Floppy problems

Floppy problems

[Eric Dorland]

Hi,
There seems to be a problem with the SWIM3 controller on my PowerMac G3.
Whenever I try to do any floppy realted operation (mount, dd, whatever) it
gives me this error:

end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 36

does anyone know what this means or has had similar problems?

I'm running R5 on a a kernel I compiled myself, but not with anything
outrageous, just a few patches. I've got a G3/266, and I'm running linux off
a internal scsi drive.

Eric Dorland
dorland@lords.com

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Re: Floppy problems

[Hollis R Blanchard]

On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Eric Dorland wrote:
> 
> There seems to be a problem with the SWIM3 controller on my PowerMac G3.
> Whenever I try to do any floppy realted operation (mount, dd, whatever) it
> gives me this error:
> 
> end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 36
> 
> does anyone know what this means or has had similar problems?
> 
> I'm running R5 on a a kernel I compiled myself, but not with anything
> outrageous, just a few patches. I've got a G3/266, and I'm running linux off
> a internal scsi drive.

Are you *positive* your floppy's good? Have you tried others?

-Hollis


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Re: Floppy problems

[David A. Gatwood]

On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Hollis R Blanchard wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Eric Dorland wrote:
> > 
> > There seems to be a problem with the SWIM3 controller on my PowerMac G3.
> > Whenever I try to do any floppy realted operation (mount, dd, whatever) it
> > gives me this error:
> > 
> > end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 36
> > 
> > does anyone know what this means or has had similar problems?
> > 
> > I'm running R5 on a a kernel I compiled myself, but not with anything
> > outrageous, just a few patches. I've got a G3/266, and I'm running linux off
> > a internal scsi drive.
> 
> Are you *positive* your floppy's good? Have you tried others?

Does sound like a bad block, yeah.  If it happens for several disks that
way, and if your drive works right in MacOS, you might see if MkLinux can
read it.  If MkLinux's floppy code reads it and LinuxPPC's doesn't, it's a
bug in the driver.  If, on the other hand, MkLinux's floppy driver fails
as well, you'll probably get more debugging messages than you could ever
possibly want....


Later,
David


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Re: Floppy problems

[Eric Dorland]

On Fri, Nov 19, 1999 at 07:45:57PM -0800, David A. Gatwood wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Hollis R Blanchard wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Eric Dorland wrote:
> > > 
> > > There seems to be a problem with the SWIM3 controller on my PowerMac G3.
> > > Whenever I try to do any floppy realted operation (mount, dd, whatever) it
> > > gives me this error:
> > > 
> > > end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 36
> > > 
> > > does anyone know what this means or has had similar problems?
> > > 
> > > I'm running R5 on a a kernel I compiled myself, but not with anything
> > > outrageous, just a few patches. I've got a G3/266, and I'm running linux off
> > > a internal scsi drive.
> > 
> > Are you *positive* your floppy's good? Have you tried others?
> 
> Does sound like a bad block, yeah.  If it happens for several disks that
> way, and if your drive works right in MacOS, you might see if MkLinux can
> read it.  If MkLinux's floppy code reads it and LinuxPPC's doesn't, it's a
> bug in the driver.  If, on the other hand, MkLinux's floppy driver fails
> as well, you'll probably get more debugging messages than you could ever
> possibly want....

I've tried a bunch of different floppies (at least 5), all give the exactly
same error. The drive works flawlessly in the MacOS. I don't really have
MkLinux installed to test it. Something I forgot to mention. When I try to
to do dd, it gives the error and hangs the terminal. I can switch to another
virt. console, but the dd process refuses to die. Is there something odd
about the G3 floppy drive? Does anyone have this problem?

BTW, is there any utility in the MacOS to write raw disk images? DiskCopy
will mount them, but doesn't seem to want to write them to a floppy. (Its a
Debian i386 bootdisk).

