Re: argh! linux and floppies
On Mon, Oct 30, 2006 at 07:34:14AM -0600, Kent West wrote:
> Also, everything I was able to find via Google and a specific
> instruction on this list mentioned using "fdformat -n ...fd0u1440" or
> "...fd0H1440". Whereas the man page for fdformat does indeed mention
> using setfdprm, it says it in this geekspeak, which is typical of Linux
> documentation:
>
> > The generic floppy devices, /dev/fd0 and /dev/fd1, will fail to work
> > with fdformat when a non-standard format is being used, or if
> > the for-
> > mat has not been autodetected earlier. In this case, use
> > setfdprm(8)
> > to load the disk parameters.
>
> If I study on this hard enough, I can eventually make sense of it, but
> it's kind of like reading the King James version of the Bible: it may be
> majestic and grand and eventually understandable, but for most
> "non-professional" readers, they just basically go "Huh?"
I know what you mean. I'd say professional readers would not have a kind
thing to say.
> Reading the manpage for superformat, again, I'm stunned at how little
> knowledge I would have gleaned from this vast repository of information
> about the utility, and never would have figured out that it does better
> with marginal media than fdformat does if you hadn't mentioned it. I'll
I used the examples at the end. :-)
--
Chris.
======
" ... the official version cannot be abandoned because the implication of
rejecting it is far too disturbing: that we are subject to a government
conspiracy of `X-Files' proportions and insidiousness."
Letter to the LA Times Magazine, September 18, 2005.
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