Ubuntu compatible external USB floppy

[taltamir]

My dad tried Ubuntu on his laptop, he likes it and it does everything.
With the exception of his TEAC USB-FDD which simply does not mount. I looked online and many others are having problems with this with no success.

So I was wondering if there is another FDD I can buy that does have linux support. Anyone knows?

 

[dac7nco]

Ubuntu doesn't auto-mount floppies. Does it show something like "/dev/fd0 does not exist"?

Daimon

 

[taltamir]

Thank you dac7cno

it shows up as /dev/sdb
the HDD is /dev/sda
It behaves the same way an empty (no disk) DVD drive, but I can actually format it using the disk utility (right click on FDD in places does not show the contextual format option)
I tried mounting it manually and it didn't work, I looked at long detailed threads where people with the same problem have gone to great length and none of them could make it work.

From what I read, Ubuntu auto-mount internal floppy drives, but has issues with USB external ones. The problem with those seems to be that they can't be mounted at all, not even manually.

I was hoping there would be one I could buy that works, perhaps with closed black box driver/software (which i have no qualms about installing).
If we can't solve it my dad will have to back to using windows vista and that would be a shame. And he CAN'T be asked to manually mount it, it has to be plug and play for him.

If people can confirm that there is really no off the shelf plug and play external floppy drive that works with ubuntu then I would start a new thread in *nix forum to discuss how to solve the issue with current drive manually via software.

 

[Fox5]

I have a NEC external floppy drive that works fine in Ubuntu, didn't realize there were issues with any though.

 

[taltamir]

well, the issues I found online who mentioned a make said it was TEAC, which is what I have. I was guessing it was a driver issue rather then an ubuntu issue until I was told otherwise.

Do you mind tell me the exact model of your NEC drive that works? I will see about buying one.

 

[Fox5]

Drive model UF0002.

 

[dac7nco]

Sorry, taltamir, but I'm not much help with Ubuntu - my experience is mainly with AIX, which would probably read punch cards.

From what I've found it may be the TEAC drives - try the NEC.

Daimon

 

[VivienM]

This is a completely random idea, but have you tried playing with the BIOS?

If you plug in the floppy drive before POST, I wonder if one of the USB emulation/legacy BIOS options _might_ cause the USB floppy to appear as a traditional floppy (/dev/fdX) to Ubuntu instead of appearing as a USB mass storage device (/dev/sdX)?

 

[Rifter]

Drive model UF0002.

I have this exact model and it has worked flawlessly in ubuntu for me.

 

[taltamir]

the NEC UF0002 arrived... and my dad says it doesn't work. I am going over to his place to troubleshoot, I was really hoping that it would just be plug and play since two people told me it just works on their ubuntu machines.

It doesn't need to boot or anything fancy, it just needs to be able to read a file from a floppy.

 

[Fox5]

the NEC UF0002 arrived... and my dad says it doesn't work. I am going over to his place to troubleshoot, I was really hoping that it would just be plug and play since two people told me it just works on their ubuntu machines.

It doesn't need to boot or anything fancy, it just needs to be able to read a file from a floppy.

Maybe it's not the drive, maybe it's the laptop.

It does work as plug and play for me. It even auto mounts.

It may be a bios option. My bios has a USB Floppy option I had to turn on.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Use the terminal to mount it

 

[taltamir]

Use the terminal to mount it

if only it worked... besides this is my dads work laptop, either it automounts or he is going back to vista.

I found this: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/05/fix-usb-devices-automount-not-working.html
but neither worked.

I found this: http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9496921
it automounts as disk with read only permissions (odd, since 002 should give everyone write permissions), the poster who noted it said he changed it from 002 to 777 and it worked, but on my computer changing it to 777 makes it not work anymore.
I suspect it might be related to this: http://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...t-cannot-mount-because-of-permissions-723962/
Or maybe not... simply deleting "-m 002" (as has been suggested in some forums) makes no effect, it mounts as read only.
While using 777 in the config make it mount on /media/disk as usual but when I try to open it I get "You do not have the permissions necessary to view the contents of "disk"."

I tried the newer 0.1.6 version from natty but it fails to install, so 0.1.5-4 will have to do. I tried a natty build but it failed to boot...

After hours of combing through available packages I found usbmount that also seems to work. It also manages to automount the floppy... it also is read only permission. It mounts it as root and only root has full read/write permissions to the drive.
I decided not to use it, while the name it gives is nicer (usb0 through usb7, while halevt just calls it disk) it does not unmount on disk eject, halevt does. And if the drive was plugged when I turned on the computer and then I insert a disk it will not mount, I have to unplug and plug it back in. While halevt doesn't have this problem. Both leave me with read only permissions.

My dad said it is good enough and has chosen to stick with ubuntu. But just in case he changes his mind I would rather find out how to completely resolve it... oh and btw, unlike what people have been saying on various forums, the TEAC drive works perfectly when it has the right utility, both usbmount and halevt work it in exactly the same manner as with the NEC drive.

 

[Rifter]

thats really wierd. I havent tried it on my laptop but it has worked fine on the desktops i have tried it on(more than 7 of them)

 

[edcompsci]

I have the same problem with a teac. If I open sysinfo (a utility I installed) it shows as a scsi device. If I open disk utility it shows as /dev/sdc, but not mounted and no option to mount. If I open a terminal and enter df, none of the devices are mounted to /dev/sdc. If I creat a directory in /media and attempt to mount /dev/sdc to it I get an error that it is not a valid block device. It obviously needs a driver.



. I know this thread is old.

 

[taltamir]

Ah, thread necro... Sorry edcompsci I have no solution for you.

My dad has given up on ubuntu and went back to windows. Too many things just don't nothing works.

Frankly I gave up on ubuntu too.
Forcing a tablet/netbook interface on a desktop or laptop user is the gravest of sins.
Kubuntu and Xubuntu are super unstable, especially Xubuntu which was my favorite. It crashed constantly and got to the point of freezing on boot every time.
Their papercuts policy is a lie, they still haven't fixed the following bug I reported: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/795818

Speaking of, they are really trying to be the new apple. A "different" interface (in the "special" kind of way) and false slogens about how good they are..

Got OpenSuse and it works so much better. And it lets me use my choice of K, X, or gnome like any other linux distro... only unlike ubuntu those are stable thus far. Although admittedly I didn't get much testing on it.