Cannot access FLOPPY

[bob58]

Hello all.....I have not been able to use my floppy drive since my last installation of Knoppix. I didnt do anything different as far as I know. I cannot mount it, cause i get an error. I checked a few config files that were suggested and tried different lines but it is no use. If i put a floppy in drive and try to open it, it seems to show that it is open but nothing is on disk. I compared config files to my desktop, which has a perfectly operating mountable floppy drive and the files are the SAME! What am i missing here? Is there some other way to check the floppy? I have resorted to copying things from writable cd's. Its a waste of a cd most of the time if all i want to do is copy a wallpaper or some thing little so i usually just dont add anything unless i have to. I have tried creating another floppy icon for desktop, but it behaves the same way and is not mountable. The mount option is there when you right click but it comes back with the same error. My CD rom seems to work all the time just right. And I can access the HDD no prob. Just that miserable floppy!!!!! If anyone can make any more suggestions that would be great...bob :cry:

[sn0wflake]

Please list all your hardware for further analysis.

[bob58]

Hi Snowflake....here is what I have:

Compaq Presario 1247 Laptop
4gig HDD
CD rom
Floppy drive
400MHZ cpu
158MB RAM
Slots for PCMCIA cards...not used though
56K internal modem....dont need to use it.
1 USB port
1 ps/2 mouse (sometimes use)
touchpad

Thats about it right here......bob

[bob58]

I get an I/O error when i try to format the floppy. Here is what i get when i try to mount /dev/fd0:

Could not mount device....The reported error was:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/fd0

or too many mounted filesystems.....

How do you even begin to trace the problem? This is getting very frustrating. Especially since the floppy was working before.

[OErjan]

what does your /etc/fstab say? auto can mess up, try vfat?

mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy
and what do you get if you put a BLANK floppy in and try to do
cat if=/my/knoppix/cd/floppybootimage of=/dev/fd0
is it one of those removable floppydrives? if yes, have you checked the contact points?

[bob58]

here is the line from fstab:

/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,noauto,showexec,umask=022 0 0

I replaced it with:

mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy

I re booted and get error when I try to mount the floppy that says there is an error in line 8 of /etc/fstab.....it seems no matter what i try i get no where.....i checked the dmesg log and it does show the floppy drive being recognized at boot up.

I tried at console: cat if=/my/knoppix/cd/floppybootimage of=/dev/fd0

I get "no such file or directory" error....do i need the KNOPPIX cd in the computer to do this? The floppy is not a removable one. The thing that sux is the floppy was working a few KNOPPIX installations ago. I noticed the last time I re installed, now the floppy wont mount. I hate to have to re install AGAIN!!!! But I wonder if something got corrupted? I doubt it though....everything else seems to work fine. It is aggravating becasuse i have tried everything everyone suggested and i still cannot get it to work. I get the same error message no matter what....anything else i can try? ?? ? ?bob

[OErjan]

oops, the
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy
or was the last part /mnt/floppy? hmm, cant remember just now.
was for typing manually in a console,
in fstab it should look something like this (iirc), the same may apply that there is no /mnt/floppy, if so just make one or type plain /floppy.

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat noauto,users,gid=users 0 0
and the cat if=/my/knoppix/cd/floppybootimage of=/dev/fd0
was not the right searchpath, it was intended that you put the right path to the image on your mounted knoppix CD, iirc it should be either

cat if=/mnt/cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0
OR

cat if=/cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0
i am on a Slackware comuter right now, i just type from memory. ths time i have searched some on the forum.
hope these help some.
jikes, messy, ask and i will try to clarify.

By the way. the comand cat takes input from a specified file/device... and directs it to a specified output.
in our case, input is a image of a knoppix bootfloppy and output is your floppydrive (we hope).
the process can be reversed, you can make a floppyimage from a floppy with cat.
cat can be used to weiw short textfiles (less than 20 lines in a normal console), just type cat /path/to/file and it scrolls on to your screen (default output for cat).
It can be used for several other things, sometimes i test the sound by typing cat /bin/bash > /dev/dsp, i stop the horrible scretching with ctrl+c, as cat is NOT a mediaplayer and /bin/bash is NOT a soundfile it sounds like a modem in pain, cat couldn't care less it just does it's job.
man cat wil give more info

[bob58]

OK I did try typing

mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /floppy

at the command line....and it came back with the same error!!!! I will edit my /etc/fstab and put "/mnt/" in front of the "/floppy" and re boot and see what hapens.....just for info, when computer boots up, you can hear it access the floppy drive so the computer knows its there.

[OErjan]

yes but is it ALL there. just one wire missing...