From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 2 10:33:50 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2946106566B for ; Sat, 2 Oct 2010 10:33:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mueller6727@bellsouth.net) Received: from fmailhost04.isp.att.net (fmailhost04.isp.att.net [207.115.11.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A0EB18FC17 for ; Sat, 2 Oct 2010 10:33:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mueller6722.bellsouth.net (adsl-210-172-77.sdf.bellsouth.net[68.210.172.77]) by isp.att.net (frfwmhc04) with SMTP id <20101002103349H0400oblate>; Sat, 2 Oct 2010 10:33:49 +0000 X-Originating-IP: [68.210.172.77] Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:50:00 +0000 From: "Thomas Mueller" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <4ca70e58.85Hn9/T3OsqNTwqg%mueller6727@bellsouth.net> User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.4 7/29/08 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Christoph Kukulies Subject: Re: 5.25" floppy drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:33:50 -0000 from "Christoph Kukulies" : > Thanks to all. > Solved. > It was a multiple cause issue: > 1st: BIOS Setting was incorrect (had to enable 1.2MB 5.25 rather than 3.5 which was it set to - an oversight in the firts place, that occured to me). > 2nd: Cable issue: I had a combined cable (3.5 " connector at the end and edge connector second but last. > 3rd: in combination with 2nd: DS0 jumper issue. > Anyway, I found a cable that had two edge connectors. > In the end it turns out that the floppies that were lying in a drawer for 19 years, are producing read errors. > I also learnt about fdcontrol. Floppy interface has changed significantly since Joerg Wunsch and Bruce Evans > worked on them in the early FreeBSD days back in 1995 :) > -- > Christoph Congratulations on solving your floppy problem, but I can understand your problems with floppies. They've gone bad with age for me too. I can read but not write, then I can't read and in most cases can't even reformat. FreeBSD installation sets structure (base.aa, base.ab, base.ac etc.) suggests that one could install from a big set of floppies, but there's no way I could get such a good set of floppies together. I think my 5.25" floppies and drive hold out better than the 3.5" floppies and drives. Tom