Manpages

Name

floppycontrol - floppy driver configuration utility

Note

This manpage has been automatically generated from fdutils’s texinfo documentation. However, this process is only approximative, and some items, such as cross-references, footnotes and indices are lost in this translation process. Indeed, these items have no appropriate representation in the manpage format. Moreover, only the items specific to each command have been translated, and the general information about fdutils has been dropped in the manpage version. Thus I strongly advise you to use the original texinfo doc.

./configure; make dvi; dvips fdutils.dvi

./configure; make html

A pre-made HTML can be found at: ’http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils’

./configure; make info

The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as HTML. Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read due to the quoting conventions used in info.

Description

floppycontrol [-p] [--pollstate] [--printfdstate]
[-a operation-abort-threshold] [-c read-track-threshold]
[-r recalibrate-threshold] [-R reset-threshold]
[-e reporting-threshold] [-f] [-x] [-d drive][-F] [-T]
[-reset condition] [--debug] [--nodebug] [--messages]
[--nomessages] [--broken_dcl] [--working_dcl] [--inverted_dcl]
[--no_inverted_dcl] [--silent_dcl_clear] [--noisy_dcl_clear]
[-ccmos-type] [-hlt hlt] [-hut hut] [-srt srt] [-o spindown]
[-u spinup] [-s select-delay] [-rps rotations-per-second]
[-O spindown-offset] [-track max-tracks] [-timeout seconds]
[-C check-interval] [-n native-format]
[-autodetect autodetection-sequence] [-P] [--clrwerror]
[--printwerror] [-h]

The floppycontrol program is used to configure the floppy driver.

General Options

-d drive  
--drive  drive

Selects the drive to configure. The default is drive 0 (’/dev/fd0’).

One time actions

The following floppycontrol options don’t set a configuration parameter, but perform a one-time action. They are available to anybody who has write access to the drive

--flush

Flushes (throws away) the dirty data buffers associated with this drive.

--eject

Ejects the disk out of the drive (Sparc). The dirty buffers are first committed to disk before ejecting it. Fails if the disk is mounted.

--reset  condition 

Resets the FDC under condition . Condition may be one of the following:

This command may be needed after some failed raw commands (see section fdrawcmd).

--formatend

Issues an end format ioctl. This might be needed after exiting a fdformat in an unclean way. superformat is not subject to this.

Printing current settings

--print

Prints out the configuration of the drive. The names of the various fields are the same as the names of the option to set them, see below.

--printstate

Prints out the cached internal state of the driver. The first line lists various attributes about the disk:
drive present 
disk present
disk writable

These are only updated when the drive is accessed.

spinup 

is the time when the motor became switched on for the last time.

select 

is the time when the drive became selected for the last time

first_read 

is the time when the first read request after the last spin up completed.

probed_fmt 

is the index of the autodetected format in the autodetection sequence for this drive.

cylinder 

is the cylinder where the drive head currently sits. If this number is negative, it has the following meaning:

maxblock 

is the highest block number that has been read.

maxcylinder 

is a boolean which is set when a sector that is not on cylinder 0/head 0 has been read. These are used for smart invalidation of the buffer cache on geometry change. The buffer cache of the drive is only invalidated on geometry change when this change actually implies that a block that has already been read changes position. This optimization is useful for mtools which changes the geometry after reading the boot sector.

generation 

is roughly the number of disk changes noticed since boot. Disk changes are noticed if the disk is actually changed, or if a flush command is issued and for both cases if any I/O to/from the disk occurs. (i.e. if you insert several disks, but don’t do any I/O to them, the generation number stays the same.)

device 

is format type (as derived from the minor device number) which is currently being used.

last_checked 

is date (in jiffies) when the drive was last checked for a disk change, and a disk was actually in the drive.

--pollstate 

Polls the drive and then prints out the internal state of the driver.(--Printstate only prints out the cached information without actually polling the drive for a disk change.)

--printfdcstate 

Prints out the state of the controller where the target drive is attached to.

rawcmd 

is true if a raw command has been executed since the last reset. If this is the case, a reset will be triggered when a drive on the same FDC is next opened.

version 

is the version of the FDC. See ’linux/include/linux/fdreg.h’ for a listing of the FDC version numbers.

need_configure 

is true if this FDC needs configuration by the FD_CONFIGURE command.

has_fifo 

is set if the FDC understands the FD_CONFIGURE command.

perp_mode 

describes the perpendicular mode of this FDC. 0 is non-perpendicular mode, 2 is HD perpendicular mode, 3 is ED perpendicular mode, and 1 is unknown.

address 

is the address of the first I/O port of the FDC. Normally, this is 0x3f0 for the first FDC and 0x370 for the second.