Eric Dorland
dorland@lords.com

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Re: Floppy problems

[David A. Gatwood]

On Sat, 20 Nov 1999, Eric Dorland wrote:

> I've tried a bunch of different floppies (at least 5), all give the exactly
> same error. The drive works flawlessly in the MacOS. I don't really have
> MkLinux installed to test it. Something I forgot to mention. When I try to
> to do dd, it gives the error and hangs the terminal. I can switch to another
> virt. console, but the dd process refuses to die. Is there something odd
> about the G3 floppy drive? Does anyone have this problem?

It does sound like a driver bug.  And no, the G3 machines should be using
the same (Mitsubishi or Panasonic) mechanisms used in all the other
PowerMacs.  It's remotely possible they used the Sony mechanism, but I
don't think they've done that since the Quadras, so....


> BTW, is there any utility in the MacOS to write raw disk images? DiskCopy
> will mount them, but doesn't seem to want to write them to a floppy. (Its a
> Debian i386 bootdisk).

DiskCopy should be able to write them, too.


David


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Re: Floppy problems

[Eric Dorland]

On Fri, Nov 19, 1999 at 10:17:00PM -0800, David A. Gatwood wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Nov 1999, Eric Dorland wrote:
> 
> > I've tried a bunch of different floppies (at least 5), all give the exactly
> > same error. The drive works flawlessly in the MacOS. I don't really have
> > MkLinux installed to test it. Something I forgot to mention. When I try to
> > to do dd, it gives the error and hangs the terminal. I can switch to another
> > virt. console, but the dd process refuses to die. Is there something odd
> > about the G3 floppy drive? Does anyone have this problem?
> 
> It does sound like a driver bug.  And no, the G3 machines should be using
> the same (Mitsubishi or Panasonic) mechanisms used in all the other
> PowerMacs.  It's remotely possible they used the Sony mechanism, but I
> don't think they've done that since the Quadras, so....

It is very weird. Again, other G3 users, does your floppy drive work?

> > BTW, is there any utility in the MacOS to write raw disk images? DiskCopy
> > will mount them, but doesn't seem to want to write them to a floppy. (Its a
> > Debian i386 bootdisk).
> 
> DiskCopy should be able to write them, too.

It can't, it copes out with a -54 error. Looking it up its a permError
(trying to write a locked file) which doesn't make much sense.

Eric Dorland
dorland@lords.com

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Re: Floppy problems

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

On Sat, 20 Nov 1999 David A. Gatwood writes:

> It is very weird. Again, other G3 users, does your floppy drive work?

No, mine doesn't work either.  I've reported and asked several times here,
but never got replies (other than: use gdb.. duh)

See, eg,

	 * To: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org
	 * Subject: /dev/fd0 close () hangs -- how to debug?
	 * From: Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org>
	 * Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 12:14:57 +0100
	 _________________________________________________________________


    Hi,

    I've never gotten my floppy drive to work under Linuxppc, it works fine
    under MacOS.  When accessing the floppy, it sounds ok, but the close ()
    system call doesn't return.  After this, the fd0 device can't be accessed
    again because it's busy.  The process can't be killed.

    [...]


Greetings,
Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien/      | http://www.lilypond.org/

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Re: Floppy problems

[David A. Gatwood]

On Sat, 20 Nov 1999, Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:

> On Sat, 20 Nov 1999 David A. Gatwood writes:
> 
> > It is very weird. Again, other G3 users, does your floppy drive work?
> 
> No, mine doesn't work either.  I've reported and asked several times here,
> but never got replies (other than: use gdb.. duh)

Something to check: look inside and see what the drive used is.  As far as
I know, it should be either the standard Panasonic or the mostly standard
Mitsubishi, but if it's a different drive, there could be some issues.
And again, you should try MkLinux and see if it can handle the drive so
that if so, the LinuxPPC coders can use that as a working reference to see
what's wrong in the drivers.  (Of course, if MkLinux doesn't work, there's
probably a hardware bug, since we use Copland's floppy driver.)


