Installing Lenny and /dev/fd0 not created!

[darreng]

I just installed from the Lenny xfce-lxde CD onto an old system (PII, 256 MB RAM, S3 video card).

Of course it did not give me a working X configuration (ran the configurator but xorf.conf is essentially empty). Now, I previously had a working Vector 5.9 Lite install on there, and I had copied the xorg.conf onto floppy (should have used USB stick...) because I assumed debian would not configure X properly.

BUT

I can't copy the working xorg.conf onto the new machine because /dev/fd0 does not exist.

I could copy from floppy onto USB using a different machine then mount the USB, but I still would not have a working floppy drive, which (a) I want and (b) I ought to have on pinciple.

I have tried to find advice on this, but I can't. I'm not an expert by any standards.

Help?

Darren

[dede]

Search for dbus and dbus-x11 and reboot. On Xfce installing these packages will give you the floppy drive and the trash can empty/full on desktop.

Note that I've already had Thunar, hal and not sure if gamin or pam. Maybe someone can inform with more details.

[darreng]

Thanks for your help. I'll try to give it a try.

I take it if I install those packages and then I'll be able to mount the floppy drive?

I'm not so worried about what's on the desktop, as being able to mount a floppy drive.

Will dbus cause /dev/fd0 and a mount point (presumably /media/floppy or something) to be created? I guess I'll give it a go and see.

I have no idea what thunar, gamin or pam is.

Thanks!

Darren

Search for dbus and dbus-x11 and reboot. On Xfce installing these packages will give you the floppy drive and the trash can empty/full on desktop.

Note that I've already had Thunar, hal and not sure if gamin or pam. Maybe someone can inform with more details.

[dede]

The command to mount a floppy drive is (as root):

Code: Select all

mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0

Thunar is the default file manager of Xfce. Gamin and pam, in short, detect changes on files and directories like trash, cdrom, floppy, modified files etc and send these messages to the system, is one or another on a system, not both.

Did you install the Desktop Environment or only the Standard System? The DE has Lxde or Xfce to be chosen on GDM login and GDM requires Xorg, so it is installed, maybe not perfectly.

If only the Standard System, you have terminal/console login, not xorg and then you build your system the way you want.

[gnudude]

....Gamin and pam, in short, detect changes on files and directories ...

uh that would be fam not pam....not that either has anything to do with a floppy device anway...

[darreng]

Hi

Thanks for your advice. Perhaps I am missing something or I did not explain properly.

As far as default file manager in Xfce is concerned, that is a problem for tomorrow. For now I need to get the floppy to work to then copy across a working xorg.conf (because debian failed to adequately configure X, so I need to use a working one from a previous install of Vector linux).

What happened was this:

(1) I asked for a xfce install which went fine, although I had to use the ncurses-style installer.
(2) When I rebooted it gave me a black screen, because Debian utterly failed to configure xorg.
(3) So then I hit <Ctrl><Alt>F1 and logged in on a text termilnal. That worked OK.
(4) I had copied the xorg.conf from the previously installed o/s (Vector Linux) because I knew Debian would (probably) not work.
(5) So I logged in as root and typed cd /etc/X11
(6) Then I types mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 (because I then wanted to copy the xorg.conf off the floppy)
(7) Then Debian told me that /dev/fd0 does not exist.
(8) I typed ls /dev/fd* and sure enough /dev/fd0 does not exist.

Does /dev/fd0 get created 'on the fly' in Lenny or should be be there by default?
I have installed a few systems, but never had this problem before. I should add that Debian 3.1 and Vector linux 5.9 all mounted the floppy no worries, so it is not a hardware issue.

Do i maybe just need to try to install again and maybe it will just 'work'?

Any help appreciated

Darren

The command to mount a floppy drive is (as root):

Code: Select all

mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0

Thunar is the default file manager of Xfce. Gamin and pam, in short, detect changes on files and directories like trash, cdrom, floppy, modified files etc and send these messages to the system, is one or another on a system, not both.

Did you install the Desktop Environment or only the Standard System? The DE has Lxde or Xfce to be chosen on GDM login and GDM requires Xorg, so it is installed, maybe not perfectly.

If only the Standard System, you have terminal/console login, not xorg and then you build your system the way you want.

[dede]

The floppy drive should be there by default, accessible at least via command line. When booting you should see/hear the activity of the system scanning for devices.

If you include the floppy on modules there is a chance to be loaded.

Login, be root and:

Code: Select all

nano /etc/modules

Your file will be like this one:

Code: Select all

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
# Parameters can be specified after the module name.

floppy

Then save (Ctrl o) and exit (Crtl x)
Reboot.
Other than this I don't know.
Puppy 2.14 will run on your computer and a lightweight KDE distro is also possible.

[darreng]

Thanks.

So it sounds like a buggy installer then, which seems odd in Debian but it seems to be the case.

Thanks for all your advice. I'll try explicitly loading the floppy module (it was not in the list) and if that does not work I might try reinstalling. And if that does not work, maybe a different distribution (I'd like to get Debian to work because that is what I use at work).

Cheerio

Darren

[ramack]

Thank you!!! I hadn't tried my floppy since I installed Squeeze earlier this year (on my former W2k box). Yesterday I needed my floppy, but couldn't get it to work. After searching for some time, I found this post and just added floppy in /etc/modules and that took care of the problem.

Rich