Floppy Icon missing from Desktop

[Newbie1]

Knoppix 6.4.3
The Floppy Icon is missing from Desktop and I can not find the Device listed with the other drives. I opened the Libre application and SavedAs a TXT file to the floppy but I would like to test the Format function and Copy/Verify some binary data files that already exist on te floppy.
I'm not very familiar with Linux so please be specific (every keystroke) with your reply.

Thanks

[utu]

@Newbie1

What icons (or labels) do you see in the left panel of File Manager,
that is, using (Main Menu)/Accessories/File Manager?

[Newbie1]

The Floppy label is not there. This is what I see: Knoppix, Desktop, Applications, System Reserved, sda2, WME, Knoppix, Knoppix_FS. When I had my IDE CD drive installed then I could boot Knoppix 5.1.1 and it did show the Floppy Icon. The IDE drive has failed and I replaced it with a SATA and Knoppix 5.1.1 does not support SATA.

[Harry Kuhman]

.... and Knoppix 5.1.1 does not support SATA.
Knoppix 5.1.1 most certainly does support SATA. I don't know about your particular hardware, you might have a chip that Knoppix does not support, more likely you are just mistaken or have some other issue, but all 5.x and even all 4.x (4.02) have SATA support, likely some late 3.x versions did but I don't recall exactly when it started showing up.

[utu]

Hi, Harry. Happy New Year.

@ Newbie1

In your post #1
I assumed you are looking to read a floppy drive and can't find it.
If that's the case it's either already mounted and you don't recognize it,
or it isn't mounted and you need to get it mounted.

So, is this your problem, or are we dealing with a SATA question?

[Newbie1]

Ok, let's forget about 5.1.1. It's 6.4.3 that I would like to checkout with the Floppy device. No, it is not mounted. It does not show up in File Manager. It does show up in the Word Processor SaveAs menu and does work from there but I would like to try file Copy, Delete, Paste and Format functions.

[utu]

Is this floppy internal or USB?

What do sda2 and WME refer-to?

If the floppy is USB, does anything change in the left panel
of File Manager when you unplug & plug the floppy in again?

Is the floppy write protected by any chance?

[Newbie1]

This is an Internal Floppy.
sda2 is a 500GB Western Digital SATA harddrive NTFS.
WME is a 80GB Western Digital IDE harddrive FAT32.
The Floppy is not Write protected.
If I plug in a Jump Drive, it does dynamicly show up in the left pane of File Manager.
Motherboard is MSI 785GTM-E45 Chip set is AMD785G, SB710.

[kl522]

Oh, still got people use floppy arh ?

[klaus2008]

@Newbie1
I think that floppy disks are not mounted automatically. Therefore I would not expect a change in the PCMan Filemanager's list of drives if a floppy disk is inserted.

The command
hwinfo --floppy issued in aterminal should show the device name of your floppy drive if it is connected to the system. In most cases its device name is /dev/fd0.

There must be a mount point in the filesystem. If you cannot find an empty directory in /media with the name floppy or fd0 then open a terminal and issue
sudo mkdir /media/fd0Insert a floppy disk into the floppy drive and issue
sudo mount -o uid=1000,gid=1000 /dev/fd0 /media/fd0 in a terminal.

Open the PCMan Filemanager and examine the list of disk devices. If you can find the floppy disk then you should be able to create subdirectories and to copy files in the directory /media/fd0.

If you like to remove the floppy disk from the floppy drive it should be unmounted before you do that. If you cannot unmount the floppy disk with the filemanager then I would suggest that you issue
sudo umount /media/fd0 in a terminal after you have closed all windows of the filemanager.

[utu]

@klaus

Nicely done, sir.

If these last steps work out, shouldn't the patient
modify his /etc/fstab accordingly?

I note that in some earlier versions of Knoppix, there used to
be an entry in /etc/fstab of the form:
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto defaults,user,noauto 0 0
or, using your terminology,
/dev/fd0 /media/fd0...etc.

If Knoppix 6.4.3 doesn't mount floppies automatically,
then hopefully we can click File Manager to mount fd0.
If not, we may still need a clickable icon on the desktop,
in addition to the mkdir and fstab additions here.

For what it's worth, when I plug in my USB floppy,
Knoppix 6.4.3 adds the following to my /etc/fstab, and
vfat stuff shows up in File manager to be read, etc:

# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sdc /media/sdc vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,shortname=winnt,uid=kn oppix,gid=knoppix 0 0


@kl522
I have a usb floppy to read some old stuff of mine.
Would you believe GWBasic?


@Newbie1
You are in good hands. These guys, and Harry know
Knoppix inside out.

