docs/50761: [PATCH] Update of the handbook (12.6, floppy disks)
Martin Karlsson
mk-freebsd at bredband.net
Wed Apr 9 22:30:11 UTC 2003
>Number: 50761
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: [PATCH] Update of the handbook (12.6, floppy disks)
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: change-request
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Wed Apr 09 15:30:09 PDT 2003
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Martin Karlsson
>Release: FreeBSD 5.0-CURRENT i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD c-49c170d5 5.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.0-CURRENT #0: Wed Apr 9 07:10:02 CEST 2003 root at c-49c170d5:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/K20030406 i386
>Description:
Section 12.6 of the handbook, "Creating and Using Floppy Disks",
doesn't quite apply to 5.0 or newer. It also uses a rather informal
style, and contains some grammatical errors. This patch aims to fix this.
The modified chapter can be viewed at
URL:http://www.krutov.org/martink/floppy/floppies.html
>How-To-Repeat:
Read section 12.6 of the handbook.
>Fix:
--- floppy.diff begins here ---
Index: chapter.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disks/chapter.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.145
diff -u -r1.145 chapter.sgml
--- chapter.sgml 2003/03/26 02:11:55 1.145
+++ chapter.sgml 2003/04/09 21:47:06
@@ -1096,148 +1096,187 @@
<author>
<firstname>Julio</firstname>
<surname>Merino</surname>
- <contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
+ <contrib>Original work by </contrib>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<!-- 24 Dec 2001 -->
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Martin</firstname>
+ <surname>Karlsson</surname>
+ <contrib>Rewritten by </contrib>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+ <!-- 10 Apr 2003 -->
</sect1info>
<title>Creating and Using Floppy Disks</title>
- <para>Floppy disks are, nowadays, an old-fashioned medium to
- store/share data. Although, there are still some times when you
- need to use them, because you do not have any other removable
- storage media or you need to use what you have saved in them on
- any other computer.</para>
+ <para>Storing data on floppy disks is sometimes useful, for example
+ when one does not have any other removable storage media or when one needs
+ to transfer small amounts of data to another computer.</para>
<para>This section will explain how to use floppy disks in
- FreeBSD, that is, formating and copying/restoring data from
- them. But... I really have written this to help you about how to
- create forced-size floppies.</para>
+ FreeBSD, and will cover formating, copying, and restoring data from
+ floppies.</para>
<sect2>
- <title>The device</title>
+ <title>Formatting floppies</title>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>The device</title>
- <para>Floppy disks are accessed through entries in
- <filename>/dev</filename> (like any other device). To access the
- raw floppy disk you can use <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>X</replaceable></filename>,
- where <replaceable>X</replaceable> stands for the drive number, usually 0. When the disk is
- formatted you can use <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>X</replaceable></filename>, or
- whichever of the other devices named
- <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>XY</replaceable></filename>, where <replaceable>Y</replaceable> stands for a
- letter. These are all the same.</para>
-
- <para>Other important devices are
- <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>X</replaceable>.<replaceable>size</replaceable></filename>, where <replaceable>size</replaceable> is a floppy disk
- size in kilobytes. These entries are used at low-level format
- time to determine the disk size.</para>
-
- <para>Sometimes you will have to (re)create these entries under
- <filename>/dev</filename>. To do it, you can issue:</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /dev && ./MAKEDEV "fd*"</userinput></screen>
- <note><para>In FreeBSD 5.0, &man.devfs.5; will automatically
- manage device nodes in <filename>/dev</filename>, so use of
- <command>MAKEDEV</command> is not necessary.</para></note>
+ <para>Floppy disks are accessed through entries in
+ <filename>/dev</filename>, just like other devices. To access the
+ raw floppy disk one uses <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>N</replaceable></filename>,
+ where <replaceable>N</replaceable> stands for the drive number,
+ usually 0, or in 4.8 or older
+ <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>NX</replaceable></filename>,
+ where <replaceable>X</replaceable> stands for a letter.</para>
+
+ <para>In 5.0 or newer, simply use
+ <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>N</replaceable></filename>.</para>
+
+ <sect4>
+ <title>The disk size in 4.8 or older versions</title>
+
+ <para>There are also <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>N</replaceable>.<replaceable>size</replaceable></filename>
+ devices, where <replaceable>size</replaceable> is a floppy disk
