Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

1.  Floppy disks to which we copied files on our Compaq (with hdparm
needed to avoid reset messages) don't usually work in other linux 
computers and vice versa.  They need to be 100% perfect and even then they 
don't always work.  We found this computer at the curb with the floppy 
drive and cage removed, and we replaced them, but perhaps the controller 
not the drive was/is bad?  

The fix - use 720K floppy disks, which Basiclinux recognizes though Redhat 
did not.  Thanks, Steven, for supporting our obsolete floppy disks.

Do the 720K disks allow for more error in reading/writing?

2.  The computer came, to our surprise, with a CD-R.  Turns out it will 
read and write software but not play music.  Also turns out that when you 
try to mount it as hdc or hdb it won't mount even though the light goes on 
briefly.  We added a second CD-ROM drive which also won't mount in linux. 
(Works in Win98).  

The fix - try to first mount hdb (does not exist) and THEN you can mount c 
or d.

Anyone have an explanation of why this works?

Since we did install linux to this computer from CD-ROM, we probably had
the CD-ROM drive as hdb for a while, then redid it when adding the second
drive.  Or else the controller problem got worse since we have been using
it.  I sort of recall sometimes having to try a few times to mount the 
CD-ROM drive.  

I needed to install a couple of packages from CD (xprog and perl) and copy 
some files from floppy disk in order to compile them here.