det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (06/26/89)
Whenever i try to format my (new) 3.5" floppy (1.44M) with a 720K diskette in it i get the following message: $ format /dev/rdsk/f13dt #lo density device name; f13ht = hi density formatting. Formatted 0 tracks: 0 thru 4294967295, interleave 1. It prints this immediately and i don't think it even accesses the drive. What does this mean? Is my format broken and is there a newer one out there that i can get that will work better? derek Ps. it also seems that once i get an error on either of the drives, particuarly when attempting to do a dosdir and i get the "media descriptor bad" or some such nonsense, it makes the driver unusable until i reboot. This seems somewhat unreasonable. -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG || ..!uunet!rosevax!elric!hawkmoon!det w(612)681-6986 h(612)688-0667 "A proper king is crowned" -- Thomas B. Costain
lcc@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (73701000) (07/02/89)
In article <1003@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) writes: >Whenever i try to format my (new) 3.5" floppy (1.44M) with a 720K diskette in >it i get the following message: > >$ format /dev/rdsk/f13dt #lo density device name; f13ht = hi density >formatting. >Formatted 0 tracks: 0 thru 4294967295, interleave 1. > >What does this mean? Is my format broken and is there a newer one out there >that i can get that will work better? > I put a newer format on the bbs in mid February but I don't think that it is going to resolve that problem. Format works by doing an ioctl on the device that was opened to get the geometry info. There is a coding scheme built into the minor device number of the file (device node) that was opened and in it contains info such as hi/low density, etc. My guess is that you've got some way bogus minor device number for f13ht or a corrupted binary. Ken
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (07/06/89)
In article <8249@saturn.ucsc.edu>, lcc@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (73701000) writes: > In article <1003@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> I write: > >Whenever i try to format my (new) 3.5" floppy (1.44M) with a 720K diskette in > >it i get the following message: > > > >$ format /dev/rdsk/f13dt #lo density device name; f13ht = hi density > >formatting. > >Formatted 0 tracks: 0 thru 4294967295, interleave 1. > > > >What does this mean? Is my format broken and is there a newer one out there > >that i can get that will work better? > > > > I put a newer format on the bbs in mid February but I don't think that it is > going to resolve that problem. Format works by doing an ioctl on the > device that was opened to get the geometry info. There is a coding scheme > built into the minor device number of the file (device node) that was opened > and in it contains info such as hi/low density, etc. My guess is that you've > got some way bogus minor device number for f13ht or a corrupted binary. Ok -- that begs the question: "what are the correct minor device numbers for 3.5" floppies?" This is what i currently have: $ ls -li /dev/rdsk/f1* 444 crw-rw-rw- 4 root sys 1, 97 Jul 5 15:30 /dev/rdsk/f1 446 crw-rw-rw- 3 root sys 1,113 Jun 28 01:50 /dev/rdsk/f13dt 444 crw-rw-rw- 4 root sys 1, 97 Jul 5 15:30 /dev/rdsk/f13ht 434 crw-rw-rw- 2 root sys 1, 21 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f15d9 436 crw-rw-rw- 6 root sys 1, 17 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f15d9t 430 crw-rw-rw- 3 root sys 1, 5 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f15h 432 crw-rw-rw- 4 root sys 1, 1 Jun 24 17:43 /dev/rdsk/f15ht 442 crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 1, 81 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f15l8t 440 crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 1, 65 Jun 24 19:21 /dev/rdsk/f15l9t 438 crw-rw-rw- 2 root sys 1, 49 Jun 24 17:43 /dev/rdsk/f15qt 434 crw-rw-rw- 2 root sys 1, 21 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f1d9d 436 crw-rw-rw- 6 root sys 1, 17 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f1d9dt 444 crw-rw-rw- 4 root sys 1, 97 Jul 5 15:30 /dev/rdsk/f1hi 446 crw-rw-rw- 3 root sys 1,113 Jun 28 01:50 /dev/rdsk/f1lo 430 crw-rw-rw- 3 root sys 1, 5 Jul 18 1988 /dev/rdsk/f1q15d 432 crw-rw-rw- 4 root sys 1, 1 Jun 24 17:43 /dev/rdsk/f1q15dt 438 crw-rw-rw- 2 root sys 1, 49 Jun 24 17:43 /dev/rdsk/f1q9dt Also, what do each of the bits in the minor device numbers mean? There doesn't seem to be any documentation for these things. I have sort of made some guesses but, these guesses are probably wrong. When i *do* format a 3.5" disk, it reports that 80 (0..79) tracks have been formatted; the same as for 5.25" disks, so it must not have the correct minor device number. Here is the 32 bit crc for the format i'm using: $ brik -Gb /bin/format # Whole file CRCs generated by Brik v1.0. Use "brik -C" to verify them. # CRC-32 filename # ------ -------- 2127766125b /bin/format derek -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG || ..!uunet!rosevax!elric!hawkmoon!det w(612)681-6986 h(612)789-8643 "A proper king is crowned" -- Thomas B. Costain
