this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024

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I got an (almost) internal Floppy Drive working on my Mint Desktop (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago by the16bitgamer to c/linux

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So why did I even want to do this? Because the front panel of my PC has a 3 1/2" drive hole and I wanted to populate it.

Fine, real reason is because I have a few legacy machine lying around and having a floppy drive accessible is nice to have.

How does it work? Well I have a Floppy to USB adapter inside my rig, and since my motherboard has an unused set of USB 2 headers, I just plugged it into that.

Otherwise, it was just plug and play... almost.

Why the drive works as Plug and Play, linux mint pokes the USB to see if it's still there, so I have a small script at boot that disables it for that internal header.

I am just socked that it works, and while it sucks that I need to be root to read the disks, I am just happy that the whole setup works at all.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago

@the16bitgamer theSecretOfLife.txt..wow!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

if TheSecretofLife.txt doesn't contain 42 I'm gonna be upset

[–] the16bitgamer 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The drive has been making noises since yesterday and it's still not loading. I'd say I'd get back to you, but I don't think it'll load.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

hello, I'm upset

that comupter is doing its best though so I don't blame it

[–] the16bitgamer 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

At it's current pace, it might take 7.5 million years

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Any chance you've made it self aware and it's realized the futility of its existence?

[–] the16bitgamer 1 points 10 hours ago

My desktop is now unplugged, I am too terrified to plug it back in. Send help

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

don't leave us hanging, what's in those .txts?

[–] the16bitgamer 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The world may never know :D

And totally not password123!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Tbh not the worst thing to use as a secondary backup cold wallet, so long as you’re careful where you store it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

how does Linux handle "real" floppy drives (via the ISA bus)?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Most real floppy drives are on their own port. They show up as /dev/fd0

[–] the16bitgamer 1 points 1 day ago

As I said above

I have a Floppy to USB adapter inside my rig, and since my motherboard has an unused set of USB 2 headers, I just plugged it into that.

So 1 adapter and 1 usb header, and it reads it as a USB Floppy, which I believe Linux has drivers for.

The device is shown as /dev/sdd (sda is 1TB SSD, sdb is hdd#1, and sdc is hdd#2)