fd0 not a block device ???

[jamin]

Mandrake 8.1.

mount /dev/fd0 -t msdos /mnt/floppy

I get "fd0 is not a block device"

do mount /mnt/floppy and then ls /mnt/floppy
get "Input/output error"

any ideals?

[Brian-74-454]

This may be a dumb question... but is there a disk in the drive when you try to mount it?


Brian

[jamin]

Yes I have a disk in the drive...

[Linuxcool]

Do a ls -l /dev/fd0 and see if the first letter listed in the permissions is a ' b '. It should be a ' b ' for a block device.

[Craig McPherson]

That's a little bit weird.

It could be a problem with the device node.

With a floppy in the drive, try this command:

cat /dev/fd0

If the floppy device is working correctly, you'll get 1.44MB of garbage -- use the "reset" command to clear the screen and reset your terminal if your prompt is screwed up afterwards. If you get an error, then it means something is wrong with either the device file itself, or the floppy drive, or something in the kernel. It could be a lot of things.

Oh yeah... you should use "vfat" instead of "msdos" as your filesyste type, or better yet, just use "auto". You should generally use "auto" with floppy disks, because it allows the system to detect what type of filesystem is on the floppy.

[ssadams]

i dont use 8.1 but if its anything like Mandrake 7.0-8.0 then by default the floppy is under supermount control like your cdrom/s.To see its contents just put a floppy in the drive and ues the console or any file manager to goto /mnt/floppy and the contents will be there.