fd is not a block device
matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$

and when I go to /media/ there is a folder "floppy-disk" that I can open but has nothing on it, I also can not create new files in the folder so the disk itself is not being read as blank.

On a whim I tried to open floppy formatter and I got this error-

"Cannot initialize device

Unable to open any device, formatting cannot continue."

Now what?

pytheas22
January 24th, 2009, 08:48 PM
hmmm, could you please post the output of:


cat /etc/fstab

I'm thinking that the solution mentioned here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6415536) is the next thing to try.

Also, which version of Ubuntu are you using?

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 08:53 PM
Terminal

matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$ cat /etc/fstab
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
UUID=0d0df397-a2cf-4357-b50e-0d0dfcbbe030 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
UUID=c27d2dcb-53be-4242-86ec-efd48cd36408 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
matt@Matt-Ubuntu-Desktop:~$

I'm running 8.10 with all updates installed.

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 08:55 PM
I don't know what to do to change fstab like the other user did. You'll have to walk me through the commands.

pytheas22
January 24th, 2009, 09:41 PM
First, back up your current fstab by typing:


cp /etc/fstab ~/Desktop/fstab

This will save a copy on your desktop.

Then, open up your fstab file by typing:


sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Finally, add this line to the bottom:


/dev/fd0 /media/floppy-disk rw,user 0 0

Save the file and reboot. Can you mount the floppy now? If not, try repeating the steps above, but replace the line you added with this line:


/dev/fd /media/floppy-disk rw,user 0 0

That line contains /dev/fd as opposed to /dev/fd0, which might make a difference.

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 10:07 PM
Nothing new happened, the FDD indicator light on the drive doesn't even flash. I rechecked the cable connection and now am going to 1) see if the drive works using that win 98 diskette again and 2) boot from my live 8.10 Ubuntu CD to see if the floppy drive is recognised.

On a some what related note I have a second hard drive called Data that never mounts on its own when I boot the system. If I click on its icon I get a message saying that the mount failed or something, but then the icon changes to a hard drive picture and the drive appears on my desktop. Is there away to make it mount automatically on boot, and could I also switch it out of the removable media area folder some how?

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 10:32 PM
Okay here's the scoop.

1) the win 98 diskette booted so the drive is good.

2) A 8.10 Ubuntu Live CD CD did not recognise my floppy drive

3) A Fedora 10 Live CD did find my floppy drive but was unable to mount it, using both the win 98 disk and the diskette with my .txt files from the benchmarking software

If we can not find a solution to this thing for ubuntu, how do I get rid of the /media/floppy-disk directory that does nothing?

pytheas22
January 24th, 2009, 11:25 PM
I'm still not sure why Ubuntu won't mount the drive. The only thing I can think of at this point is that the 'floppy' module is not loaded. Do you have any better luck if you load it by typing:


sudo modprobe floppy

then try to mount the device?


If we can not find a solution to this thing for ubuntu, how do I get rid of the /media/floppy-disk directory that does nothing?

Easy, just type:


sudo rm -r /media/floppy-disk


On a some what related note I have a second hard drive called Data that never mounts on its own when I boot the system. If I click on its icon I get a message saying that the mount failed or something, but then the icon changes to a hard drive picture and the drive appears on my desktop. Is there away to make it mount automatically on boot, and could I also switch it out of the removable media area folder some how?

You can edit /etc/fstab to auto-mount the drive. I don't know enough about it personally to be able to tell you what to do, but there's a good guide here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=283131).

Unfortunately I don't know how to take the drive out of the removable-media folder; the closest I can come is editing Nautilus Bookmarks (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2016866&postcount=5).

Matt_Rapp
January 24th, 2009, 11:36 PM
It works, thanks a lot!!!!

One more thing,

The drive is listed as 1.5 MB Media with a floppy icon, but is actually mapped to /media/disk instead of /media/floppy-disk. Can I delete the /media/floppy-disk directory then without causing problems?

Do you think something was wrong with my live CD's build and that's why I didn't have the floppy module wasn't installed?

The sudo modprobe floppy command will be permanent, it will not clear out on a reboot, right?

pytheas22
January 24th, 2009, 11:42 PM
Glad that finally did it...sorry for not thinking of it sooner.


