xenial (1) floppycontrol.1.gz

Provided by: fdutils_5.5-20060227-7_amd64 bug

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
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       The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as HTML.  Indeed, in the info version certain  examples
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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.

See Also

       Fdutils' texinfo doc