[CS-FSLUG] Christiansource Digest, Vol 90, Issue 1

[George Rodier]

Le lundi 01 août 2011 à 12:00 -0500, christiansource-request at ofb.biz a
écrit :
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> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
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> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Re: Linux used to handle floppies really well. (Ed Hurst)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:08:48 -0500
> From: "Ed Hurst" <ehurst at soulkiln.org>
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> > Ed might be able to help you.
> 
> My limited experience makes me think it's something between the hardware  
> and the particular kernel. I can recall at least one machine in years past  
> on which the floppy controller was simply not compatible with Linux. I  
> have kept an old laptop running Win2K for this reason. It can't do much,  
> but it does floppies and DOS programs very well. I never take it online  
> any more.
> 
> I wish I had more to offer. If dmesg doesn't offer any clues as to what  
> the Linux kernel thinks of the hardware, I doubt anyone will be able to  
> diagnose it.
> 
> -- 
> Ed Hurst
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> End of Christiansource Digest, Vol 90, Issue 1
> **********************************************

I've had a somewhat similar experience with Ubuntu. I do know from them
(Here I am summarizing my understanding not quoting Ubuntu directly.)
that the reason they somewhat disabled floppy drives is that there are
quite a number of relatively new PCs (of various formats) where the
motherboard reports the presence of a floppy drive even when none is
physically present. It seems that such inaccurate information causes
some processes to loop or fail.

For a couple of Ubuntu releases there was a way to retrograde udisks in
Synaptic. This is no longer available, e.g., in my 11.04 installation.
However, I have a tiny script on a button that will mount my floppy
drive and then let me view and manage the contents.

I've not yet found a way to format diskettes in ubuntu 11.04 . Sadly, I
do that on an old IBM notebook running Win95.

A quick Internet search finds a requirement in the Philippines for "
Employers with less than 10 employees should prepare and submit the
alphalist in hard copy  while those with 10 or more employees should
submit the alphalist in soft copy using 3.5-inch floppy diskette,
together with the manually prepared alphalist, as required by some
RDOs."
http://www.punongbayan-araullo.com/pnawebsite/pnahome.nsf/section_docs/MO312Q_11-1-11 

It may be that the information is not entirely accurate but in the same
posting there is mention of the need for certain accounting books to be
submitted on CD or DVD.

Although Sony has halted production of diskettes, Imation said last year
that they would continue worldwide production.

A Wikipedia article on diskettes says that there are still some
theatre/cinema systems and industrial production equipment that still
require boot diskettes for recovery situations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk#Current_use 

My point is simply that there still are places in this world where the
floppy diskette is far from dead.

Georges