USB floppy Drive

[geezer]

Another easy question for the experts.

In order to communicate with my wife's ancient computer, I have to use 3.5" floppies. New computer doesn't have a floppy drive internally, so I purchased a USB floppy drive. Works real slick with Windows Vista, but I don't want to switch to Vista every time she has a file I need to review, print, send, etc.

Is there some driver for a USB floppy drive?

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

It should 'automatically' be identified when you plug the drive in. I have the same issue: my laptop doesn't have an internal floppy, and I purchased an external USB floppy. Now, I keep it plugged in all the time, which I'll assume you are doing also?

If you are (and if not, I suggest that you do) then you can ensure that the floppy is included in your /etc/fstab file. This is what my fstab entry looks like for my USB floppy:

/dev/sdd /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec 0 0

What version of *ubuntu are you using?

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

It should 'automatically' be identified when you plug the drive in. I have the same issue: my laptop doesn't have an internal floppy, and I purchased an external USB floppy. Now, I keep it plugged in all the time, which I'll assume you are doing also?

If you are (and if not, I suggest that you do) then you can ensure that the floppy is included in your /etc/fstab file. This is what my fstab entry looks like for my USB floppy:

/dev/sdd /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec 0 0

What version of *ubuntu are you using?

Using Kubuntu 7.10

Okay. I had the USB floppy plugged in as I booted. The drive light goes on, the disk spins and there is activity.

Added the fstab entry exactly as you suggested.

Clicked KwikDisk and the following message appeared: "No medium found"

clicked on KdiskFree and right clicked "/media/floppy0". Same message: no medium found

There is a floppy disk in the drive and as I said the light goes on and the disk spins on boot.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Added the fstab entry exactly as you suggested.

"Exactly?" Would that mean that you identified it as /dev/sdd in your fstab file? Your's may not be identified as /dev/sdd

Okay, just did a small test. The reason I have the entry in fstab for my floppy goes back to a problem when I initially upgraded KDE in Feisty. I checked my /etc/mtab file. No floppy entry (as expected, as I didn't have a disc inserted), so I inserted a diskette and rechecked /etc/mtab. The floppy was identified (as it should be) but not as /dev/sdd. It was identified as /dev/sdc and mounted under /media/disk.

So, I'm going to comment out the entry in fstab and see what happens when I reboot. My guess is that it will work just as it should - displaying an icon on the desktop when a diskette is inserted.

Your's should function the same way. So, for the moment, remove the entry in your fstab.

Is this USB floppy a generic 3.5" floppy, or is it by chance a 'super floppy'. Did it initially come with a driver installation disc?

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Added the fstab entry exactly as you suggested.

"Exactly?" Would that mean that you identified it as /dev/sdd in your fstab file? Your's may not be identified as /dev/sdd

Yep - "exactly" - I have 3 hard disks and double checked the disk allocation (right term?) and only sda, sdb and sdc were used, so I figured sdd was "safe".

Okay, just did a small test. The reason I have the entry in fstab for my floppy goes back to a problem when I initially upgraded KDE in Feisty. I checked my /etc/mtab file. No floppy entry (as expected, as I didn't have a disc inserted), so I inserted a diskette and rechecked /etc/mtab. The floppy was identified (as it should be) but not as /dev/sdd. It was identified as /dev/sdc and mounted under /media/disk.

So, I'm going to comment out the entry in fstab and see what happens when I reboot. My guess is that it will work just as it should - displaying an icon on the desktop when a diskette is inserted.

Your's should function the same way. So, for the moment, remove the entry in your fstab.

done

Is this USB floppy a generic 3.5" floppy, or is it by chance a 'super floppy'. Did it initially come with a driver installation disc?

No driver installation disk. Vista just notifies that it is "installing" the driver every time I plug the unit into the USB. So I assume it is just a "plain old 3.5" floppy drive.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Okay. You're back to 'square one.'

I performed my test. Commented out my floppy drive entry in fstab and rebooted. Once on the Desktop, I inserted a floppy diskette and it mounted and displayed the icon on the desktop. Note: Because the floppy is a USB device, it gets a USB Removable Media icon, not a floppy disc icon.

