floppy.ko

floppy.ko

[Gene Heskett]

Greetings everybody;

At some point in the last, say 6 months or so, some patches have been done to 
the floppy.c area of the tree, and ever since, I have not been able to build 
the driver in without wasting around a minute during the bootup with lags and 
squawks about fd1 showing up in the boot trace on screen, but if I go look, 
its fd0 that's being pounded on by the driver, mainly bitching about not 
being able to read the first sector, something it repeats several times, like 
4 or 5.

I have the usual fd0, a 3.5" 1.44 drive, and fd1, a 5.25" 720k drive in this 
machine, both are enabled in the bios with the correct types being set there.

If I insert a disk, and attempt to mount it, the correct lights come on 
according to what I typed, but I have had a hell of a time trying to get it 
to write good images of a legacy machines disk format using dd, from files 
that I can read with khexedit, and I know are correct from that inspection.

The only use its getting these days is in the coco/os9 formats, read and 
written only by dd and some specialty tools from an os9 kit called toolshed, 
AFAIK.

Built as a module, then modprobed for use, I don't recall seeing this problem.

Is this fixable, or is it that I just don't know how to handle this newer 
code?

The currently running kernel, 2.6.21-rc7-CFS-v2 has it built in and it gave me 
static while booting with no disk in either drive.  Naming fd1, while banging 
on fd0 according to the access leds on the drives.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Nobody wants constructive criticism.  It's all we can do to put up with
constructive praise.

Re: floppy.ko

[H. Peter Anvin]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> 
> I have the usual fd0, a 3.5" 1.44 drive, and fd1, a 5.25" 720k drive in this 
> machine, both are enabled in the bios with the correct types being set there.
> 

A 5.25" 720k drive?!  That's not a PC standard drive -- 5.25" came in 
180K, 360K and 1200K varieties, whereas 3.5" came in 720K, 1440K and 
2880K varieties (not including superfloppies.)

	-hpa

Re: floppy.ko

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 17 April 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
>> I have the usual fd0, a 3.5" 1.44 drive, and fd1, a 5.25" 720k drive in
>> this machine, both are enabled in the bios with the correct types being
>> set there.
>
>A 5.25" 720k drive?!  That's not a PC standard drive -- 5.25" came in
>180K, 360K and 1200K varieties, whereas 3.5" came in 720K, 1440K and
>2880K varieties (not including superfloppies.)
>
>	-hpa

It sure is a std drive, Peter, although many of the later ones that were set 
up as 1.2 megger's by the pc crowd who have access to a 500 kilobaud 
controller, could have the 360 rpm spindle jumper'd back to 300 rpm, and when 
fed with a 250 kilobaud controller (WD177x/277x/279x family, which includes 
the Fujitsu MB8877), they are perfect 720k devices and are spec'ed that way 
by the makers.  Many of the older full height Tandon 100-4's could also step 
quite a few tracks closer to the spindle & I ran them as 765k drives by using 
84 tracks.  I even have a chinon that will make 86 tracks most of the time.

These were all quite common in the middle '80's.  Before your time I suspect.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
I have the simplest tastes.  I am always satisfied with the best.
		-- Oscar Wilde

Re: floppy.ko

[H. Peter Anvin]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 April 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> Gene Heskett wrote:
>>> I have the usual fd0, a 3.5" 1.44 drive, and fd1, a 5.25" 720k drive in
>>> this machine, both are enabled in the bios with the correct types being
>>> set there.
>> A 5.25" 720k drive?!  That's not a PC standard drive -- 5.25" came in
>> 180K, 360K and 1200K varieties, whereas 3.5" came in 720K, 1440K and
>> 2880K varieties (not including superfloppies.)
>>
>> 	-hpa
> 
> It sure is a std drive, Peter, although many of the later ones that were set 
> up as 1.2 megger's by the pc crowd who have access to a 500 kilobaud 
> controller, could have the 360 rpm spindle jumper'd back to 300 rpm, and when 
> fed with a 250 kilobaud controller (WD177x/277x/279x family, which includes 
> the Fujitsu MB8877), they are perfect 720k devices and are spec'ed that way 
> by the makers.  Many of the older full height Tandon 100-4's could also step 
> quite a few tracks closer to the spindle & I ran them as 765k drives by using 
> 84 tracks.  I even have a chinon that will make 86 tracks most of the time.
> 
> These were all quite common in the middle '80's.  Before your time I suspect.
> 

I know they were quite common, but they were not a standard *PC* 
accessory.  (FWIW, 1200K PC drives could also read/write 720K, which 
allowed you to use non-HD-rated media.)

