Re: Formatting a USB Floppy on Sony Vaio Z505JE.

Hi Ryan,

> > I've just got USB floppy read access using /dev/sda going.  How do I
> > format a floppy?  fdformat uses floppy-drive only ioctls.  Same with
> > setfdparam.  I don't mean write the filesystem data to it, but
> > perform a `write track' in FDC 1772 terms.
> 
> May I ask for my sake and that of the list how you got the USB floppy
> working?  I've never had a good try at mine and woudln't know where to
> start if/when I do.

I'm planning on putting up my experience on a web page when I get
further along the path.  Meanwhile...

    Used Debian Woody.

    Switched to the stable kernel-source-2.4.18 package.

    Installed the Debian hotplug package.

    Configured the kernel to have CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD not set, since
    that's only useful if you've a floppy drive controlled by a
    traditional FDC.

    Assuming USB has already been configured in the kernel, i.e.
    CONFIG_USB, CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS, CONFIG_USB_UHCI_ALT...

    Built CONFIG_USB_STORAGE as a module.  That uses the SCSI subsystem
    so even though I've no SCSI devices CONFIG_SCSI is required too.
    And since the USB floppy looks like a hard drive CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD
    is also needed.

Re-booting with the new kernel and hotplug set up means plugging in the
floppy drive makes /dev/sda, the first SCSI drive, be assigned to it.
It can then be mounted, etc., as /etc/fd0 used to be.

But how to format it?

Cheers,


Ralph.