I clicked on the icon and it opens just as one would expect. This is what my /etc/mtab reports on the floppy:

/dev/sdb /media/disk vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,flush,uid=1000,utf8,shortn ame=lower 0 0

With your fstab not containing an entry for your floppy, what does your /etc/mtab report it as when you insert a diskette?

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Okay. You're back to 'square one.'

I performed my test. Commented out my floppy drive entry in fstab and rebooted. Once on the Desktop, I inserted a floppy diskette and it mounted and displayed the icon on the desktop. Note: Because the floppy is a USB device, it gets a USB Removable Media icon, not a floppy disc icon.

I clicked on the icon and it opens just as one would expect. This is what my /etc/mtab reports on the floppy:

/dev/sdb /media/disk vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,flush,uid=1000,utf8,shortn ame=lower 0 0

With your fstab not containing an entry for your floppy, what does your /etc/mtab report it as when you insert a diskette?

Commented out the fstab entry and rebooted just to make sure.

Inserted a floopy disc, the light goes and the disc spins, then nothing.

My mstab is:

/dev/sdc1 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
lrm /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile tmpfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /home/FC5 ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /windows/Vista fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,allow_other,default_permis sions,blksize=4096 0 0
/dev/sda2 /windows/XP fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,allow_other,default_permis sions,blksize=4096 0 0
/dev/sda5 /windows/fat32 vfat rw,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0
securityfs /sys/kernel/security securityfs rw 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0


are there floppydrivers that could be missing?

I searched Synaptic for "USB floppy" and didn't find anything that looked like a floppy driver or USB floppy driver.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Open a console and type:

groups

Do you see 'floppy' and 'plugdev' in the listed groups? This is my output:

paul adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev scanner lpadmin admin netdev powerdev

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Open a console and type:

groups

Do you see 'floppy' and 'plugdev' in the listed groups? This is my output:

paul adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev scanner lpadmin admin netdev powerdev

Here's what I get:

terry adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev scanner lpadmin admin netdev powerdev

so "floppy" and "plugdev" are both there.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Are you booting the PC with the USB floppy connected (no diskette inserted), or plugging it in after you have booted?

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Are you booting the PC with the USB floppy connected (no diskette inserted), or plugging it in after you have booted?

Tried both with the same result, So I have been booting with the drive plugged in, no diskette.

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Hmm. The USB port(s) on your PC; are they USB 1.1 or highspeed USB 2.0? If the former, is the floppy drive designated as being USB 2.0?

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Ok - tried something new.

Plugged the USB flopp in without diskette.

Then with diskette.

Same result in both cases.

KDE Daemon windows opens and informs of medium type: Unmounted Floppy

So it knows there is a floppy drive, just not mounted

Asks what to do: Open in new window or do nothing. I click open in new window.

Dolphin opens and informs at the bottom that

Method "Mount" with signature "ssas" on interface "org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume" doesn't exist

Dolphin opens with a blank window and lists the "storage media" as sdh

[geezer]

Re: USB floppy Drive

Hmm. The USB port(s) on your PC; are they USB 1.1 or highspeed USB 2.0? If the former, is the floppy drive designated as being USB 2.0?

Computer: USB 2.0

Just looked at the floppy box: USB 1.1

Shouldn'ty the 2.0 be backward compatible?

If not I may have to take the USB floppy drive back and try to find one with USB 2.0

[Snowhog]

Re: USB floppy Drive

No, you are correct. USB 1.1 will work on a USB 2.0 port. I was concerned that you might have had it the other way 'round.

I (and many others) don't like Dolphin being the primary device/file manager. It has 'problems.' I would suggest that you reset Konqueror as the default file manager. It's easy enough.

Open Konqueror. Click on Settings | Configure Konqueror | File Associations
Then click the + sign next to inode
Click on Directory
In the Application Preference Order click on Konqueror and click the Move Up button
Click Apply and OK.
Close Konqueror and then reopen it again.
Try your test again. When the window opens asking you what you want to do, choose Nothing. Then (assuming) the drive icon is present on your desktop, just click it and see what happens.