How do I use a floppy drive in Ubuntu?
-
Check if the floppy module is loaded:
lsmod | grep -i floppy
This command should not return anything. If it returns "floppy" then you have the floppy module loaded and this answer does not solve your problem.
If you want to load the floppy module:
sudo modprobe -v floppy lsmod | grep -i floppy
-
Try adding your username in the floppy group:
sudo adduser $USER floppy
-
You could also try installing
fdutils
package:$ apt-cache show fdutils Package: fdutils [...] Description-en: Linux floppy utilities This package contains utilities for formatting extra capacity disks, automatic floppy disk mounting and unmounting, etc. . The package includes the following items: . - superformat: formats high capacity disks (up to 1992k for high density disks or up to 3984k for extra density disks); - fdmount: automatically mounts/unmounts disks when they are inserted/removed; - xdfcopy: formats, reads and writes OS/2's XDF disks; - MAKEFLOPPIES: creates the floppy devices in /dev; - getfdprm: prints the current disk geometry (number of sectors, track and heads etc.); - setfdprm: sets the current disk geometry; - fdrawcmd: sends raw commands to the floppy driver; - floppycontrol: configures the floppy driver; - general documentation about the floppy driver. . Note that these utilities do not work for USB floppy drives, because these do not allow direct access to the floppy controller. Homepage: http://fdutils.linux.lu/
fdmount seems useful. Try:
sudo fdmount -l
-
Check if your floppy drive is listed here:
nautilus computer://
-
If you're still facing problems, post the output of the above commands, plus this:
dmesg > dmesg.log gedit dmesg.log
Post the content of dmesg.log to a pastebin somewhere (i.e. http://www.pastebin.com ) and give us the link.
P.S. You may be suffering from this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/441835 -- Try:
udisks --mount /dev/fd0
Here's the actual answer to make the floppy drive work.
open the terminal and login as sudo
open gedit as sudo
Open and edit this file:
/lib/udev/rules.d/80-udisks.rules
-
find this section of it (it's near the bottom. You can use "Search" on gedit's tool bar and find "PC floppy" it will take you to it.
#################################################### # PC floppy drives # KERNEL=="fd*", ENV{ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY}="0" # USB floppy drives # SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{bInterfaceClass}=="08", ATTRS{bInterfaceSubClass}=="04", ENV{ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY}="0" # ATA Zip drives # ENV{ID_VENDOR}=="*IOMEGA*", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="*ZIP*", ENV{ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY_ZIP}="0" #####################################################
Replace all the "1"s with "0"s like I've done in 3 areas. (Your script will have "1"s, I'm showing the corrected portion) Which look like this:
ENV{ID_DRIVE_FLOPPY}="0"
Restart the PC and Floppy support you will have.
Note: Floppy WILL NOT auto launch a window when inserted, they were made before that! You will need to go to "places" or "My Computer" and double click on it. Remember to unmount it as you would a USB stick (or should a USB stick) otherwise Your next floppy you insert won't mount. Also remember to eject the floppy before restarting (internal) as your PC will try to boot from it, which can be very annoying.