misc/74827: Problem with dd(1) and/or /dev/fd

[Richard Bejtlich]

>Number:         74827
>Category:       misc
>Synopsis:       Problem with dd(1) and/or /dev/fd
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Dec 07 22:30:32 GMT 2004
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Richard Bejtlich
>Release:        5.3 RELEASE
>Organization:
TaoSecurity
>Environment:
FreeBSD orr.taosecurity.com 5.3-SECURITY FreeBSD 5.3-SECURITY #0: Wed Dec  1 15:22:42 UTC 2004     root at builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
>Description:
I am unable to use dd(1) to create floppies from image files under FreeBSD 5.3 REL.  For example, I try to create boot.flp using dd(1).  First I test the .flp file:

orr:/home/richard$ md5 boot.flp
MD5 (boot.flp) = 1ec944b87da4e2eef835439215348e64
orr:/home/richard$ grep boot.flp CHECKSUM.MD5 
MD5 (boot.flp) = 1ec944b87da4e2eef835439215348e64

orr:/root# dd if=boot.flp of=/dev/fd0
dd: /dev/fd0: Input/output error
37+0 records in
36+0 records out
18432 bytes transferred in 4.518355 secs (4079 bytes/sec)

This is a problem.  I then boot into FreeBSD 5.2.1 under FreeSBIE.  Using the same floppy disk and same physical hardware, I am successful:

root at FreeSBIE:~# dd if=boot.flp of=/dev/fd0
2880+0 records in
2880+0 records out
1474560 bytes transferred in 48.104081 secs (30654 bytes/sec)
root at FreeSBIE:~# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
root at FreeSBIE:~# ls /mnt
.snap           boot            kernel.gz.split
acpi.ko.gz      kernel.gz.boot  mfsroot.gz

I am able to mount floppies and read them under FreeBSD 5.3, however.

I have not had problems with earlier FreeBSD versions, until 5.3 REL.

Hardware is an IBM Thinkpad a20p.  

Thank you.
>How-To-Repeat:
Try to use dd(1) to create floppies under FreeBSD 5.3 REL.
>Fix:
Unknown.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: