Re: can't mount floppy: I/O error

From: Haines Brown (brownh_at_teufel.hartford-hwp.com)
Date: 09/07/05 

Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:49:04 GMT

chuck <chuck@nil.car> writes:

> Haines Brown <brownh@teufel.hartford-hwp.com> wrote in
> news:87fysiovkt.fsf@teufel.hartford-hwp.com:
>
>> Additional information.
>>
>> I pulled things apart and substituted another floppy drive, but
>> results the same:
>>
>> 1. Bootable floppy in drive ignored by BIOS
>> 2. Once booted, a mount of the floppy hangs and returns I/O
>> errors:
>>
>> kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
>> kernel: Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
>>
>> Here I should get "Root device; boot device", but instead get:
>>
>> # rdev /dev/fd0
>> /dev/fd0: Input/output error
>> I have not tried swapping the data cable, that's an obvious thing
>> to do if a problem with it would show the symptoms above.
>>
> have you tried formatting a floppy in the drive? if same results,
> try replacing cable/checking it's properly plugged in at both
> ends/power to plug to floppy. If none of the above help, I would say
> it's the controller card/chip - try a ide pci card and disable
> onboard.

Well, much of the problem was the data cable to the floppy
drive. Much to my surprise (ignorance, probably), the pin1 orientation
on my cable was the opposite side in relation to the plug key. I don't
know if that is a manufacturing mistake, or not all floppy drive
cables can be used on all floppy drives. When I fished out a cable
with the pin 1 on the other side, that solved part of the problem, but
not the major problem.

Now when I boot, the floppy drive is not skipped, but is accessed. On
a floppy with a grub boot loader, at least Loading Stage2... shows
up. However, the grub loader does not perform as it did before, and I
only get the grub> prompt, and I can't seem to be able to use it to
find my kernel etc. So back to remaking some boot floppies.

Other than this, I can now access a floppy with such as fdformat, and
I can mount them, etc.

Thanks for your input. If you have any reflections on my comments
about floppy drive cable "polarity", I'd appreciate knowing of them. 

-- 
 
       Haines Brown
       KB1GRM

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