>>>>> mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdb
>>>>> works just fine, formats to 120 MB or 1.44 depending on media.
>>>> No. NOT FORMATS. Just make filesystem. What you'll do when you'll
>>>> have new 1.44 floppy NOT formatted (LOW-LEVEL formatted, that
>>>> is!!!) ? mkfs.ext2 will just say: "could not write" or something
>>> Why would it do something stupid like that?
>> Since it was designed this way :-)
RW> Then the design is flawed...
Your brain is HEAVILY FATALLY UNRECOVERABLY flawed, not design of mke2fs :-))
>>> All I know is, I buy my 1.44 floppies unformatted (as they're
>>> cheaper that way),
>> They are still low-level formatted, just not tested.
RW> Really ???
At least this way true last time (year ago) when I'm last bought floppies here...
>>> and use the following command to format them:
>>> mke2fs /dev/fd0 <= What DOS calls A:
>>> mke2fs /dev/fd1 <= What DOS calls B:
>>> mke2fs /dev/fd2 <= What DOS calls G:
>>> mke2fs /dev/sda4 <= What DOS calls H:
>> ^^^^^^^^^
>> This is not even physical disk :-))
RW> That's what my JazDrive appears as. From Linux, I can do the same with
RW> /dev/sda and it works just as well, but DOS doesnae recognise it
RW> unless it's partitioned...
>> RW> All work quite happily...
>> Great. Now take 1.88Mb floppy (maked with xdfcopy) and explain how
>> to create standard 1.44Mb floppy with mkfs.ext2 :-))
RW> mke2fs /dev/fd0H1440
Yes, really ?
>> Format under DOS will do this quite happily.
RW> Why bother with DOS ???
>> Or even simpler: take 1.44Mb floppy and make 720Kb floppy from it
>> (this is safe).
RW> mke2fs /dev/fd0D720
Are you sure ? What about 5" 720K disks ? A have few 5" 1440Kb disks and 720Kb
disks :-))
RW> I regularly do the latter, and have never had any problems with it...
>> Again format under DOS will do this just fine.
RW> Again, why bother with DOS ???
Since in DOS low-level format and filesystem creation is combined in one
program unlike Linux.
>> PS. May be you have specially modified mkfs.ext2 which could do
>> low-level format but standard mkfs.ext2 will do just it: create
>> ext2fs filesystem on low-level formatted driver.
RW> If I do, then RedHat have been supplying a patched version since at
RW> least RedHat 4.1 when I started with Linux - I've been doing the above
RW> since then...
I'm just checked with RedHat 5.1 :-))
RW> For reference, from this system:
Q>> $ ls -lFG /dev/fd0*
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 0 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 12 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0D360
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 16 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0D720
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 28 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0H1440
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 12 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0H360
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 16 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0H720
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 4 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0d360
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 8 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0h1200
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 20 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0h360
Q>> brw-rw-r-- 1 root 2, 24 May 5 1998 /dev/fd0h720
Q>> $
Ok. Just tried to use your braindead "theory" :
-- cut --
[root@localhost /root]# fdformat /dev/fd1h1200
Double-sided, 80 tracks, 15 sec/track. Total capacity 1200 kB.
Formatting ... done
Verifying ... done
[root@localhost /root]# mke2fs /dev/fd1h360
mke2fs 1.10, 24-Apr-97 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
Linux ext2 filesystem format
Filesystem label=
96 inodes, 360 blocks
18 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
1 block group
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
96 inodes per group
Writing inode tables: done
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 1, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 1, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 0
Warning: could not erase block 0: Attempt to write block from filesystem resulted in short write
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 3, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 3, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 5, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 5, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 4
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 7, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 7, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 6
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 9, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 0, sector 9, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 8
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 2, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 2, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 10
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 4, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 4, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 12
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 6, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 6, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 14
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 8, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 0, head 1, sector 8, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 16
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 1, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 1, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 18
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 3, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 3, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 20
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 5, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 5, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 22
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 7, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 7, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 24
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 9, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 0, sector 9, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 26
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 2, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 2, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 28
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 4, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 4, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 30
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 6, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 6, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 32
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 8, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 1, head 1, sector 8, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 34
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 1, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 1, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 36
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 3, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 3, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 38
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 5, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 5, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 40
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 7, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 7, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 42
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 9, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 0, sector 9, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 44
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 2, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 2, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 46
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 4, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 4, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 48
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 6, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 6, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 50
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 8, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 2, head 1, sector 8, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 52
floppy1: sector not found: track 3, head 0, sector 1, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 3, head 0, sector 1, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 54
floppy1: sector not found: track 3, head 0, sector 3, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 3, head 0, sector 3, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 56
floppy1: sector not found: track 3, head 0, sector 5, size 2
floppy1: sector not found: track 3, head 0, sector 5, size 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:15, sector 58
done
[root@localhost /root]# fdformat /dev/fd1h360
Double-sided, 40 tracks, 9 sec/track. Total capacity 360 kB.
Formatting ... done
Verifying ... done
[root@localhost /root]# mke2fs /dev/fd1h360
mke2fs 1.10, 24-Apr-97 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
Linux ext2 filesystem format
Filesystem label=
96 inodes, 360 blocks
18 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
1 block group
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
96 inodes per group
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
[root@localhost /root]#
-- cut --
RedHat 5.1, /dev/fd1 -- 5" floppy drive, more information available by request.
Why mke2fs works just fine after fdformat /dev/fd1h360 but not after
fdformat /dev/fd1h1200 ?
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