Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 21:14:25 -0500 (EST) From: Tom Rhodes <darklogik@pittgoth.com> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: docs/34474: [PATCH] Adding floppy section to handbook Message-ID: <200201310214.g0V2EP700452@pittgoth.com>
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>Number: 34474
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: [PATCH] Adding floppy section to handbook
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Wed Jan 30 18:20:01 PST 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Julio Merino <juli@merino.net>
>Release: FreeBSD 4.5 i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD 4.5
>Description:
Awhile back, in pr: 33164 Julio wrote a section on Floppy Disks
for the handbook, and Murray changed the pr state to 'feedback'. The information
was good, and should be added, just the patch should have been added to the
disks chapter. I have looked over the original diff, made slight formatting
modifications, merged it with the disks chapter and created a patch for
everyone and anyone. If this should have just been sent to the pr in
question, then I apologize for opening a new pr. I hope to see this committed
to the handbook, thanks Julio
--Tom Rhodes
>How-To-Repeat:
look up pr: 33164
>Fix:
Apply this patch, close this pr and 33164, rebuild the handbook
*** chapter.sgml.old Wed Jan 30 21:01:41 2002
--- chapter.sgml Wed Jan 30 21:02:05 2002
***************
*** 1994,2007 ****
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="backups-floppybackups">
<title>Backups to Floppies</title>
<sect2 id="floppies-using">
<title>Can I Use floppies for Backing Up My Data?</title>
! <indexterm><primary>backup floppies</primary></indexterm>
! <indexterm><primary>floppy disks</primary></indexterm>
!
<para>Floppy disks are not really a suitable media for
making backups as:</para>
--- 1994,2155 ----
</sect2>
</sect1>
+ <sect1 id="floppies">
+ <sect1info>
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Julio</firstname>
+ <surname>Merino</surname>
+ <contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+ <!-- 24 Dec 2001 -->
+ </sect1info>
+
+ <title>Floppy disks</title>
+
+ <para>Floppy disks are, nowadays, an old-fashioned medium to
+ store/share data. Although, there are still some times when you
+ need to use them, because you do not have any other removable
+ storage media or you need to use what you have saved in them on
+ any other computer.</para>
+
+ <para>This section will explain how to use floppy disks in
+ FreeBSD, that is, formating and copying/restoring data from
+ them. But... I really have written this to help you about how to
+ create forced-size floppies.</para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>The device</title>
+
+ <para>Floppy disks are accessed throught entries in
+ <filename>/dev</filename> (like any other device). To access the
+ raw floppy disk you can use <filename>/dev/rfdX</filename>,
+ where X stands for the drive number, usually 0. When the disk is
+ formatted you can use <filename>/dev/fdX</filename>, or
+ whichever of the other devices named
+ <filename>/dev/fdXY</filename>, where Y stands for a
+ letter. These are all the same.</para>
+
+ <para>Other important devices are
+ <filename>/dev/fdX.size</filename>, where size is a floppy disk
+ size in kilobytes. These entries are used at low-level format
+ time to determine the disk size.</para>
+
+ <para>Sometimes you will have to (re)create these entries under
+ <filename>/dev</filename>. To do it, you can issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /dev && ./MAKEDEV "fd*"</userinput></screen>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Formatting</title>
+
+ <para>A floppy disk needs to be low-level formated before it can
+ be used. This is usually done by the vendor but you may want to
+ do it to check media integrity or to force the disk capacity to
+ be bigger.</para>
+
+ <para>To format the floppy at a low-level fashion you need to
+ use <application>fdformat</application>. This utility expects
+ the device name as an argument. We will use those
+ <filename>/dev/fdX.size</filename> devices, which will allow us
+ to format the floppy to its real size, or force them. So you
+ insert a new 3.5inch floppy disk in your drive and issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat /dev/rfd0.1440</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>This will take a while... You should notice any disk error
+ here (this can help you determining which disks are good or
+ bad).</para>
+
+ <para>To force the floppy disk size, we will use other entries
+ in <filename>/dev</filename>. Get the same floppy and issue:
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat /dev/rfd0.1720</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>It will take some more time than before (forced disks are
+ slower). When it finishes, you will have a 1720kb floppy disk,
+ but for the moment you will not notice any difference. You may
+ use other disk sizes that you can find in /dev, but the most
+ stable/compatible is the 1720kb for 3.5inch disks.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>The disklabel</title>
+
+ <para>After low-level formatting the disk, you will need to
+ place a disklabel on it. This disklabel will be destroyed
+ later, but it is needed by the system to determine the size of
+ the disk and its geometry later.</para>
+
+ <para>The new disklabel will take over the whole disk, and will
+ contain all the proper information about the geometry of the
+ normal or forced floppy. Take a look to
+ <filename>/etc/disktab</filename> now; you will see geometry
+ values of all kinds of floppy disks.
+
+ <para>You can run now <application>disklabel</application>
+ like:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/sbin/disklabel -B -r -w /dev/rfd0 fd(size)</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>Replace fd(size) with fd1440, fd1720 or whichever size you
+ want. The last field instructs disklabel which entry to take
+ from <filename>/etc/disktab</filename> to use.</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>The filesystem</title>
+
+ <para>Now your floppy is ready to be high-level formated. This
+ will place a new filesystem on it, which will let FreeBSD read
+ and write to the disk. After creating the new filesystem, the
+ disklabel is destroyed, so if you want to reformat the disk, you
+ will have to recreate the disklabel another time.</para>
+
+ <para>You can choose now which filesystem to use on your floppy.
+ You can use UFS or FAT, though UFS is not a good idea for
+ floppies. Choose FAT which is nice for floppies.</para>
+
+ <para>To put a new filesystem on the floppy do this:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/sbin/newfs_msdos /dev/fd0</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>As we created a disklabel before, <application>newfs</application>
+ will be able to fetch disk data and construct the new
+ filesystem. And now, your disk is ready for use...</para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Using the floppy</title>
+
+ <para>You have two choices to use the floppy. You can either
+ mount the disk with <application>mount_msdos</application>, or you can
+ use <application>mtools</application>.
+ <application>Mtools</application> are great, but you will need
+ to install them from the ports system.</para>
+
+ <para>Try it; issue a <application>mdir</application>. If you forced the
+ disk, you will notice its extra size!</para>
+
+ <para>A last note about forced disks: they are compatible with
+ practically all other operating systems without any external
+ utility to read/write them. Microsoft systems will recognize
+ them without problems. But note that there may be times when the
+ floppy drive itself is not able to read them (this may happen
+ with very old drives).</para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
<sect1 id="backups-floppybackups">
<title>Backups to Floppies</title>
<sect2 id="floppies-using">
<title>Can I Use floppies for Backing Up My Data?</title>
! <indexterm><primary>backup floppies</primary></indexterm>
! <indexterm><primary>floppy disks</primary></indexterm>
!
<para>Floppy disks are not really a suitable media for
making backups as:</para>
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