The drive is listed as 1.5 MB Media with a floppy icon, but is actually mapped to /media/disk instead of /media/floppy-disk. Can I delete the /media/floppy-disk directory then without causing problems?

Yes, you can rm /media/floppy-disk



Do you think something was wrong with my live CD's build and that's why I didn't have the floppy module wasn't installed?

I don't think there's anything wrong with your build. The floppy module was 'installed' in that it was on your system, it just wasn't activated. In most cases the system is smart enough to know which modules are needed for attached hardware and will auto-load them at boot time. But sometimes for various reasons it fails to do that and you have to load the module manually; I guess that's what happened in your case.



The sudo modprobe floppy command will be permanent, it will not clear out on a reboot, right?

No, if you want the floppy module to be loaded permanently, run this command once to add it to your /etc/modules file:


echo floppy | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

After that, it should be there throughout reboots, because when Ubuntu boots, it looks at the /etc/modules file and loads whichever modules are listed there.

Matt_Rapp
January 25th, 2009, 12:27 AM
Okay I rebooted and it all works great, except floppy formating tools can't find the drive, Floppy Formatter says

"Cannot initialize device

You do not have the proper permissions to write to /dev/floppy/0 or /dev/fd0, formatting will not be possible.
Contact your system administrator about getting write permissions."

pytheas22
January 25th, 2009, 12:35 AM
Okay I rebooted and it all works great, except floppy formating tools can't find the drive, Floppy Formatter says

"Cannot initialize device

You do not have the proper permissions to write to /dev/floppy/0 or /dev/fd0, formatting will not be possible.
Contact your system administrator about getting write permissions."

Probably because only root has permission to write to the device. Try starting Floppy Formatter as root. You can do that by opening a terminal and typing:


sudo [floppy formatter]

where [floppy formatter] represents the name of the executable for the program (I don't know what it is; hopefully you can figure it out; if not, go to System>Preferences>Main Menu and you should be able to figure out which command is actually being run when you launch Floppy Formatter from the Applications menu).

Matt_Rapp
January 25th, 2009, 01:04 AM
Okay, That works. You think that the program, gfloppy, would just ask you for your password.

Thanks for all of your great help today!!!

1Hobbs1
January 25th, 2009, 09:40 PM
Ok this is my first post so bear with me.

Great Info on the Ubuntu Forums!

I have a problem with permissions for the folder that was created in the media folder.

The folder/drive is named disk and root/other do not have access to the folder/floppy drive.

I can access the floppy drive just fine.

What I am trying to do is use Virtual Box and I need root/other to access the floppy drive.

MY question is how do I set the permissions for the folder/floppy drive?

I have tried to right click then permissions and change it, but alas it will not change.

What would be the terminal commands to set the drive permissions so that root/other could have access to the drive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You in advance!:)

pytheas22
January 25th, 2009, 11:45 PM
1Hobbs1: what is the output of:


ls -l /media

Also, have you mounted your floppy drive in VirtualBox (see attached screenshot)?

(Ignore the error message in my screenshot; I think it's only there because I don't actually have any floppy disks to mount.)

1Hobbs1
January 25th, 2009, 11:56 PM
Hey there pytheas22

Thanks for the reply!!

here is the output
total 8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2008-11-28 19:57 cdrom -> cdrom0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-11-28 19:57 cdrom0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-11-28 19:57 cdrom1

doesn't look like the /dev/fd0 is in the list. (Not sure how to fix this)

Quote
"Also, have you mounted your floppy drive in VirtualBox (see attached screenshot)?"

Yep made sure that was selected.

It shows PC Floppy Drive (/dev/fd0) in selection box

Thanks again

pytheas22
January 26th, 2009, 12:01 AM
It doesn't look like the floppy drive is mounted at all. Please run this command:


sudo modprobe floppy

Then go to Places>Home Folder. In the left-side pane you should an entry for the floppy drive. Left-click on it once to mount it.

After it's mounted, start your virtual machine. Can Windows access the floppy?

FYI: if you reboot Ubuntu, you will need to type 'sudo modprobe floppy' again in order to mount the disk. Or run this command once:


echo floppy | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

and the disk should always be available thereafter in the side-pane of Nautilus.