David


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Re: Floppy problems

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

On Saturday, 20 November 1999, "David A. Gatwood" writes:

> > > It is very weird. Again, other G3 users, does your floppy drive work?
> > 
> > No, mine doesn't work either.  I've reported and asked several times here,
> > but never got replies (other than: use gdb.. duh)
> 
> Something to check: look inside and see what the drive used is.  As far as
> I know, it should be either the standard Panasonic or the mostly standard
> Mitsubishi, but if it's a different drive, there could be some issues.

Yes, it's a Mitsubishi.

> And again, you should try MkLinux and see if it can handle the drive so
> that if so, the LinuxPPC coders can use that as a working reference to see
> what's wrong in the drivers.  (Of course, if MkLinux doesn't work, there's
> probably a hardware bug, since we use Copland's floppy driver.)

Ok, I checked: it works fine under Mklinux. (must address as /dev/fd0H1440,
because fd0 is 'no such device'.  Also, X didn't work anymore, but these
maybe mk-newbe problems.)

On another unrelated note: while I was at it I tried to mount a
home-brew CD-ROM under Mklinux.  It failed gracefully, printing these
errors:

    <lev 2> block_read_reply: rdev 16:00 rsector 0x40 size 0x400 err=0x9c4=2500 "unknown error code" 
    isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev 16:00 iso_blknum 16 block 32 
    block_ioctl(dev=16:00, cmd=0x20001260) not implemented 

Trying to mount this particular CD-ROM under linuxppc-Q3's 2.2.6 or 2.3.23
freezes the kernel (not pingable, nothing in logs).

Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien/      | http://www.lilypond.org/

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Re: Floppy problems

[David A. Gatwood]

On Sat, 20 Nov 1999, Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:

> > Something to check: look inside and see what the drive used is.  As far as
> > I know, it should be either the standard Panasonic or the mostly standard
> > Mitsubishi, but if it's a different drive, there could be some issues.
> 
> Yes, it's a Mitsubishi.

Hmm.  That's the same drive used in the majority of PCI PowerMacs.  Odd.


> > And again, you should try MkLinux and see if it can handle the drive so
> > that if so, the LinuxPPC coders can use that as a working reference to see
> > what's wrong in the drivers.  (Of course, if MkLinux doesn't work, there's
> > probably a hardware bug, since we use Copland's floppy driver.)
> 
> Ok, I checked: it works fine under Mklinux. (must address as /dev/fd0H1440,
> because fd0 is 'no such device'.

Yeah.  I still haven't gotten around to changing that.  Mach takes control
of device size handling, so all of the /dev/fd0H*'s work the same except
fd0, which for some reason, they didn't attach to the driver....


> Also, X didn't work anymore, but these
> maybe mk-newbe problems.)

Heheh.  Let me guess.  Just hangs?  Should be fixed in the latest vmlinux
server sources, but nobody's built since then....  (mental note, build
kernel/server pair tonight.)


> On another unrelated note: while I was at it I tried to mount a
> home-brew CD-ROM under Mklinux.  It failed gracefully, printing these
> errors:
> 
>     <lev 2> block_read_reply: rdev 16:00 rsector 0x40 size 0x400 err=0x9c4=2500 "unknown error code" 
>     isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev 16:00 iso_blknum 16 block 32 
>     block_ioctl(dev=16:00, cmd=0x20001260) not implemented 
> 
> Trying to mount this particular CD-ROM under linuxppc-Q3's 2.2.6 or 2.3.23
> freezes the kernel (not pingable, nothing in logs).

Eek.  :-)


David


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Re: Floppy problems

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

On Saturday, 20 November 1999, "David A. Gatwood" writes:

> Hmm.  That's the same drive used in the majority of PCI PowerMacs.  Odd.