Drive type configuration and autodetection

The following options handle the different available drive types, such as double density vs. high density vs. extra density drives, and 5 1/4 drives vs 3 1/2 drives. Usually the drive type is stored in a non-volatile memory, called CMOS, under the form of an integer ranging from 1 to 6.

Different drive types are able to handle and autodetect different formats (different autodetection lists). They also have different "native format name". The native format is the "usual" format with the highest capacity supported by the drive. (For example 720KB on a double density 3 1/2 drive, and 1.2MB on a high density 5 1/4 drive.)

These settings are only changeable by the super user.
-c cmos-type 
--cmos  cmos-type

Set the virtual CMOS type of the floppy drive. This is useful if

Right now, this CMOS parameter is not used by the kernel, except for feeding it back to other applications (for instance superformat, floppymeter or MAKEFLOPPIES). It is also possible to supply a virtual CMOS type with the cmos boot option (see section Boottime configuration). If possible, I recommend you use the boot option, rather than floppycontrol, because the boot option also sets any parameters derived from the CMOS type, such as the autodetection list and the native format, whereas floppycontrol does not.
-A  autodetect-seq  
--autodetect  autodetect-seq

Set the autodetection sequence (see section Autodetection) The autodetection sequence is a comma-separated list of at most eight format descriptors. Each format descriptor is a format number optionally followed by the letter t. For drive 0, the format number is the minor device number divided by 4. The autodetection sequence is used by the driver to find out the format of a newly inserted disk. The formats are tried one after the other, and the first matching format is retained. To test the format, the driver tries to read the first sector on the first track on the first head when t is not given, or the whole first track when t is given. Thus, autodetection cannot detect the number of tracks. However, this information is contained in the boot sector, which is now accessible. The boot sector can then be used by mtools to configure the correct number of tracks.

Example:

7,4,24t,25

means to try out the formats whose minor device numbers are 28 (1.44M), 16 (720KB), 96 (1.76MB), and 100 (1.92MB), in this order. For the 1.76MB format, try to read the whole track at once.

Reading the whole track at once allows you to distinguish between two formats which differ only in the number of sectors. (The format with the most sectors must be tried first.) If you use mtools, you do not need this feature, as mtools can figure out the number of sectors without any help from the floppy driver, by looking at the boot sector.

Reading the whole track at once may also speed up the first read by 200 milliseconds. However, if, on the other hand, you try to read a disk which has less sectors than the format, you lose some time.

I suggest that you put the most often used format in the first place (barring other constraints), as each format that is tried out takes 400 milliseconds.

-n native-format 
--native_format  native-format

Set the native format of this drive. The native format of a drive is the highest standard format available for this drive. (Example: For a 5 1/4 HD drive it is the usual 1200K format.) This is format is used to make up the format name for the generic device (which is the name of the native format). This drive name is read back from the kernel by the MAKEFLOPPIES script which uses it to decide which device nodes to create.

Configuration of the disk change line

--broken_dcl 

Assumes that the disk change line of the drive is broken. If this is set, disk changes are assumed to happen whenever the device node is first opened. The physical disk change line is ignored.

This option should be used if disk changes are either not detected at all, or if disk changes are detected when the disk was actually not changed. If this option fixes the problem, I’d recommend that you try to trace the root cause of the problem. Indeed, this options results in reduced performance due to spurious cache flushes.

The following hardware problems may lead to a bad disk change line:

--working_dcl 

Assumes that the disk change line works all right. Switching from broken to working may lead to unexpected results after the first disk change.

--inverted_dcl 

Assumes that this disk drive uses an inverted disk change line. Apparently this is the case for IBM thinkpads.

--no_inverted_dcl 

Assumes that this drive follows the standard convention for the disk change line.

--noisy_dcl_clear 

Switches off silent disk change line clearing for this drive.

Timing Parameters

This section describes how to configure drive timings. To set these parameters, you need superuser privileges. All times are in "jiffy" units (10 milliseconds), unless otherwise specified.
--hlt  hlt 

Set the head load time (in microseconds) for this floppy drive. The head load time describes how long the floppy controller waits after seeking or changing heads before allowing access to a track.

--hut  hut 

Set the head unload time (in microseconds) for this floppy drive. The head unload time describes how long the floppy controller waits after an access before directing its attention to the other head, or before seeking.

--srt  srt 

Set the step rate (in microseconds) for this floppy drive. The step rate describes how long the drive head stays on one cylinder when seeking. Setting this value to low (too fast seeks) may make seeks fail, because the motor doesn’t follow fast enough.

