FD man page on Archlinux

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FD(4)			   Linux Programmer's Manual			 FD(4)

NAME
       fd - floppy disk device

CONFIGURATION
       Floppy  drives  are  block devices with major number 2.	Typically they
       are owned by root.floppy (i.e.,	user  root,  group  floppy)  and  have
       either  mode  0660  (access checking via group membership) or mode 0666
       (everybody has access).	The minor  numbers  encode  the	 device	 type,
       drive  number,  and  controller number.	For each device type (that is,
       combination of density and track count) there is a base	minor  number.
       To  this	 base number, add the drive's number on its controller and 128
       if the drive is on the secondary controller.  In the  following	device
       tables, n represents the drive number.

       Warning:	 If  you  use  formats with more tracks than supported by your
       drive, you may cause it mechanical damage.  Trying once if more	tracks
       than  the  usual	 40/80 are supported should not damage it, but no war‐
       ranty is given for that.	 If you are  not  sure,	 don't	create	device
       entries for those formats, so as to prevent their usage.

       Drive-independent  device  files	 which	automatically detect the media
       format and capacity:

       Name   Base minor #
       ────────────────────
       fdn    0

       5.25 inch double density device files:

       Name	    Capac.   Cyl.   Sect.   Heads   Base minor #
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       fdnd360	    360K     40	    9	    2	    4

       5.25 inch high density device files:

       Name	    Capac.   Cyl.   Sect.   Heads   Base minor #
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       fdnh360	    360K     40	    9	    2	    20
       fdnh410	    410K     41	    10	    2	    48
       fdnh420	    420K     42	    10	    2	    64
       fdnh720	    720K     80	    9	    2	    24
       fdnh880	    880K     80	    11	    2	    80
       fdnh1200	    1200K    80	    15	    2	    8
       fdnh1440	    1440K    80	    18	    2	    40
       fdnh1476	    1476K    82	    18	    2	    56
       fdnh1494	    1494K    83	    18	    2	    72
       fdnh1600	    1600K    80	    20	    2	    92
       3.5 inch double density device files:

       Name	    Capac.   Cyl.   Sect.   Heads   Base minor #
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       fdnD360	    360K     80	    9	    1	    12
       fdnD720	    720K     80	    9	    2	    16
       fdnD800	    800K     80	    10	    2	    120
       fdnD1040	    1040K    80	    13	    2	    84
       fdnD1120	    1120K    80	    14	    2	    88

       3.5 inch high density device files:

       Name	    Capac.   Cyl.   Sect.   Heads   Base minor #
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       fdnH360	    360K     40	    9	    2	    12
       fdnH720	    720K     80	    9	    2	    16
       fdnH820	    820K     82	    10	    2	    52
       fdnH830	    830K     83	    10	    2	    68
       fdnH1440	    1440K    80	    18	    2	    28
       fdnH1600	    1600K    80	    20	    2	    124
       fdnH1680	    1680K    80	    21	    2	    44
       fdnH1722	    1722K    82	    21	    2	    60
       fdnH1743	    1743K    83	    21	    2	    76
       fdnH1760	    1760K    80	    22	    2	    96
       fdnH1840	    1840K    80	    23	    2	    116
       fdnH1920	    1920K    80	    24	    2	    100

       3.5 inch extra density device files:

       Name	    Capac.   Cyl.   Sect.   Heads   Base minor #
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       fdnE2880	    2880K    80	    36	    2	    32
       fdnCompaQ    2880K    80	    36	    2	    36
       fdnE3200	    3200K    80	    40	    2	    104
       fdnE3520	    3520K    80	    44	    2	    108
       fdnE3840	    3840K    80	    48	    2	    112

DESCRIPTION
       fd special files access the floppy disk drives in raw mode.   The  fol‐
       lowing ioctl(2) calls are supported by fd devices:

       FDCLRPRM
	      clears  the  media  information  of a drive (geometry of disk in
	      drive).

       FDSETPRM
	      sets the media information of a drive.   The  media  information
	      will be lost when the media is changed.

       FDDEFPRM
	      sets  the	 media	information  of	 a  drive (geometry of disk in
	      drive).  The media information will not be lost when  the	 media
	      is changed.  This will disable autodetection.  In order to reen‐
	      able autodetection, you have to issue an FDCLRPRM.

       FDGETDRVTYP
	      returns the type of a drive (name parameter).  For formats which
	      work in several drive types, FDGETDRVTYP returns a name which is
	      appropriate for the oldest drive type which supports  this  for‐
	      mat.

       FDFLUSH
	      invalidates the buffer cache for the given drive.

       FDSETMAXERRS
	      sets  the	 error	thresholds  for reporting errors, aborting the
	      operation, recalibrating, resetting, and reading sector by  sec‐
	      tor.

       FDSETMAXERRS
	      gets the current error thresholds.

       FDGETDRVTYP
	      gets the internal name of the drive.

       FDWERRORCLR
	      clears the write error statistics.

       FDWERRORGET
	      reads  the write error statistics.  These include the total num‐
	      ber of write errors, the location and disk of  the  first	 write
	      error, and the location and disk of the last write error.	 Disks
	      are identified by a generation number which  is  incremented  at
	      (almost) each disk change.

       FDTWADDLE
	      Switch  the  drive motor off for a few microseconds.  This might
	      be needed in order to access a disk whose sectors are too	 close
	      together.

       FDSETDRVPRM
	      sets various drive parameters.

       FDGETDRVPRM
	      reads these parameters back.

       FDGETDRVSTAT
	      gets  the	 cached	 drive state (disk changed, write protected et
	      al.)

       FDPOLLDRVSTAT
	      polls the drive and return its state.

       FDGETFDCSTAT
	      gets the floppy controller state.

       FDRESET
	      resets the floppy controller under certain conditions.

       FDRAWCMD
	      sends a raw command to the floppy controller.

       For  more  precise  information,	 consult  also	the  <linux/fd.h>  and
       <linux/fdreg.h>	include	 files, as well as the floppycontrol(1) manual
       page.

FILES
       /dev/fd*

NOTES
       The various formats permit reading and writing  many  types  of	disks.
       However,	 if a floppy is formatted with an inter-sector gap that is too
       small, performance may drop, to the point of needing a few  seconds  to
       access an entire track.	To prevent this, use interleaved formats.

       It  is  not  possible  to  read	floppies which are formatted using GCR
       (group code recording), which is used by Apple II and Macintosh comput‐
       ers (800k disks).

       Reading floppies which are hard sectored (one hole per sector, with the
       index hole being a little skewed) is not supported.  This  used	to  be
       common with older 8-inch floppies.

SEE ALSO
       chown(1),   floppycontrol(1),  getfdprm(1),  mknod(1),  superformat(1),
       mount(8), setfdprm(8)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.65 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux				  2010-08-29				 FD(4)
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