Re: Floppy disk access in Gnome.

[Sander Vesik <Sander Vesik Sun COM>]

On 28 Oct 2001, Rob Brown-Bayliss wrote:

> > For the love of the gods, no!  It *is* a kernel issue!  Even if you
> 
> Yeah Yeah, not every one is in the same time zone you know!!!
> 
> > > Just as I had a problem when I switched to windows with it's not knowing
> > > if there was a floppy in the drive (The amiga knew, great that was)
> > > 
> > 
> > Hmm, I'm curious as to what you mean; how does Windows not knowing there
> > is a floppy work?  Doesn't it always check every time you access it?
> 
> Windows handles floppys poorly as well.  If I save a word doc to a
> floppy, eject the floppy with out exiting word then the file on t he
> floppy is corupt.  Even though the disk spun and the lights were on etc,
> no body is home.  Try it, it sucks as much as the need to mount.
> unmount.
> 

Save a doc to floppy, remove floppy try to do something used to be a
lockup situation for a lot of combinations of word and windows. 

> Now, the amiga diod not use generic floppy drives such as those found in
> PC's.  The amiga floppy drive has extra hardware tat notifys the system
> when there is a disk inserted.  Put a disk in and it's mounted.  Make a
> change to the floppy and it's writen right then and there, not buffered
> so that if the disk is removed all is ok.
> 
> This is how it should be on any system (including windows and unix) as
> floppys can be removed at the push of a button.
> 

No, floppies should just have the same intelligence as cdroms where you
can tell it to not eject the floppy when mounted. This is vital for
correct floppy operation.

> So relax, it's a kernel issue as you say, but it's a user issue to which
> makes it a gnome and kde issue as well.  How are the kde people
> handeling it does any one know?
> 

There is only so much you can do to work-around the crappy hardware.

> -- 
> 
>   Rob Brown-Bayliss
>  ---======o======---

	Sander

"I don't think there is intelligent life within our solar system"
	-- Brian Behlendorf