(And no, this wasn't "before my time".)

	-hpa

Re: floppy.ko

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 18 April 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
>> On Tuesday 17 April 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>>> Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>> I have the usual fd0, a 3.5" 1.44 drive, and fd1, a 5.25" 720k drive in
>>>> this machine, both are enabled in the bios with the correct types being
>>>> set there.
>>>
>>> A 5.25" 720k drive?!  That's not a PC standard drive -- 5.25" came in
>>> 180K, 360K and 1200K varieties, whereas 3.5" came in 720K, 1440K and
>>> 2880K varieties (not including superfloppies.)
>>>
>>> 	-hpa
>>
>> It sure is a std drive, Peter, although many of the later ones that were
>> set up as 1.2 megger's by the pc crowd who have access to a 500 kilobaud
>> controller, could have the 360 rpm spindle jumper'd back to 300 rpm, and
>> when fed with a 250 kilobaud controller (WD177x/277x/279x family, which
>> includes the Fujitsu MB8877), they are perfect 720k devices and are
>> spec'ed that way by the makers.  Many of the older full height Tandon
>> 100-4's could also step quite a few tracks closer to the spindle & I ran
>> them as 765k drives by using 84 tracks.  I even have a chinon that will
>> make 86 tracks most of the time.
>>
>> These were all quite common in the middle '80's.  Before your time I
>> suspect.
>
>I know they were quite common, but they were not a standard *PC*
>accessory.  (FWIW, 1200K PC drives could also read/write 720K, which
>allowed you to use non-HD-rated media.)
>
Chuckle, see how you are?  You keep quoting the 'PC', and 20 years ago the PC 
term included a lot of machinery that didn't always run M$ code.  TRS-80 
Color Computers and such, or Apple II, Commode-door etc.

>(And no, this wasn't "before my time".)

Figure of speech, Peter, considering that I could be the oldest subscriber to 
this list.  I've been around since '34.

>	-hpa

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Randal can write one-liners again.  Everyone is happy, and peace spreads
over the whole Earth.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>

Re: floppy.ko

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 18 April 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
>> On Tuesday 17 April 2007, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>>> Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>> I have the usual fd0, a 3.5" 1.44 drive, and fd1, a 5.25" 720k drive in
>>>> this machine, both are enabled in the bios with the correct types being
>>>> set there.
>>>
>>> A 5.25" 720k drive?!  That's not a PC standard drive -- 5.25" came in
>>> 180K, 360K and 1200K varieties, whereas 3.5" came in 720K, 1440K and
>>> 2880K varieties (not including superfloppies.)
>>>
>>> 	-hpa
>>
>> It sure is a std drive, Peter, although many of the later ones that were
>> set up as 1.2 megger's by the pc crowd who have access to a 500 kilobaud
>> controller, could have the 360 rpm spindle jumper'd back to 300 rpm, and
>> when fed with a 250 kilobaud controller (WD177x/277x/279x family, which
>> includes the Fujitsu MB8877), they are perfect 720k devices and are
>> spec'ed that way by the makers.  Many of the older full height Tandon
>> 100-4's could also step quite a few tracks closer to the spindle & I ran
>> them as 765k drives by using 84 tracks.  I even have a chinon that will
>> make 86 tracks most of the time.
>>
>> These were all quite common in the middle '80's.  Before your time I
>> suspect.
>
>I know they were quite common, but they were not a standard *PC*
>accessory.  (FWIW, 1200K PC drives could also read/write 720K, which
>allowed you to use non-HD-rated media.)
>
Chuckle, see how you are?  You keep quoting the 'PC', and 20 years ago the PC 
term included a lot of machinery that didn't always run M$ code.  TRS-80 
Color Computers and such, or Apple II, Commode-door etc.

>(And no, this wasn't "before my time".)

Figure of speech, Peter, considering that I could be the oldest subscriber to 
this list.  I've been around since '34.

>	-hpa

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Randal can write one-liners again.  Everyone is happy, and peace spreads
over the whole Earth.
             -- Larry Wall in <199705101952.MAA00756@wall.org>

Re: floppy.ko

[H. Peter Anvin]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> Chuckle, see how you are?  You keep quoting the 'PC', and 20 years ago the PC 
> term included a lot of machinery that didn't always run M$ code.  TRS-80 
> Color Computers and such, or Apple II, Commode-door etc.

Bloody heck.  You know very well I was using the term in the common 
(modern) sense of "IBM PC and its clones and derivatives."

	-hpa