minix man page for fd

FD(4)							     Kernel Interfaces Manual							     FD(4)

NAME
       fd - floppy disk

DESCRIPTION
       The  fd*  devices  refer to the Floppy disk driver using the NEC PD765 floppy disk controller.  These diskettes are arrays of 512 byte sec-
       tors, although Minix always works with two sectors at a time due to its 1024 byte block size.  You can read or write any  number  of  bytes
       however, Minix takes care of cutting and pasting incomplete blocks together.

       The  driver is normally configured for two floppy disk devices fd0 and fd1.  It can handle two more, but it is unlikely that the average PC
       can.

       On the first access to an fd device (by open(2) or mount(2)), the driver will execute a series of read tests to determine the floppy  type.
       This works ok for all floppy types except the true 360k type, because it is indistinguishable from the 720k type.  This only means that the
       size of the floppy is not estimated right.

       Bits 2-6 of the minor device number may be set to the floppy disk type to make it known to the driver what type of diskette it  is  reading
       or writing.  The non-auto devices should be used for formatting, or when one wants to be absolutely sure that the device is accessed right.
       These devices exist for drive 0:

	   type   device   minor   media
	    0	   fd0	    0	   autodetect
	    1	   pc0	    4	   360k, 5.25"
	    2	   at0	    8	   1.2M, 5.25"
	    3	   qd0	    12	   360k in a 720k, 5.25" drive
	    4	   ps0	    16	   720k, 3.5"
	    5	   pat0     20	   360k in a 1.2M, 5.25" drive
	    6	   qh0	    24	   720k in a 1.2M, 5.25" drive
	    7	   PS0	    28	   1.44M, 3.5"

       Type 4 may also be used for the rarely seen 720k, 5.25" floppies (type 2 made them obsolete fast.)  Note that these "types"  only  describe
       the floppies from a software point of view, type 1 and 4 drives use the same parameters.

       If  the	format	bit (bit 7) is set, then the driver interprets write commands as track formatting requests.  This is used by the format(1)
       command.

       If the type bits are set to 28, 29, 30, or 31, then the driver uses a partition table found in sector 0 to partition the floppy.  The  par-
       titions of fd0 may be accessed as fd0a through fd0d.  See hd(4) for a description of the partition table, and associated ioctl commands.

FILES
       /dev/fd[0-3], /dev/pc[0-3], /dev/at[0-3], /dev/qd[0-3], /dev/ps[0-3], /dev/pat[0-3], /dev/qh[0-3], /dev/PS[0-3], /dev/fd[0-3][a-d]

SEE ALSO
       format(1), hd(4), part(8).

BUGS
       The driver does not know the size of a 360k diskette in a 360k 5.25" drive, because it uses the 720k parameters for it.	So it will happily
       try to read past the end making all kinds of interesting noises.  It's a good thing these drives are practically obsolete.

       The partition table is only read when the drive motor is off and only for an auto or partition device.  The driver assumes that a floppy in
       a drive with a running motor can't have been replaced all of a sudden.

AUTHOR
       Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)

																	     FD(4)