+ size in kilobytes. These entries are used at low-level format
+ time to determine the disk size.</para>
+
+ <para>Sometimes the entries under <filename>/dev</filename> will
+ have to be (re)created. To do that, issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /dev && ./MAKEDEV "fd*"</userinput></screen>
+ </sect4>
+
+ <sect4>
+ <title>The disk size in 5.0 or newer versions</title>
+
+ <para>In 5.0, &man.devfs.5; will automatically
+ manage device nodes in <filename>/dev</filename>, so use of
+ <command>MAKEDEV</command> is not necessary.</para>
+
+ <para>The desired disk size is passed to &man.fdformat.1; through
+ the <userinput>-f</userinput> flag. Supported sizes are listed in
+ &man.fdcontrol.8;</para>
+ </sect4>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Formatting</title>
+
+ <para>A floppy disk needs to be low-level formated before it can
+ be used. This is usually done by the vendor, but formatting is a good way
+ to check media integrity. It can also be used to force a larger
+ disk size.</para>
+
+ <para>To low-level format the floppy disk you need to
+ use &man.fdformat.1;. This utility expects
+ the device name as an argument.</para>
+
+ <para>Forced disks will take longer to format due to
+ the larger disk size. Other disk
+ sizes found in <filename>/dev</filename> can be used,
+ but the most stable and compatible forced
+ size is 1720kB for 3.5inch disks.</para>
+
+ <para>Make note of any disk error , as this can help determining if
+ the disk is good or bad.</para>
+
+ <sect4>
+ <title>Formatting in 4.8 or older versions</title>
+
+ <para>Use the
+ <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>N</replaceable>.<replaceable>size</replaceable></filename> devices
+ to either format the floppy to its real size, or to force a larger
+ disk size. Insert a new 3.5inch floppy disk in your drive and issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat /dev/fd0.1440</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>To force the floppy disk size, use other entries
+ in <filename>/dev</filename>. With the same floppy, issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat /dev/fd0.1720</userinput></screen>
+ </sect4>
+
+ <sect4>
+ <title>Formatting in 5.0 or newer versions</title>
+
+ <para>Use the <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>N</replaceable></filename>
+ devices to either format the floppy to its real size, or to force a larger
+ disk size. Check &man.fdcontrol.8; for the size you want the disk to
+ have. Insert a new 3.5inch floppy disk in your drive and issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat -f 1440 /dev/fd0</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>To force the floppy disk size, use other entries
+ in <filename>/dev</filename>. With the same floppy, issue:</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat -f 1720 /dev/fd0</userinput></screen>
+ </sect4>
+ </sect3>
</sect2>
- <sect2>
- <title>Formatting</title>
- <para>A floppy disk needs to be low-level formated before it can
- be used. This is usually done by the vendor but you may want to
- do it to check media integrity or to force the disk capacity to
- be bigger.</para>
-
- <para>To format the floppy at a low-level fashion you need to
- use &man.fdformat.1;. This utility expects
- the device name as an argument. We will use those
- <filename>/dev/fd<replaceable>X</replaceable>.<replaceable>size</replaceable></filename> devices, which will allow us
- to format the floppy to its real size, or force them. So you
- insert a new 3.5inch floppy disk in your drive and issue:</para>
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat /dev/fd0.1440</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>This will take a while... You should notice any disk error
- here (this can help you determining which disks are good or
- bad).</para>
-
- <para>To force the floppy disk size, we will use other entries
- in <filename>/dev</filename>. Get the same floppy and issue:
-
- <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/sbin/fdformat /dev/fd0.1720</userinput></screen>
-
- <para>It will take some more time than before (forced disks are
- slower). When it finishes, you will have a 1720kB floppy disk,
- but for the moment you will not notice any difference. You may
- use other disk sizes that you can find in <filename>/dev</filename>, but the most
- stable/compatible is the 1720kB for 3.5inch disks.</para>
- </sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The disklabel</title>
<para>After low-level formatting the disk, you will need to
- place a disklabel on it. This disklabel will be destroyed
- later, but it is needed by the system to determine the size of
- the disk and its geometry later.</para>
+ place a disklabel on it. This disklabel will be destroyed
+ later, but it is needed by the system to determine the size of
+ the disk and its geometry later.</para>
<para>The new disklabel will take over the whole disk, and will
- contain all the proper information about the geometry of the
- normal or forced floppy. Take a look to
- <filename>/etc/disktab</filename> now; you will see geometry
- values of all kinds of floppy disks.
