Floppy drive not responding.

[HermanAA]

Sorry for the long-winded answer. I think you find it interesting to
read the last lines.

On Fri, 2009-06-26 at 10:26 -0700, NoOp wrote: 
> On 06/26/2009 02:42 AM, HermanAA wrote:
> > my (newly added) floppy does not show up.
> > Cannot mount drive ... seems to be the problem.
> > The floppy drive is working under WINdows.
> > 
> > I must be doing something wrong in the setup.
> > 
> > my fstab : (bulk removed)
> ...
> > /dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0
> 
> Mine:
> /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec 0 0
> 
> > n0jn at bsw:~$ mount /dev/fd0
> > mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device
> > n0jn at bsw:~$ mount /media/floppy0
> > mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device
> > n0jn at bsw:~$ 
> 
> Makes sense if you have no floppy in the drive.

NoOp (especially) and all others who responded:
 YOUR HELP IS VERY USEFUL
... your messages are an amazing guide, even if you just speak your
mind.
  (yes there is chaff but I figure that out, given a little time)

I dont get all the answers.
But I get many good hints. (you tell me the main points, by your
comments, and I can figure out the details on my own)

Some problems are:
-- bad floppies
-- (maybe) conflicting requirements auto <> non-auto.
   (when using default Ubuntu installation, assumptions have been made:
maybe in time-out: Sometimes the floppy is slower than the OS assumes).

.... most of these are still guesses. I have to check them out, by
experimentation.

> This is what it will look like with a write-protected floppy in the drive:
> $ mount /dev/fd0
> mount: block device /dev/fd0 is write-protected, mounting read-only

Interesting. (but I ain't there yet)
I check it out after the floppy-drive is working.
 (it is a good remark, keep up the good work)

> > 
> > looking around:
> 
> $ ls -l /media/
> total 51
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root      6 2007-08-18 10:39 cdrom -> cdrom0
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root   4096 2007-08-18 10:39 cdrom0
> drwxrwxrwx 2 root  root   4096 2007-10-30 12:43 cdrom1
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root   4096 2007-08-22 18:56 drive2
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root  root      7 2007-08-18 10:39 floppy -> floppy0
> drwxr-xr-x 2 gg    gg     7168 1969-12-31 16:00 floppy0
> drwxrwxrwx 1 root  root   4096 2009-05-27 10:07 sdb2
> drwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  20480 2009-05-27 10:17 windows
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root   4096 2008-06-13 16:22 winshares
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root  root   4096 2007-08-23 18:09 xfs
> 
> drwxr-xr-x 2 gg gg  7168 1969-12-31 16:00 floppy0
> is with a valid floppy in the drive.
> 
 
> > Where am I going wrong?
> 
> $ dmesg |grep fd[0-9]
> [    0.640565] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 10 32bit mmio: [0xfd000000-0xfdffffff]
> [    3.857829] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
> [ 9634.348028] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
> [ 9634.372029] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
> [ 9647.236034] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
> [ 9647.260034] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
> 
> I get the same i/o errors but my floppies/fd0 is working fine.

Listings like the above make good references!
 (for the person with trouble, me)

BIG THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP !!

Why floppies?? My goodness, is that not history yet?
Yes it is .... (if you ask me).
 (I did throw all the RESCUE diskettes that I need so badly now ....)

Unexpected things happen:
Poor girl Camly (student, 18, no money, amazing lady, she is a lot
sharper than I am) got an old computer from the local SSS, with WIN95 on
it and NO CDROM drive.
 (it's perfectly OK! to laugh).

... and she says: "Uncle Herman, NO CDROM. How can I install XP?
 (I already gave her a copy of Puppy-Linux CD, to smell Linux. I expect
that smart kid to be on Linux, Ubuntu probably, long before she can
afford Windows 7. She will be using XP when Ubuntu does not do what
needs to be done).

So, I have to help her.
My computer has no more floppy-drive. (who needs floppies ??)
So I installed my best floppy-drive (from my computer junk-box).
And I have problems getting it going ......

With your help we will succeed, NO doubt about it.

THANKS TO ALL WHO RESPONDED !!
 (I know some of the questions are silly .... till you know the
reason/background).

Herman in Cebu, Philippines.