Manpages - fd.4

Table of Contents

Home DTOS Other Projects Knowledge Base Linux Manpages Community Contribute

NAME

fd - floppy disk device

CONFIGURATION

Floppy drives are block devices with major number 2. Typically they are owned by root:floppy (i.e., user root, group floppy) and have either mode 0660 (access checking via group membership) or mode 0666 (everybody has access). The minor numbers encode the device type, drive number, and controller number. For each device type (that is, combination of density and track count) there is a base minor number. To this base number, add the drive’s number on its controller and 128 if the drive is on the secondary controller. In the following device tables, n represents the drive number.

Warning: if you use formats with more tracks than supported by your drive, you may cause it mechanical damage. Trying once if more tracks than the usual 40/80 are supported should not damage it, but no warranty is given for that. If you are not sure, don’t create device entries for those formats, so as to prevent their usage.

Drive-independent device files which automatically detect the media format and capacity:

Name Base
  minor #
_  
*fd*/n/ 0

5.25 inch double-density device files:

Name Capacity Cyl. Sect. Heads Base
  KiB       minor #
_          
fd*/n/*d360 360 40 9 2 4

5.25 inch high-density device files:

Name Capacity Cyl. Sect. Heads Base
  KiB       minor #
_          
fd*/n/*h360 360 40 9 2 20
fd*/n/*h410 410 41 10 2 48
fd*/n/*h420 420 42 10 2 64
fd*/n/*h720 720 80 9 2 24
fd*/n/*h880 880 80 11 2 80
fd*/n/*h1200 1200 80 15 2 8
fd*/n/*h1440 1440 80 18 2 40
fd*/n/*h1476 1476 82 18 2 56
fd*/n/*h1494 1494 83 18 2 72
fd*/n/*h1600 1600 80 20 2 92

3.5 inch double-density device files:

Name Capacity Cyl. Sect. Heads Base
  KiB       minor #
_          
fd*/n/*u360 360 80 9 1 12
fd*/n/*u720 720 80 9 2 16
fd*/n/*u800 800 80 10 2 120
fd*/n/*u1040 1040 80 13 2 84
fd*/n/*u1120 1120 80 14 2 88

3.5 inch high-density device files:

Name Capacity Cyl. Sect. Heads Base
  KiB       minor #
_          
fd*/n/*u360 360 40 9 2 12
fd*/n/*u720 720 80 9 2 16
fd*/n/*u820 820 82 10 2 52
fd*/n/*u830 830 83 10 2 68
fd*/n/*u1440 1440 80 18 2 28
fd*/n/*u1600 1600 80 20 2 124
fd*/n/*u1680 1680 80 21 2 44
fd*/n/*u1722 1722 82 21 2 60
fd*/n/*u1743 1743 83 21 2 76
fd*/n/*u1760 1760 80 22 2 96
fd*/n/*u1840 1840 80 23 2 116
fd*/n/*u1920 1920 80 24 2 100

3.5 inch extra-density device files:

Name Capacity Cyl. Sect. Heads Base
  KiB       minor #
_          
fd*/n/*u2880 2880 80 36 2 32
fd*/n/*CompaQ 2880 80 36 2 36
fd*/n/*u3200 3200 80 40 2 104
fd*/n/*u3520 3520 80 44 2 108
fd*/n/*u3840 3840 80 48 2 112

DESCRIPTION

fd special files access the floppy disk drives in raw mode. The following ioctl*(2) calls are supported by *fd devices:

FDCLRPRM
clears the media information of a drive (geometry of disk in drive).
FDSETPRM
sets the media information of a drive. The media information will be lost when the media is changed.
FDDEFPRM
sets the media information of a drive (geometry of disk in drive). The media information will not be lost when the media is changed. This will disable autodetection. In order to reenable autodetection, you have to issue an FDCLRPRM.
FDGETDRVTYP
returns the type of a drive (name parameter). For formats which work in several drive types, FDGETDRVTYP returns a name which is appropriate for the oldest drive type which supports this format.
FDFLUSH
invalidates the buffer cache for the given drive.
FDSETMAXERRS
sets the error thresholds for reporting errors, aborting the operation, recalibrating, resetting, and reading sector by sector.
FDSETMAXERRS
gets the current error thresholds.
FDGETDRVTYP
gets the internal name of the drive.
FDWERRORCLR
clears the write error statistics.
FDWERRORGET
reads the write error statistics. These include the total number of write errors, the location and disk of the first write error, and the location and disk of the last write error. Disks are identified by a generation number which is incremented at (almost) each disk change.
FDTWADDLE
Switch the drive motor off for a few microseconds. This might be needed in order to access a disk whose sectors are too close together.
FDSETDRVPRM
sets various drive parameters.
FDGETDRVPRM
reads these parameters back.
FDGETDRVSTAT
gets the cached drive state (disk changed, write protected et al.)
FDPOLLDRVSTAT
polls the drive and return its state.
FDGETFDCSTAT
gets the floppy controller state.
FDRESET
resets the floppy controller under certain conditions.
FDRAWCMD
sends a raw command to the floppy controller.

For more precise information, consult also the <linux/fd.h> and <linux/fdreg.h> include files, as well as the *floppycontrol*(1) manual page.

FILES

/dev/fd*

NOTES

The various formats permit reading and writing many types of disks. However, if a floppy is formatted with an inter-sector gap that is too small, performance may drop, to the point of needing a few seconds to access an entire track. To prevent this, use interleaved formats.

It is not possible to read floppies which are formatted using GCR (group code recording), which is used by Apple II and Macintosh computers (800k disks).

Reading floppies which are hard sectored (one hole per sector, with the index hole being a little skewed) is not supported. This used to be common with older 8-inch floppies.

SEE ALSO

*chown*(1), *floppycontrol*(1), *getfdprm*(1), *mknod*(1), *superformat*(1), *mount*(8), *setfdprm*(8)

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 5.13 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Author: dt

Created: 2022-02-22 Tue 14:31