Can't mount floppy drive

[Mark Phelps]

I've read several threads on this and have tried all the solutions. Nothing works. Errors vary by solution tried. Hoping someone can help.

Running Ubuntu 8.10 32-bit. Can't find or read the floppy drive.

Have done the following:
1) Added floppy module using modprobe
2) Added floppy entry to /etc/modules
3) Added directory /media/floppy0
4) Added line to /etc/fstab

Modprobe:


root@bill-ibex:/home/bill# modprobe -l | grep floppy
/lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko


/etc/modules:


root@bill-ibex:/home/bill# cat /etc/modules
# /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

# Added floppy
floppy

# Generated by sensors-detect on Sat Nov 8 20:43:43 2008
# Chip drivers
it87
k8temp


result of ls -l/dev/f*:


root@bill-ibex:/home/bill# ls -l /dev/f*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd -> /proc/self/fd
brw-rw---- 1 root floppy 2, 0 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 84 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1040
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 88 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1120
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 28 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1440
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 124 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1600
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 44 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1680
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 60 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1722
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 76 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1743
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 96 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1760
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 116 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1840
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 100 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u1920
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 12 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u360
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 16 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u720
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 120 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u800
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 52 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u820
brw-r----- 1 root disk 2, 68 2009-01-25 11:23 /dev/fd0u830
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 7 2009-01-25 11:22 /dev/full
crw-rw----+ 1 root fuse 10, 229 2009-01-25 11:22 /dev/fuse


/etc/fstab:


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=f7a1777c-44bd-4132-a2a3-e4eeaa2bbeb6 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda3
UUID=2b4f0d34-7786-400e-b9f6-81898cbfdeb4 /home ext3 relatime 0 2
# /dev/sda2
UUID=a060ef20-2dad-41eb-a33d-220f146b0b45 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
# /dev/sda4 UBUNTUSHARE
UUID=6C73-2597 /media/ushare vfat utf8,umask=000 0 0
# /dev/sdb4 Ushare2
UUID=303A-CF0F /media/ushare2 vfat utf8,umask=000 0 0
# DataVol read-only
/dev/sda5 /media/DataVol-R ntfs-3g ro,noauto,locale=en_US.utf8
# DataVol read-write
/dev/sda5 /media/DataVol-W ntfs-3g rw,noauto,locale=en_US.utf8
# Added for floppy
/dev/fd /media/floppy0 vfat user,utf8,umask=000 0 0


Result of mount -a:


mount: /proc/6819/fd is not a block device


Changed "fd" to "fd0" in fstab, ran mount -a, got different error indicating that "/dev/fd0 is not a valid block device"

Have run out of ideas. Can anyone help?

[pytheas22]

What's the output of:


sudo mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0
sudo mount /dev/fd /media/floppy0
dmesg | grep -e floppy -e fd

Have you seen or heard your floppy drive actually doing anything at any point so far?

Also, have you tried mounting the floppy disk by right-clicking in the left side-pane of your /home folder?

And are you certain that the floppy drive and disk that's in it work? Have you tried them under any other operating systems?

[Mark Phelps]

Output:



bill@bill-ibex:~$ sudo mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0
mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device
bill@bill-ibex:~$ sudo mount /dev/fd /media/floppy0
mount: /proc/6511/fd is not a block device
bill@bill-ibex:~$ dmesg | grep -e floppy -e fd
[ 0.480410] PCI: 0000:00:0b.0 reg 10 32bit mmio: [dfdfe000, dfdfefff]
[ 0.480454] PCI: 0000:00:0b.1 reg 10 32bit mmio: [dfdffc00, dfdffcff]
[ 0.480556] PCI: 0000:00:10.0 reg 24 32bit mmio: [dfdfd000, dfdfdfff]
[ 0.480598] PCI: 0000:00:11.0 reg 24 32bit mmio: [dfdfc000, dfdfcfff]
[ 0.480922] PCI: 0000:03:00.0 reg 30 32bit mmio: [dffc0000, dffdffff]
[ 2.882251] ohci_hcd 0000:00:0b.0: irq 21, io mem 0xdfdfe000
[ 3.149115] ehci_hcd 0000:00:0b.1: irq 20, io mem 0xdfdffc00
[ 16.414331] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
[ 18.716031] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[ 314.596044] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[ 314.621030] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
bill@bill-ibex:~$


Opened a Nautilus window, saw the floppy icon in the left side. Wow!! Honestly, never noticed this before!

So, I clicked the rescan option, and the file icons are there!

OK ... so this means that neither of the mount commands worked ... but the diskette drive got mounted anyway?? Something must have worked because I can see both the device icon (which I'm sure was NOT there before), and I can actually open and read the text files on the diskette.

So, anyway, thanks -- I mean it!

[pytheas22]

These lines from dmesg suggest that your floppy disk might be a bit corrupted:


[ 18.716031] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[ 314.596044] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
[ 314.621030] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0


but that's to be expected if you're using a floppy disk that's not brand-new.

But anyway, were you able to access the files you need and your problem is solved? Or do you still need more help?

If I were you, I'd copy all the files from the floppy to the hard disk, because it's only going to become less reliable with time.

[Mark Phelps]

I was able to access the files, thanks.

Guess I didn't realize I would have to unmount and remount the diskette device each time I wanted to use it. A little inconvenient, but it works.

I cleaned out the dmesg log, loaded another diskette, and this time, didn't get any messages.

So, I guess it's working OK now.

thanks again.

[schwepes]

I have the Canonical Dell N100 and I have followed the steps described in the above
posts.
listing /dev/f* got me only one statement as opposed to the other poster. This
refered all floppy requests to /dev/pts/0. Dmesg as written above got me that I had
no floppy controller.
There is something intrinsically wrong with tis installation or the mother board.
Thanks,
bs

[pytheas22]

schwepes: yes, that does sound weird. Are you positive the floppy controller on that hardware works? Are there any BIOS settings you might play around with?