[comp.unix.amiga] Floppy Drive

avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au (Darren Reed) (05/28/91)

I'm interested in getting the 3.5 drive to work, but there is little
documentation on how i should prepare a disk to use and which device
it is.  From one of the manual entries (fmtflpy i think it was) it
mentioned /dev/dsk/c6d0s0 or some such name.  i coudlnt find that
command either curiously.  The fstab doesnt mention it (it wouldnt be
a bad idea to put it in commented out).

Oh, one other little thing, is it possible to get a kernal source code
license or a kernal patched for some of the handier network utilities
such as traceroute ?  Assuming that the unix provided is standard SysV
R4, it is interesting that they didnt patch the kernal at AT&T for this
rather useful command.

-darren

kaba@wintermute.north.de (Kai Bartels) (05/30/91)

avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au (Darren Reed) writes:
>I'm interested in getting the 3.5 drive to work, but there is little
>documentation on how i should prepare a disk to use and which device
>it is.  From one of the manual entries (fmtflpy i think it was) it
>mentioned /dev/dsk/c6d0s0 or some such name.  i coudlnt find that
>command either curiously.  The fstab doesnt mention it (it wouldnt be
>a bad idea to put it in commented out).
I couln't find the fmtflop either (and I'm sure there isn't any) but I'm
formatting the discs on my old A2000 with AmigaDos. mkfs or tar didn't
complain! (btw: the device to use seems to be /dev/(r)dsk/fd0.)

My question to this is: how to read/write/format a 3.5" disc in ibm-format
720k ?

>-darren
greetings, Kai

-- 
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logan@netxcom.netx.com (Jim Logan) (06/04/91)

In article <1991May30.005614.2095@wintermute.north.de>
kaba@wintermute.north.de (Kai Bartels) writes:
# avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au (Darren Reed) writes:
# >I'm interested in getting the 3.5 drive to work, but there is little
# >documentation on how i should prepare a disk to use and which device
# >it is.  From one of the manual entries (fmtflpy i think it was) it
# >mentioned /dev/dsk/c6d0s0 or some such name.  i coudlnt find that
# >command either curiously.  The fstab doesnt mention it (it wouldnt be
# >a bad idea to put it in commented out).
# I couln't find the fmtflop either (and I'm sure there isn't any) but I'm
# formatting the discs on my old A2000 with AmigaDos. mkfs or tar didn't
# complain! (btw: the device to use seems to be /dev/(r)dsk/fd0.)
# 
# My question to this is: how to read/write/format a 3.5" disc in ibm-format
# 720k ?

You need to use the /usr/amiga/bin/fmtfd (I'm not on my system to
check, but I think the name's right) and redirect it into
/dev/rdsk/fd0f or /dev/dsk/fd0f (I forget which, but it's
probably the "rdsk" one.)  The command is just a script that
writes 16k blocks of zeroes.

Neat way of doing it, but it has no man pages.  (Neither
/dev/rdsk/fd0f nor fmtfd have man pages!)  Haven't tried yet, but
you can probably cpio or tar directly to that device to format
while backing up.

			-Jim
-- 
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