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- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!news.dfrf.nasa.gov!halon.dfrf.nasa.gov!blee
- From: blee@halon.dfrf.nasa.gov (Bryson Lee)
- Subject: Re: Unable to use floppies under Linux
- Message-ID: <1992Sep10.234638.21592@news.dfrf.nasa.gov>
- Sender: news@news.dfrf.nasa.gov (Usenet news)
- Organization: NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
- References: <1992Sep10.182648.12564@eua.ericsson.se> <1992Sep10.193917.5396@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
- Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 23:46:38 GMT
- Lines: 44
-
- In article <1992Sep10.193917.5396@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
- |> In article <1992Sep10.182648.12564@eua.ericsson.se> tmpcms@eua.ericsson.se (Carl-Michael Skoog) writes:
- |> >I've installed Linux about 20-30 times, and every single time the filesystem
- |> >ends up corrupted when I use some floppy-related command like tar(with /dev/fd0
- |> >as file, pax and GNU tar alike), dd, fdformat...
- |>
- |> [ *BAD* problems deleted ]
- |>
- |>
- |> ... A very weird one, though - this is the first such report
- |> I've ever seen.
- |>
-
- I am experiencing the same problem with my 20Mhz 386DX w/AMI BIOS using 2 IDE
- hard drives -- 40MB Western Digital something-or-other as master, 130MB
- Seagate ST3144A as slave, 5.25" 1.2MB a:, 3.5" 1.44 MB b:, no-name 16 bit
- hard/floppy controller card w/ 1parallel & 1 serial port.
-
- I installed the SLS package last night onto /dev/hdb2 (84.6 MB partition on the
- Seagate drive.) I got intermittent floppy read errors during the install on
- most of the 10 floppies, and when I went to reboot, the system hung (in init,
- I think) looking for libc.2.2.2. I went back and reinstalled just the minimal
- configuration (disks 1-4), and it booted and ran fine but for the above-
- mentioned errors on floppy operations. This is my first experience with a
- Linux install, and I didn't have time to experiment as much as Mr. Skoog did
- but the problems seem to be similar, if not identical.
-
- Unfortunately, I know nothing about DMA, (other than how to change jumpers
- on LAN cards if you get a DMA conflict under DOS), so I'm not much use for
- rewriting kernel code. Just thought I'd post to confirm what seems to be a
- problem.
-
- BTW, the SLS package currently installs (I think) 0.96c, and will not let me
- /#mkfs with an argument larger than 65535 (blocks, I guess). I seem to
- remember reading somewhere that this is a holdover limitation from the Minix
- file system, and was wondering if the SLS distribution which was anounced for
- late September will remove this limit?
-
- Any help with the floppy-drive problem will be greatly appreciated!!
-
- Thanks, and kudos those responsible for Linux and SLS!!
-
- Bryson Lee
- blee@halon.dfrf.nasa.gov
-