wnp@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US (Wolf Paul) (07/09/89)
In article <1029@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) writes: >> There is a coding scheme >> built into the minor device number of the file (device node) that was opened >> and in it contains info such as hi/low density, etc. My guess is that you've >> got some way bogus minor device number for f13ht or a corrupted binary. >Ok -- that begs the question: "what are the correct minor device numbers for >3.5" floppies?" This is what i currently have: > ... >Also, what do each of the bits in the minor device numbers mean? There doesn't >seem to be any documentation for these things. I have sort of made some >guesses but, these guesses are probably wrong. See below. This table was originally posted by Mark Zenier about a year ago, and I confirmed/modified it in conversation with John Plocher who was then Microport's Customer Service Manager. >When i *do* format a 3.5" disk, >it reports that 80 (0..79) tracks have been formatted; the same as for 5.25" >disks, so it must not have the correct minor device number. That does not follow; both 720K and 1.44M 3.5" disks ARE INDEED formatted as 80 tracks -- 720K disks with 9 sectors/track, 1.44M disks with 18 sectors/track. The message from format would properly be the same. Here is the table for minor number coding: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-- if set, drive has 9 sectors/track | | | | | | +---- if set, drive is double-sided | | | | | +------ if set, drive has 80 cylinders | | | | +-------- Drive number ( 0 or 1 ) | | | +---------- if NOT set, drive is high density (1.2 or 1.44) | | +------------ if set, drive is 3.5" | +-------------- if NOT set, read 40-cyl disk on 80-cyl drive (double-step) +---------------- if set, skip cylinder #0 (INSTALL floppies, 0s25) From this then, result the following minor numbers: For Drive 0: Standard AT 1.2M : 01000110 70 (fd096ds15, 0s24) Standard XT 360K : 00010111 23 (fd048ds9) Old XT 320K : 00010110 22 (fd048ds8) Old XT 160 : 00010100 20 (fd048ss8) Quad Density 720K 5.25" : 01010111 87 (fd096ds9) Double Density 720K 3.5" : 01110111 119 (fd0mf2dd) High Density 1.4M 3.5" : 01100110 102 (fd0mf2hd) And for Drive 1: (Add 1000 binary, or 8 decimal to the numbers for Drive 0) Standard AT 1.2M : 01001110 78 (fd096ds15, 0s24) Standard XT 360K : 00011111 31 (fd048ds9) Old XT 320K : 00011110 30 (fd048ds8) Old XT 160 : 00011100 28 (fd048ss8) Quad Density 720K 5.25" : 01011111 95 (fd096ds9) Double Density 720K 3.5" : 01111111 127 (fd0mf2dd) High Density 1.4M 3.5" : 01101110 110 (fd0mf2hd) I have used these minor numbers successfully on my Uport 286 system until I sold it late last year. -- Wolf N. Paul * 3387 Sam Rayburn Run * Carrollton TX 75007 * (214) 306-9101 UUCP: {texbell, attctc, dalsqnt}!dcs!wnp DOMAIN: wnp@attctc.dallas.tx.us or wnp%dcs@texbell.swbt.com NOTICE: As of July 3, 1989, "killer" has become "attctc".
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (07/11/89)
In article <1003@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> I wrote: > Whenever i try to format my (new) 3.5" floppy (1.44M) with a 720K diskette in > it i get the following message: > $ format /dev/rdsk/f13dt > formatting. > Formatted 0 tracks: 0 thru 4294967295, interleave 1. I have since discovered that the same problem exists with the primary drive (5.25") but that if i umount the second drive it works!!! Very strange. I.e.: $ mount /dev/dsk/f1 /mnt/tmp #3.5" $ format /dev/rdsk/f0 #5.25" formatting. #format fails Formatted 0 tracks: 0 thru 4294967295, interleave 1. $ umount /dev/dsk/f1 #unmount second drive $ format /dev/rdsk/f0 #try again formatting......... #format successful Formatted 80 tracks: 0 thru 79, interleave 1. There are obviously more problems implied by the "open problems" section of the release notes than meets the eye: 1. A second floppy drive becomes inaccessible when a format is being performed on the first floppy drive. -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG || ..!uunet!rosevax!elric!hawkmoon!det w(612)681-6986 h(612)789-8643 "A proper king is crowned" -- Thomas B. Costain