Thanks for answering so quickly.  Is there anything one/I can do
except for just looking at the code?
(did you see my 'bug report'?  all seems to go well, until close (),
 which just blocks.  I'm at loss, there).
 
> Yeah.  I still haven't gotten around to changing that.  Mach takes control
> of device size handling, so all of the /dev/fd0H*'s work the same except
> fd0, which for some reason, they didn't attach to the driver....

Ok.

> Heheh.  Let me guess.  Just hangs?  Should be fixed in the latest vmlinux

Yep.

> server sources, but nobody's built since then....  (mental note, build
> kernel/server pair tonight.)

Could you drop me an url?

> > Trying to mount this particular CD-ROM under linuxppc-Q3's 2.2.6 or 2.3.23
> > freezes the kernel (not pingable, nothing in logs).
> 
> Eek.  :-)

You take the words right out of my mouth :-)

Jan.

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien/      | http://www.lilypond.org/

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Re: Floppy problems

[David A. Gatwood]

On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:

> On Saturday, 20 November 1999, "David A. Gatwood" writes:
> 
> > Hmm.  That's the same drive used in the majority of PCI PowerMacs.  Odd.
> 
> Thanks for answering so quickly.  Is there anything one/I can do
> except for just looking at the code?
> (did you see my 'bug report'?  all seems to go well, until close (),
>  which just blocks.  I'm at loss, there).

That's the strangest thing I've ever seen, that's for sure.  I have no
idea where to look to track that down.  You might run gdb on the program
and trace your way into the call and see if you can come up with anything
useful that way.  Dunno.  If close() is really failing, I'd guess it's
probably a buffer cache problem.


> > Heheh.  Let me guess.  Just hangs?  Should be fixed in the latest vmlinux
> 
> Yep.
> 
> > server sources, but nobody's built since then....  (mental note, build
> > kernel/server pair tonight.)
> 
> Could you drop me an url?

I'll start building GENERIC #09 alpha kernels shortly, ramping up for
MkLinux R1.  Probably be on ftp://globegate.utm.edu/pub/MkLinux/alpha.
The GENERIC #08 alphas are all there right now, and they'll be moving into
a separate directory, or maybe just ripped out and archived.  I haven't
decided yet.


> > > Trying to mount this particular CD-ROM under linuxppc-Q3's 2.2.6 or 2.3.23
> > > freezes the kernel (not pingable, nothing in logs).
> > 
> > Eek.  :-)
> 
> You take the words right out of my mouth :-)


Later,
David


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Re: Floppy problems

[Giuliano Pochini]

>     I've never gotten my floppy drive to work under Linuxppc, it works fine
>     under MacOS.  When accessing the floppy, it sounds ok, but the close ()
>     system call doesn't return.  After this, the fd0 device can't be accessed
>     again because it's busy.  The process can't be killed.
> 
>     [...]

Same problem here, mainly on write accesses.

Pmac 7300 with all kernels.

Bye.


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Re: Floppy problems

[Jeff Hubbach]

I finally got my floppy working on a 8500 running LinuxPPC '99 Q3, but if
I try a mkfs /dev/fd0 on my 9600 with the same Linux, it gets to the part
where it's "writing superblock" and just hangs. I don't understand why it
would work on the 8500, but not on the 9600. Same install, same kernel,
maybe it's the different motherboard?

Any input would be greatly appreciated...

------------------------------------
Jeff Hubbach                       |
Computer Science Student           |   
Montana State University           |      
http://www.cs.montana.edu/~hubbach |
------------------------------------

On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, Giuliano Pochini wrote:
> >     I've never gotten my floppy drive to work under Linuxppc, it works fine
> >     under MacOS.  When accessing the floppy, it sounds ok, but the close ()
> >     system call doesn't return.  After this, the fd0 device can't be accessed
> >     again because it's busy.  The process can't be killed.
> >     [...]
> Same problem here, mainly on write accesses.
> 
> Pmac 7300 with all kernels.
> 
> Bye.


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