+ contain all the proper information about the geometry of the
+ normal or forced floppy. The geometry values for the disklabel
+ are listed in <filename>/etc/disktab</filename> now.
- <para>You can run now &man.disklabel.8;
- like:</para>
+ <para>You can run now &man.disklabel.8; like so:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/sbin/disklabel -B -r -w /dev/fd0 <replaceable>fdsize</replaceable></userinput></screen>
-
- <para>Replace <replaceable>fdsize</replaceable> with <literal>fd1440</literal>, <literal>fd1720</literal> or whichever size you
- want. The last field instructs disklabel which entry to take
- from <filename>/etc/disktab</filename> to use.</para>
+
+ <para>Replace <replaceable>fdsize</replaceable> with
+ <literal>fd1440</literal>, <literal>fd1720</literal> or whichever size you
+ want. The last field instructs disklabel which entry
+ from <filename>/etc/disktab</filename> to use.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The file system</title>
+
+ <para>Now the floppy is ready to be high-level formated. This
+ will place a new file system on it, which will let FreeBSD read
+ and write to the disk. After creating the new file system, the
+ disklabel is destroyed, so if you want to reformat the disk, you
+ will have to recreate the disklabel.</para>
- <para>Now your floppy is ready to be high-level formated. This
- will place a new file system on it, which will let FreeBSD read
- and write to the disk. After creating the new file system, the
- disklabel is destroyed, so if you want to reformat the disk, you
- will have to recreate the disklabel another time.</para>
-
- <para>You can choose now which file system to use on your floppy.
- You can use UFS or FAT, though UFS is not a good idea for
- floppies. Choose FAT which is nice for floppies.</para>
+ <para>The floppy's file system can be either UFS or FAT.
+ FAT is generally a better choice for floppies.</para>
- <para>To put a new file system on the floppy do this:</para>
+ <para>To put a new file system on the floppy, issue:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/sbin/newfs_msdos /dev/fd0</userinput></screen>
- <para>As we created a disklabel before, &man.newfs.8;
- will be able to fetch disk data and construct the new
- file system. And now, your disk is ready for use.</para>
+ <para>The disk is now ready for use.</para>
</sect2>
+
<sect2>
<title>Using the floppy</title>
-
- <para>You have two choices to use the floppy. You can either
- mount the disk with &man.mount.msdos.8;, or you can
- use <application>mtools</application>.
- <application>Mtools</application> are great, but you will need
- to install them from the ports system.</para>
- <para>Try it; issue a <application>mdir</application>. If you forced the
- disk, you will notice its extra size!</para>
+ <para>To use the floppy, mount it with &man.mount.msdos.8; (in 4.8 or older) or
+ &man.mount.msdosfs.8; (in 5.0 or newer).
+ One can also use <application>mtools</application> from the ports collection.</para>
<para>A last note about forced disks: they are compatible with
practically all other operating systems without any external
- utility to read/write them. Microsoft systems will recognize
- them without problems. But note that there may be times when the
- floppy drive itself is not able to read them (this may happen
- with very old drives).</para>
+ utility to read from them or write to them. Microsoft™ systems
+ will recognize them without problems. Note however that there may be
+ times when the floppy drive itself is not able to read them, for example
+ when using very old drives.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
--- floppy.diff ends here ---
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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