From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 29 00:41:33 2008 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 C43E61065675 for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:41:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8A4928FC33 for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:41:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id mBT0fWQY023625; Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:41:32 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) with ESMTP id mBT0fVFu023622; Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:41:32 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:41:31 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: Matthias Apitz In-Reply-To: <20081227120610.GA8365@rebelion.Sisis.de> Message-ID: References: <20081227120610.GA8365@rebelion.Sisis.de> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.0.1 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:41:32 -0700 (MST) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: old flopy drive on parallel port 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: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:41:33 -0000 On Sat, 27 Dec 2008, Matthias Apitz wrote: > I've just thrown away an very old laptop which was running FreeBSD 2.2.5 > in the mid of the 90's; this have had an external 3.5 inch floppy drive, > connected through a cable to the parallel port and this way fully supported, > even for the basic installation of FreeBSD which was based on making a > boot-able floppy; I saved this drive because I still have some old > floppies here around and at home no other drive to read them; Support may have been through hardware on the laptop. ISTR some old machines doing that: a special parallel-port floppy would be seen by the system, and the OS wouldn't know the difference. > My question is: can it be used / plug'eg in without any danger into to parallel > port of my actual laptop (Fujitsu Siemens) and is this somehow still supported > in FreeBSD 7.0 as well? If it was hardware supported by the old laptop, it could do bad things to a current system. Physical "let the smoke out" things. External USB floppy drives are cheap, although I don't know how well they work with FreeBSD. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA