On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:58:47 +0200, Michael Adam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Hi, > >I could not tell from the documentation which is the proper way >to setup and use floppy disks on the i386 architecture, i.e. which >is the right partition to use. >I am talking about the standard 3.5 inch 1.44 MB floppy disks. >There are several possibilities to put a file system onto one: > >First of all, a floppy needs to be low level formatted, which can be >achieved by the fdformat program. (Ususally, this is not necessary >nowadays, since floppies come preformatted.) > >Then fdisk shows an empty partition table. >Without adding a type a6 partition, I have a valid disklabel: > >> 16 partitions: >> # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] >> c: 2880 0 unused 0 0 # Cyl 0 - 79 > >I can then do a "newfs fd0c" and afterwards the disklabel >looks as follows: > >> 16 partitions: >> # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] >> c: 2880 0 4.2BSD 2048 16384 80 # Cyl 0 - 79 > >And I can mount /dev/fd0c. But _strangely_, I can mount /dev/fd0a >as well! (But I can't do "newfs fd0a" ...) > >The other way would be to add a proper partition to the disklabel: >Either by doing "disklabel -w fd0 floppy3" or by interactively >adding a partition "a" that covers the whole disk. The first command >yields a disklabel like this: > >> 16 partitions: >> # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] >> a: 2880 0 4.2BSD 512 4096 80 # Cyl 0 - 79 >> b: 2880 0 unused 0 0 # Cyl 0 - 79 >> c: 2880 0 unused 0 0 # Cyl 0 - 79 > >The second command's disklabel does not have the "b" partition. > >Then, doing "newfs fd0a" or "newfs fd0c" yields a filesystem I can >mount as /dev/fd0a or /dev/fd0c in either case. The command >"newfs fd0c" changes the disklabel to the following form though: > >> 16 partitions: >> # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] >> a: 2880 0 4.2BSD 512 4096 80 # Cyl 0 - 79 >> b: 2880 0 unused 0 0 # Cyl 0 - 79 >> c: 2880 0 unused 2048 16384 80 # Cyl 0 - 79 > >which should actually be invalid since "a" and "c" overlap. >Anyway, it works and both partitions can be used. > >Well, I am a little confused and would like to know which is the >proper way of handling this. I think that the proper way is to >add an use partition "a", but I have seen usage of partition "c" >in several documentations on the web, so this is why I ask. > >Thanks in advance! > >Michael Actually, it's in the FAQ under installation so it's not exactly listed as a FAQ item per se. $ fdformat /dev/rfd0c JCR