1Hobbs1
January 26th, 2009, 12:19 AM
Sorry I should have stated that I had followed your instructions and had used sudo modprobe floppy and echo floppy | sudo tee -a /etc/modules then rebooted and tried virtual box selected the floppy and got this error message.

see attached (new to this)

1Hobbs1
January 26th, 2009, 12:39 AM
I have mounted the floppy a number of times.

Ok it will be a while before I get back to any reply ie 2-3 hours

Thanks for helping me out here.

what im having to do is install win 95 then upgrade to 98 SE.... hehe

Its what i have so ill try and use it

I am gurbing XP PRO and mainly use Ubuntu Studio 8.10 AMD64

pytheas22
January 26th, 2009, 12:58 AM
Sorry I should have stated that I had followed your instructions and had used sudo modprobe floppy and echo floppy | sudo tee -a /etc/modules then rebooted and tried virtual box selected the floppy and got this error message.

Did you mount the floppy in the terminal, or did you do it through the graphical file browser? If you did it in the terminal, then probably only root has access to it, which explains the problem. If you mounted it graphically, (I *think*), you should have read/write permissions to the floppy under your normal account.

Otherwise, there's probably some group that you would need to add yourself to in order to have permissions in VirtualBox for the device. But I'm not sure how to do that.

What you could do is start VirtualBox as root by typing:


sudo VirtualBox

You will need to set up a new virtual machine (because the other one was made using your normal account, not under root) there and boot to it. Since you would be running VB as root, you should not have permissions issues with your floppy drive, and should be able to install Windows.

After you finish setting up your VM while running as root, however, you will need to move the virtual disk-image and change the permissions on it in order to open it as a normal user. But this shouldn't be too hard to do; just pay attention to the location where your virtual disk-image is saved (by default, VB will probably suggest /root/.VirtualBox, I think) when running VB as root so that you can find it again later. I can help you deal with this once you get this far.

1Hobbs1
January 26th, 2009, 04:54 AM
Im back, I took the time to try some permissions tests and non of them worked.


Did you mount the floppy in the terminal, or did you do it through the graphical file browser? If you did it in the terminal, then probably only root has access to it, which explains the problem. If you mounted it graphically, (I *think*), you should have read/write permissions to the floppy under your normal account.

I have been mounting the floppy graphically. Still have not tried it through terminal.


Otherwise, there's probably some group that you would need to add yourself to in order to have permissions in VirtualBox for the device. But I'm not sure how to do that.

Yeah I'm not sure how to do that either. :) I did try and play around with the group for VirtualBox and root and my own user to no avail.


What you could do is start VirtualBox as root by typing:


sudo VirtualBox

You will need to set up a new virtual machine (because the other one was made using your normal account, not under root) there and boot to it. Since you would be running VB as root, you should not have permissions issues with your floppy drive, and should be able to install Windows.

After you finish setting up your VM while running as root, however, you will need to move the virtual disk-image and change the permissions on it in order to open it as a normal user. But this shouldn't be too hard to do; just pay attention to the location where your virtual disk-image is saved (by default, VB will probably suggest /root/.VirtualBox, I think) when running VB as root so that you can find it again later. I can help you deal with this once you get this far.

I have started VB in root as you suggested and the boot disk started right up!!!! Thanks a bunch!!

I'll hit you up later for the permission changes... as I believe that running things as root can be a NO NO :D

Thanks for the Help pytheas22 U R AWESOME

Mark Phelps
January 26th, 2009, 08:13 PM
pytheas22: I'm having much the same problems and have already tried everything I read in this thread.

Didn't want to hijack this thread, so I started another one here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1050192

Can you help me there? thanks.

1Hobbs1
January 26th, 2009, 09:11 PM
I should apologize a for taking this topic down a bunny trail and off topic a ways.

Should have started a new thread.

Well I'm all installed and updated to Win 98SE.

Ready to try Moving VB and changing permissions.

If you want we can move this to a new thread pertaining more to VB issues.

Thanks agian!!

pytheas22
January 26th, 2009, 11:32 PM
1Hobbs1: we might as well continue in this thread; the original poster's problem has already been solved.

Now that you've got your virtual disk image all set, you need first to move it to your regular user's home directory. To do that, back up your existing .VirtualBox folder first by typing:


mv ~/.VirtualBox ~/.VirtualBox-old

Then, copy root's .VirtualBox directory into the /home folder of your normal user:


sudo cp -R /root/.VirtualBox ~/

Next, you should change the ownership of the files by typing:


sudo chown -R your-user-name\: ~/.VirtualBox

(Make sure to replace your-user-name with your real user name.)

