Re: Floppy from sparc on x86
On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Rafael E. Herrera wrote:
> I have tried before to use the one from an IPC without success. The last
> responses I got
> were:
>
> Matthew Haas wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, 25 Nov 2000, Rafael E. Herrera wrote:
> > >
> > > Perhaps I didn't phrase the question right. How do I get the floppy to
> > > work on a PC? I know of the 'eject' and 'floppycontrol'. Any comments?
> >
> > I heard from somewhere that Sun machines use the alternate ID (ie B:
> > instead of A:--- they don't use the twist in the cable) and that you must
> > plug the drive in before the twist in order to get it recognized as A:
> > (I've never personally tried it, but I have heard that people have had
> > success).
>
> Alain Knaff <Alain.Knaff@hitchhiker.org.lu> wrote:
> >
> > >I pulled a floppy drive from an old SUN IPC box and I'm trying to use it
> > >in my PC. It has a motor that ejects the floppy and I'd like to use that
> > >feature. I've tried to get info from the web about it, but have had no
> > >luck. I also installed the fdutils package to use the floppycontrol
> > >utility.
> > >
> > >I've tried several setting in the BIOS and in the floppy to get it to
> > >work, no dice. If you have any pointers I'd be grateful.
> > > Rafael
> >
> > For the moment, this feature is only supported for Linux on Sparc
> > (Sparcstation usually come with floppy drives with an autoeject
> > mechanism). Do you have any documentation with your drive, the name or
> > number of the wire used to trigger the eject might be useful
>
> I think the last one was from the author of floppycontrol. If you get
> it to work let me know and Alain, too.
>
> I got the IPC for $12 at the GoodWill. The funny thing is that the floppy drive
> (Sony MFD-17W-P1) sale for $85 refurbished at www.rapid-tech.com, isn't it
> funny?
HEH! I got my IPX probably from the exact same Goodwill last october. Was
over there visiting a friend at CMU. (noting your deleted SIG) Bought it
for $10 (there was a guy who was going to buy it just for the hard drive -
until I told him I could put Linux on it), took it to CMU with my friend,
and loaded it up. I'm using it as a testbed DHCP server right now.
My floppy drive just died a few weeks ago; OpenPROM floppy diagnostics
fail, won't boot, etc.
I've been unable to get it working on a peeci either.
I'm also considering sticking in a SCSI-interface LS-120. You can get them
from Winstation (www.winstation.com I hear), and they're using some kind
of low-profile SCSI->ATAPI protocol converter retrofitted onto the
existing ATAPI drives. Also, they're supposed to be coming out with a
240MB model, so the 120's are at End of Life.
I'm wondering if the IPX would be able to boot off a 1.44MB floppy in it
as a SCSI device.
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