Ubuntu Manpage: floppycontrol - floppy driver configuration utility

Provided by: fdutils_5.5-20060227-7_amd64

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
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       dropped in the manpage version.  Thus I strongly advise you to use  the  original  texinfo
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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

       -h
       --help Print a help screen.

       -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

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

       -x
       --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:

              0      resets the FDC only if a reset is needed anyways,

              1      resets the FDC also if a raw command  has  been  performed  since  the  last
                     reset, and

              2      resets the FDC unconditionally.

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

       -F
       --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

-T
--type Print out the drive name of a floppy device. This is used by the MAKEFLOPPIES
script. The drive name is a letter (describing the drive type) followed by the
capacity of the format in bytes. The letter is E for 3.5 ED drives, H for 3.5 HD
drives, D for 3.5 DD drives, h for 5.25 HD drives and d for 5.25 DD drives. The
drive type letter corresponds to the oldest drive type supporting the format of
this device node (not necessarily the type of the drive referred by this node.)
For the generic format nodes (/dev/fd0 et al.) the name of "native format" of the
drive is printed, and for the default formats, if a generic format has been
redefined, its name becomes (null).

-p
--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.

-P
--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:

* -1 means that the driver doesn't know, but the controller does (a
seek command must be issued).

* -2 means that the controller doesn't know either, but is sure that it
not beyond the 80th track. The drive needs a recalibration.

* -3 means that the head may be beyond the 80th track. The drive needs
two successive recalibrations, because at each recalibration, the
controller only issues 80 move head commands per recalibration.

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.)

refs is number of open file descriptors for this drive. It is always at least
one, because floppycontrol's file descriptor is counted too.

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.

spec1
spec2 are the current values of those registers.

rate is current data transfer rate

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.

dor is the value of the digital output register. The 4 high bits are a bit mask
describing which drives are spinning, the 2 low bits describe the selected
drive, bit 2 is used to reset the FDC, and bit 3 describes whether this FDC
has hold of the interrupt and the DMA. If you have two FDCs, bit 3 is only
set on one of them.

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

reset is true if a reset needs to be issued to the FDC before processing the next
request.

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

* the physical CMOS type is wrong (this may happen with BIOSes which use a
non-standard mapping),

* you have more than two drives (the physical CMOS may only describe up to two
drives).

* you have a BIOS that allows swapping drives A: and B: for DOS.

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:

* If the floppy cable is not inserted straight, or if it is kinked, the disk
change line is likely to suffer, as it is on the edge of the cable. Gently
press on both connectors of the cable (drive and controller) to insure that
all wires make contact. Visually inspect the cable, and if it shows obvious
traces of damage, get a new one.

* On some drives, the locations disk change line may be chosen by jumper. Make
sure that your floppy controller and your drive agree on which line is the
disk change line.

* Some older drives (mostly double density 5 1/4 drives) don't have a disk
change line. In this case, you have no choice other than to leave the
broken_dcl option on.

--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.