problems with msdos floppies in 5.0

[Eduardo Viruena Silva]

> Yeah, I am getting frustrated too...
>
> Ok, to at least mount, you can do this:
>
> mount_msdosfs /dev/fd0.1440 /mnt
>
I does not work either.
I don't even have fd0.1440!!!!

> However, I want mtools to work with it.../dev/fd0 doesn't work...And I
> can't  find info about setting up my floppy drive. Mtools reports:
>
> Can't open /dev/fd0.720: Permission denied
>

Well, this is an easy one:  you have to give yourself permission
to use that device, or doing that as root.   I think the best way of
doing this is creating a group of users that will be given permission
of using the floppy drive.

with your favorite editor, add a line in /etc/group, like this:

	fdusers:*:1000:root,your_name,your_friend1,...your_friendN

and then, to give them permission of

# devfs ruleset 10
# devfs rule add path "fd0*" group fdusers mode 666
# devfs rule applyset

take a look at  man devfs

> 1) Why freebsd5 uses .720 as default is beyond me

why I don't have fd0.1440? or sometimes I have it and sometimes not?
I think this is a problem of devfs...

> 2) How can I get mtools to use 1440 instead...

you can change /usr/local/etc/mtools.conf  [aprox line 29] it says:

drive a: file="/dev/fd0"

but, you want it to say:

drive a: file="/dev/fd0.1440"

> 3) I know it is a kernel option so that /dev/fd0 gets created properly,
> BUT  WHERE?

>
> Thanks,
>
> Anthony
>
> On Monday 14 April 2003 15:41, Eduardo Viruena Silva wrote:
>> Hello pals!
>>
>> I'm running FreeBSD 5.0-RELEASE p7.
>>
>> I cannot mount msdos diskettes, I tried:
>>
>> 	mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt
>>
>> I get:
>>
>> 	# mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt
>> 	msdosfs: /dev/fd0: Input/output error
>> 	#
>>
>> I thought my diskette was damaged, or my drive broken, or my cable...
>> I checked everything, I even bought a new floppy drive.  Nothing.
>>
>> Now, with another computer, a very old one, I made a MS-DOS boot disk,
>> I used it to boot the computer where the problem is happening and I
>> could read and write files to my diskettes.
>>
>> I also tried mtools, and they didn't work either.
>>
>> 		# mdir
>>                 plain_io: Input/output error
>> 		init A: could not read boot sector
>> 		Cannot initialize 'A:'
>> 		#
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
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