Re: Floppy handling

From: Anthony Barbachan (barbacha@Hinako.AMBusiness.com)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 03:40:44 EST


----- Original Message -----
From: "Helge Hafting" <helgehaf@idb.hist.no>
To: <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>; <barbacha@Hinako.AMBusiness.com>
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 4:21 AM
Subject: Re: Floppy handling

> > Used the well
> > know solution used in both DOS and Windows. Like the (Abort, retry,
fail)
> > or the Windows prompt screen. Both of which prompt the user to reinsert
the
> > floppy so that the read/write operations may continue or to abort/fail
the
> > pending operations.
>
> This won't work for a number of reasons:
>
> 1. The user may not sit at the console (he telnetted into the box)
> Granted, most users sit at the console when using floppies. But
> not necessarily. Having to walk over to the machine or
> disturbing the other user sitting there - no way.
>

1. This is for error recovery and so should happen rarely.
2. 99.99% of the time if you are accessing a floppy you will be on the
console.
3. 1+2 means your case 1 will be extremely rare.
4. If somebody removed the floppy while you were accessing it, it was
probably the guy sitting on the console so disturb him.
5. This is also why I said this should be an optional feature.

> 2. Some machines run without a console, no video card, no keyboard.
> They may still have a floppy for updates or boot purposes.
>

1. This is why it should be an OPTIONAL feature.
2. This is not intended for these rare cases.
3. Timeout could default to fail, the current behavior.

> That's why I say leave the light on when the system don't want
> the floppy removed, and don't care too much if they eject it
> with the light on. Try minimizing damage potential by syncing the
> floppy often (always before turning off the light)
>

1. What good does the light do to you if you are x miles away telneting into
the videoless, keyboardless, consoleless box.
2. I am not sure but I do not think the light is program configurable you
actually have to be accessing the disk to do this. Annoying ase it makes
noise and slows the system down though Linux doesn't slow down as much as
DOS/Windows.
3. It is a common error indicator to have a floppy light that doesn't go
out. Malfunctioning floppy, floppy cable reversed, floppy stuck, etc.
4. As for syncing if you do all writes to the floppy ASAP without disturbing
any filesystem mount/status flags etc there is not need to inplement a
syncing procedure. Plus the behavior follows that which users have become
acustom to.

> Better hardware (with locked eject) is nice, this is for those
> with plain pc floppies.
>

? So are all the ideas pitched so far.

> Helge Hafting
>

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 23 2000 - 21:00:11 EST