Bug 192631 – gnome-extra/gnome-utils - floppy services have downgraded: no format, nor write from root

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO

[Description Denis de La Fortelle 2007-09-15 22:19:21 UTC]

from latest emerge  -upvDN world, unable to format or write to a floppy;
quite troublesome when you want to upgrade your BIOS from a Freedos floppy;
was not the case a few days ago.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.boot
2.try to copy a a6119v13.exe to /dev/floppy/fd0 or the floppy icon on gnome desktop
3.fail: unauthorised writing to /media/floppy (strange from root account with R/W permissions as stated in /media/floppy properties?)
N. no format menu entry appears, a diff with previous state.

Actual Results:  
no write (DnD, cp)
no format

Expected Results:  
write to floppy
format floppy

mtools, dosfstools emerged.
maybe floppy is dead in the not so far future, but lots of actual machines may accept BIOS upgrades only from floppy, or CDROM + floppy, or floppy + CDROM + floppy (ask some out of business PC, MB, or BIOS provider...)

[Comment 1 Gilles Dartiguelongue (RETIRED) 2008-06-02 22:15:31 UTC]

I've just tried to format a floppy and it works also you have to set g+w if you are in the floppy group, maybe the udev maintainers should be warned about this problem.

Concerning mounting from computer:/// I wasn't able to do so but I believe this is a hal or gnome-2.22 problem.

Could you come back to us with precisions on what works and what doesn't in the two present cases ?

[Comment 2 Gilles Dartiguelongue (RETIRED) 2008-07-14 20:06:10 UTC]

please come back to us.