Now open VirtualBox as your normal user. If everything worked correctly, you should see the virtual machine that you created as root and be able to start it with no problems.

Please post any error messages as exactly as possible. If you have problems, please also post the output of:


ls -lR ~/.VirtualBox

Mark Phelps: I'll reply in your thread.

1Hobbs1
January 27th, 2009, 06:34 PM
Ok I've finished the move and permission change.

Virtual Box came up (graphically).

Started my VM and ....

got the same error as before

see attached

101186

So I went into Virtual Box settings and disabled the floppy drive and Viola!

Its Alive!!

Thanks for all of your help pytheas22.

one last little question.

can you chown a drive??

Thanks Again!! WooHoo Learning is FUN!
-1Hobbs1

pytheas22
January 27th, 2009, 07:42 PM
I'm glad that worked :)

In the interest of saving disk space, you now might want to delete your .VirtualBox-old and /root/.VirtualBox directories, which you could do by typing:


rm -r ~/.VirtualBox-old
sudo rm -r /root/.VirtualBox

Or you could just leave them--I don't imagine Windows 98 takes up that much space anyway.


can you chown a drive??

I've never tried, but in principle, since Unix is supposed to treat everything as a file, it would work. You could try (note that this involves a small amount of risk because I'm not positive what will happen; if you're paranoid, you might want to try it under the live CD first so that it can't permanently damage anything):


sudo chown -R username:\ /dev/fd*

and see what happens. My guess is that your floppy drive would default back to root's ownership if you reboot your computer, but I'm not positive.

jimmy_j
February 9th, 2009, 02:32 AM
Hi, I have been using Ubuntu for about a year now and still learning. Whenever I try to mount my floppy drive I get this message:

/proc/16335/fd is not a block device


I am running ubuntu 8.10 and for whatever reason I couldn't even see the drive when I first installed ubuntu. I had to run this command; "sudo modprobe floppy" This created a floppy drive icon but I am not able to mount it. I have created a directory in /media/floppy. Every time I try to mount the drive I get the error message above. Any ideas???

pytheas22
February 9th, 2009, 05:56 AM
jimmy_j: what is the exact command that you're trying to use to mount the device, and what is the output of:


ls /dev | grep fd
ls /media

jimmy_j
February 9th, 2009, 05:02 PM
jimmy_j: what is the exact command that you're trying to use to mount the device, and what is the output of:


ls /dev | grep fd
ls /media

thanks for replying... i switch to the "su" account and this is what i type....

mount /dev/fd /media/floppy

below is what appears...

mount: /proc/7131/fd is not a block device
root@linux-desktop://#


in my dev directory i see "fd" and not "fd0" like others do... any ideas???

jimmy_j
February 9th, 2009, 05:05 PM
the output of these commands

ls /dev | grep fd
ls /media

is:


root@linux-desktop://# ls /dev | grep fd
fd
fd0
fd0u1040
fd0u1120
fd0u1440
fd0u1600
fd0u1680
fd0u1722
fd0u1743
fd0u1760
fd0u1840
fd0u1920
fd0u360
fd0u720
fd0u800
fd0u820
fd0u830
root@linux-desktop://# ls media
cdrom cdrom0 disk disk-1 floppy Virtual-Drive
root@linux-desktop://#

pytheas22
February 9th, 2009, 05:21 PM
What happens if you type:


sudo mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy

I think it needs to be 'fd0', not just 'fd'.

jimmy_j
February 9th, 2009, 06:04 PM
this is what i get...

root@linux-desktop://# mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy
mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device
root@linux-desktop://#

pytheas22
February 9th, 2009, 06:24 PM
That's strange. Are you positive that this floppy disk isn't corrupted? Do you have any other disks you could try?

jimmy_j
February 9th, 2009, 10:50 PM
ya i've tried... anyway thanks for you help...

pytheas22
February 10th, 2009, 12:41 AM
I'm really out of other ideas. Everything I found through Google suggests that this message occurs when your floppy disk is bad (or possibly when there's an issue with the drive itself). I would try accessing the disk in a different operating system, and check the cables connecting it to your motherboard. I wish I had better advice...

jimmy_j
February 10th, 2009, 01:55 AM
i'll go into my system and check to make sure all is well... maybe i jarred the floppy cable... i'll let you know...

jimmy_j
February 10th, 2009, 02:48 AM
i reseated the floppy cable and it worked.. the drive sounds a little rough though... it may need to be cleaned as it was grinding away... it may be on the brink of failing.... thanks for your help...