[Newbie1]

The command Code: hwinfo --floppy Did not show anything. I did see the screen flash something but only the command prompt returned.
Code: sudo mkdir /media/fd0 and sudo mount -o uid=1000,gid=1000 /dev/fd0 /media/fd0 also did not have any affect. Still no Floppy icon anywhere.
I opened File Manager clicked GO then My Computer and in the right pane there was the Floppy icon. A single click on any of these I get: Error File Doesn't exist. A Right-click shows Open or Properties, Open gets File Doesn't exixt, Properties shows File Type of Mount Point, Size of files 0 last access 01/01/70 00:00.
I then opened Leaf Pad and clicked Open, the device list showed Floppy Drive but no Files.
I Shutdown the MSI system and tried my old ECS system. First thing I noticed is that Linux Kernel took less than a second. On the MSI system it took 65 seconds. Still no Floppy icon and File manager acted the same. But with Leaf Pad I was able to Open and Save TXT files.
I think the BIOS on the MSI system is bad. I will stick with DOS and Windows to do the rest of my tests.
Someone more familiar with Linux should look into the Floppy issues as there is something wrong with the whole Knoppix File Manager thing.

Unless someone is willing to "show" me how to Run a DOS/Windows executable from a Jumpdrive, then this thread is closed.

Thanks

[utu]

FWIW,

I have NO fd on my system.
cd /var/log..........................................'set up shop in /var/log
rm user.log........................................ 'erase user.log
hwinfo --floppy --log user.log.............. 'generates a 600k text file in user.log

less user.log | grep fd......................... 'doesn't tell me anything useful about anything fd...
less user.log | grep floppy................... 'nor does this


Just watching the lxterminal, this 600k of text
flies by on one line in about 1 or 2 sec.

I have a cdrw.
Doing a similar exercise as above,

rm user.log
hwinfo --cdrom --log user.log ..............'generates a text file almost as big as for floppy

less less user.log | grep cd................... 'tells me a lot about cd... things

As before,
Just watching the lxterminal, this 600k of text
flies by on one line in about 1 or 2 sec.

[klaus2008]

Today I booted Knoppix 6.4.3 CD on my notebook (HP omnibook xt1000) with a USB floppy disk drive connected. There was no medium in the floppy drive. I issued hwinfo --floppy in a terminal and was surprised that the the command did not show any information about the floppy disk drive. I issued
hwinfo --usb and found a long list of USB devices. One device was my USB floppy disk drive. It had got the device name /dev/sdb.

My next step was to open the PCMan Filemanager. I did not see any icon for the floppy disk drive. After I had inserted a floppy disk into the floppy disk drive there was activity in the floppy disk drive and in the PCMan Filemanager's left pane appeared a new icon. It had got the same name as the floppy disk. I clicked on that icon and in the PCMan Filemanager's right pane appeared the usual icons. The floppy disk's mount point was /media/sdb. When I removed the floppy disk from the drive the icons disappeared in the right pane of the file manager. In the left pane of the PCMan Filemanager vanished the floppy disk's icon.

After this success I took my Windows 7 Pro system with Oracle VirtualBox 3.2.12 installed. This system has got a traditional floppy disk drive built in. I had to add a floppy disk drive to my virtual maschine before I started Knoppix 6.4.3. I opened a terminal and issued hwinfo --floppy. Again there was no information about the floppy disk drive. But when I issued
hwinfo --storage-ctrl I saw that there was floppy disk controller in the system. Afterwards I opened the PCMan Filemanager and inserted a floppy disk into the physical floppy disk drive. There was no icon for the floppy disk shown in the filemanager's window. Therefore I issued the commands I suggested in my previous post.
sudo mkdir /media/fd0
sudo mount -o uid=1000,gid=1000 /dev/fd0 /media/fd0 This time there was no special icon for the floppy disk drive but after I had moved to the directory /media/fd0 I found the files on the floppy disk. I closed the filemanager's window and issued
sudo umount /media/fd0 before I removed the floppy disk from the floppy disk drive.

My third attempt was to boot my PC from the Knoppix 6.4.3 CD. There was a similar experience as in the virtual maschine. But I after had plugged in my USB floppy disk drive the floppy disk was detected automatically as in the first attempt with the notebook.

Maybe there is a way to turn on an automount operation for the traditional floppy disk drives in Knoppix 6.4.3. But in the rare case that I need a floppy disk drive I can use my USB device.

[utu]

I think this mystery may be just one of expectations.

I note there is no icon for a CD initially anywhere
on my Desktop or File Manager UNTIL there is some
removable medium actually in the CD device.

Usually Knoppix prompts for some information if it
sees a new device or new media. Soon afterwards
appropriate icons appear here and there in the
File Manager.

Wouldn't surprise me (NOW) if that's true for floppies and
USB devices as well.

[krishna.murphy]

Since a mount command is required for most filesystems, I'm not surprised that the drive doesn't show up in pcman unless there's a medium in a removable type drive. The raw, unmounted "drive" (filesystem) shows up as soon as I plug something in, but I have to click it in the list of filesystems to mount it. I haven't seen drive icons on the desktop since version 5, either before or after mounting.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen: