Win98 -- all kidding aside

[NoOp]

On 07/31/2008 03:14 PM, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 16:59 -0500, Jimmy Montague wrote:
>> Well, I did just as you suggested: I now have "floppy formatter" in my
>> system tools menu. When I unmount the fdd, I click Applications --
>> System Tools -- Floppy Formatter and I get a dialog window.
>> 
>> I select the floppy type, the format I want, type in a name for the
>> disk, click format and, after about thirty seconds, I get an adamant
>> system lock. Force reboot with the reset button, try the same thing
>> using a different floppy disk, and get the same result. So much for
>> floppy formatter, I guess.
> 
> That sucks, but without more info there is nothing I can do. As I said,
> I cannot replicate this myself because I lack a floppy drive. I found
> six bugs filed for the floppy formatter ("gfloppy"), maybe something
> there is of help: 
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/+bugs?field.searchtext=gfloppy&search=Search+Bug+Reports&field.scope=all&field.scope.target=

I do use floppies, and I've just tested formating  (DOS (FAT)) a floppy
on 5 systems; 4 Hardy (1 a shiny new install) and 1 Gutsy. On the Gutsy
machine I used gfloppy, for the rest I used kfloppy. All using Gnome.

There is a reason why gfloppy is hidden in the applications menu; I
think it has some Gtk/gnome-utils kinks that are still being worked out
in Hardy & hopefully will be resolved soon.  Mr. Montague can install
kfloppy via a GUI by the following:

1. Click on Applications - upper left corner on the top panel.
2. Click on Add/Remove (bottom of Applications menu).
3. In the "Show" tab click the little black down arrow and select "All
Available Applications"
4. In the Search box (upper right of Add/Remove Applications) enter:
kfloppy.
5. Click the little empty box next to KFloppy. At the popup that says
"Enable the installation of community maintained software?" click the
"Enable button.
6. The little box next to KFloppy should now be blue. Click the "Apply
Changes" button in the lower right hand corner of Add/Remove Applications.
7. Enter your password in the popup and hit the Enter key.

That will download and install kfloppy kde4 and the 45 files necessary
to support it.

Now just in case those GUI instructions are too difficult, here is how
to do it from Synaptics:

1. Click on System|Administration|Synaptic Package Manager
2. Enter your password
3. In Synaptics click on the "Search" button (the one with binoculars)
and enter kfloppy
4. Click the little box next to kfloppy-kde4 and select "Mark for
Installation"
5. Click the "Apply" button (the one with the green check mark).

TThat will download and install kfloppy kde4 and the 45 files necessary
to support it.

To run kfloppy:

1. Click on Applications|Accessories|KFloppy
2. Format your floppy.

Or the GUI installation is unclear:

1. Click on Applications|Accessories|Terminal
2. In the terminal enter:
sudo apt-get install kfloppy-kde
3. Enter your password.
4. Run as above.

Note: personally I prefer the basic kfloppy available in the Universe
repository, but I'll spare others on the list from having to write basic
instructions for Mr. Montague on how to enable the Universe repository
and then do 'sudo apt-get install kfloppy' from the terminal or how to
install from Synaptic.

If I get around to it I'll file a bug report relating to Nautilus not
changing the floppy name without a reboot.