[comp.sys.sun] SS1 floppy format failure

smb@cs.umd.edu (Steve M. Burinsky) (12/08/89)

I've had friends tell me that they took their SS1 out of the box, popped
in a floppy, and did a "fdformat" with no problems.  When I try it...

% fdformat
Type return to start formatting floppy. <return>
fdformat: FDKIOSCHAR failed, Invalid argument
%

Also, the following is written to /dev/console:
fdioctl: FDKIOSCHAR unsupported transfer rate 0

What am I doing wrong?  It makes no difference whether there is a disk in
the drive or not.

Thanks,
Steve

ang@theory.lcs.mit.edu (William S. Ang) (12/21/89)

Steve:
>% fdformat
>Type return to start formatting floppy. <return>
>fdformat: FDKIOSCHAR failed, Invalid argument
>%

>Also, the following is written to /dev/console:
>fdioctl: FDKIOSCHAR unsupported transfer rate 0

>What am I doing wrong?  It makes no difference whether there is a disk in
>the drive or not.

You are not doing anything wrong... SMI did.  DO NOT USE 4.0.3's fdformat.
use 4.0.3c's version. 

                         William
                         ang@theory.lcs.mit.edu