-u spinup-time  
--spinup  spinup-time

Set the spinup time of the floppy drive. In order to do read or write to the floppy disk, it must spin. It takes a certain time for the motor to reach enough speed to read or write. This parameter describes this time. The floppy driver doesn’t try to access the drive before the spinup time has elapsed. With modern controllers, you may set this time to zero, as the controller itself enforces the right delay.

-o spindown-time  
--spindown  spindown-time

Set the spindown time of this floppy drive. The motor is not stopped immediately after the operation completes, because there might be more operations following. The spindown time is the time the driver waits before switching off the motor.

-O spindown-offset  
--spindown_offset  spindown-offset

Set the spindown offset of this floppy drive. This parameter is used to set the position in which the disk stops. This is useful to minimize the next access time. (If the first sector is just near the head at the very moment at which the disk has reached enough speed, you win 200 milliseconds against the most unfavorable situation).

This is done by clocking the time where the first I/O request completes, and using this time to calculate the current position of the disk.

-s select-delay  
--select_delay  select-delay

Set the select delay of this floppy drive. This is the delay that the driver waits after selecting the drive and issuing the first command to it. For modern controllers/drives, you may set this to zero.

-C check-interval  
--checkfreq  check-interval

Set the maximal disk change check interval. The disk change line is checked whenever a read or write to the device is issued, and it has not been checked for more than interval jiffies.

Debugging messages

This subsection describes how to switch the available debugging messages on and off.
--debug 

Switch debugging output on. The debugging information includes timing information. This option might be useful to fine-tune the timing options for your local setups. (But for most normal purposes, the default values are good enough.)

--nodebug 

Switch debugging output off.

--messages 

Print informational messages after autodetection, geometry parameter clearing and dma over/underruns.

--nomessages 

Don’t print informational messages after these events.

Error Handling Options

The following options configure the behavior of the floppy driver in case of read/write errors. They may be used by any user who has write privileges for the drive. Whenever the floppy driver encounters an error, a retry counter is incremented. If the value of this counter gets bigger than the thresholds described below, the corresponding actions are performed at the next retry. The counter is reset when the read or write finally terminates, whether successfully or not.
-a operation-abort-threshold  
--abort  operation-abort-threshold

Tell the floppy driver to stop trying to read/write a sector after operation-abort-threshold retries, and signal the I/O error to the user.

-t read-track-threshold  
--readtrack  read-track-threshold

Tell the floppy driver to switch from track-reading mode to sector-at-a-time-mode after read-track-threshold retries.

-r recalibrate-threshold  
--recalibrate  recalibrate-threshold

Tell the floppy driver to recalibrate the drive after recalibrate-threshold retries.

-R reset-threshold  
--reset  reset-threshold

Tell the floppy driver to reset the controller after reset-threshold retries. After a controller reset, the floppy driver also recalibrates all drives connected to that controller.

-e error-report-threshold  
--reporting  error-report-threshold

Tell the floppy driver to start printing error messages to the console after error-report-threshold retries.

Write error reporting

Due to the buffer cache, write errors cannot always be reported to the writing user program as soon as the write system call returns. Indeed, the actual writing may take place much later. If a write error is encountered, the floppy driver stores information about it in its per drive write error structure. This write error structure stays until explicitly cleared. It can for example be queried by a backup program which wants to make sure that the data has been written successfully.
--clrwerror 

Clears the write error structure.

--printwerror 

Prints the contents of the write error structure:
write_errors 

is a count of how many write errors have occurred since the structure was last cleared.

badness 

is the maximal number of retries that were needed to complete an operation (reads, writes and formats).

first_error_sector 

is where the first (chronologically) write error occurred.

first_error_generation 

is the disk change generation in which did the first write error occurred. The disk change generation is a number which is incremented at each disk change.

last_error_sector 

and

last_error_generation 

are similar.

Other drive configuration options

This subsection lists per drive configuration options, which don’t fit in any other category. They are available only to the superuser:
--tracks  max-tracks 

Set the maximal numbers of physical tracks that this drive may handle. If you have a drive which is only able to handle 80 tracks (making strange noises when you try to format or read a disk with more than 80 tracks), use this option to prevent unprivileged users of damaging your drive by repeatedly reading disks with more than 80 tracks.

If you trust your users and your disks, you don’t need this. With most drives you don’t need to worry anyways. See section More cylinders, for details.

-i sector-interleave  
--interleave sector-interleave

Set the number of sectors beyond which sector interleaving will be used. This option will only be used by the FDFMTTRK ioctl. The fdformat command, which is now considered obsolete, uses FDFMTTRK ioctl, but superformat does not.

See Also

Fdutils’ texinfo doc