Re: Low Level Format of 1.4 Mb Floppy Isn't Happening
On Sunday 15 January 2017 09:17:45 Martin McCormick wrote:
> Mirko Parthey <mirko.parthey@web.de> writes:
> > On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 03:32:08PM -0600, Martin McCormick wrote:
> > > What happened after I zapped the floppy is that fdformat will not
> > > run because it sees no pre-existing format information.
> > >
> > > What am I forgetting or what has changed?
> >
> > According to the fdformat man page, you should first set the disk
> > parameters with setfdprm, or use a device like /dev/fd0H1440 which
> > refers to a specific format.
> >
> > If any of the device nodes are missing, you can create them with
> > mknod, the major and minor numbers are given in the fdformat man
> > page as well.
>
> Thank you as I think the problem is a knowledge base problem on
> my part. The device node for /dev/fd0 is there and works properly
> if the disk contains so much as a low-level format. The man page
> for fdformat says:
>
> ________________________________________
> 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.
> ________________________________________
>
> Where I am confused is whether or not setfdprm must be
> manually stuffed with the number of tracks, number of sectors,
> etc or whether /etc/mediaprm can be made to fill in all those
> data. I am not modifying the format so any list of normal
> parameters for a 1.44 Mb floppy will do.
>
> Martin
To add to the confusion, Martin, windows won the battle of fdc
capabilities around a decade back with the fdc chip makers. This $300
ASUS motherboard, when I bought it to build this machine in 2007, one of
the first to support the AMD Phenom quad core chips, has an fdc that is
unhappy with a 256 byte sector size, and will crash/lock this machine,
so bad that it takes the long push on the power button, doing a
powerdown reset, if you tell it to use base zero sector numbering and
then try to format a disk. So while one might be able to build a
mediaparm file that should work to format an os9 disk so you can haul
something you have downloaded to one of your TRS-80 Color Computers I
have several of it the basement, I have had to resort in the early days,
of hooking up an rs-232 cable, firing up sz and restricting its speed to
4800 baud, and packet size to 256 bytes just to move the code. That was
somewhat like watching grass grow. But it worked. So if intending to use
these floppies for a sneakernet to a "legacy" machine, don't be
surprised if you only succeed in having problems. Its not your fault,
its the fdc chip in your machine.
You'll have better, if slower, luck with rs-232 and zmodem.
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
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