Mark Phelps
February 10th, 2009, 04:45 AM
Hey guys, sorry to jump in here, but I had similar problems with my floppy drive, got help here and notice that when I issue the mount command, it always complains -- unless there's a diskette in the drive!

I checked my output of ls /dev | grep fd -- and it exactly matches what is posted here. My output of ls /media differs in that mine says "floppy0" instead of "floppy".

My /etc/fstab entry is the following:

/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 vfat user,utf8,umask=000 0 0

What I notice, though, is that under Places --> Removable Media, there's an icon for Floppy Drive, and if I insert a diskette and click that icon, the drive lights, the diskette is read, and Nautilus opens with the file list.

So, are you sure it's actually NOT working -- and not just the Mount command complaining?

When I stick a diskette in the drive and do a "sudo mount -a", it does NOT complain; only complains when the drive is empty.

northrup
January 1st, 2010, 05:41 AM
I just went through all the procedures listed here for my floppy drive. I'm using a TEAC USB floppy drive on Ubuntu 9.10 (via Wubi).

After following the last procedure (creating a directory in /media and adding the line in fstab), the directory I created is non-existent and there is still no floppy recognition. Also, instead of just an ordinary device file, fd is now a directory. The contents are mostly socket files, but there are two text files, named 1 and 2 respectively, that contain what seem to be background text output from during startup.

I also noticed this (I sudo'd to make sure it wasn't just a privilege issue):


root@ubuntu:~# modprobe floppy
FATAL: Error inserting floppy (/lib/modules/2.6.31-16-generic/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko): No such device


Could this be a kernel issue? Maybe floppy support was dropped from the kernel due to a dwindling use? Or maybe since it's USB, I need to look somewhere else? My Linux experience is sparse, so maybe I'm missing something...

EDIT: I didn't see that there were more pages... My bad.

pytheas22
January 1st, 2010, 05:06 PM
northup: so did you sort out your problem after seeing the additional pages of the thread or do you still need help? If you still need help, please post the output of:


ls /dev
sudo modprobe floppy
dmesg | grep floppy
modinfo floppy

alexberi
January 12th, 2011, 07:36 PM
Commands output:

aberindei@abeubu64:~$ sudo modprobe floppy
FATAL: Error inserting floppy (/lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko): No such device

aberindei@abeubu64:~$ dmesg | grep floppy
[ 22.532522] floppy0: no floppy controllers found
[ 131.351034] floppy0: no floppy controllers found

aberindei@abeubu64:~$ modinfo floppy
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko
alias: block-major-2-*
license: GPL
author: Alain L. Knaff
srcversion: F09EF487AF6BE7153764D10
alias: acpi*:PNP0700:*
alias: pnp:dPNP0700*
depends:
vermagic: 2.6.32-27-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
parm: floppy:charp
parm: FLOPPY_IRQ:int
parm: FLOPPY_DMA:int
aberindei@abeubu64:~$ sudo modprobe floppy
FATAL: Error inserting floppy (/lib/modules/2.6.32-27-generic/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko): No such device

aberindei@abeubu64:~$ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/aberindei/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=aberindei)

aberindei@abeubu64:~$ ls -l /dev/fd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2011-01-12 20:28 /dev/fd -> /proc/self/fd

pytheas22
January 12th, 2011, 10:17 PM
alexberi: I'm not sure what's wrong, but the error message you get from the first command about there being "No such device" is interesting. I googled and the best I could find was this old thread (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=219849) from the Gentoo forums where someone has the same error message.

The solution there (or at least part of it) was apparently to disable floppy ACPI support. You can do that on Ubuntu by editing the file /boot/grub/grub.conf and appending the line floppy=no_acpi to your kernel entries. If you don't know what that means and need more specific instructions, let me know.

After making the change, you'll need to reboot for it to take effect.