Libretto Floppy driver
A driver for Y-E Data Incorporated PC-Card Floppy Drive
David Bateman
Christian Gennerat
Version 2.03
INTRODUCTION
This driver is for use with the Y-E Data Incorporated FlashBuster
PC-Card floppy drive. These are commonly found on the Toshiba Librettos
and are available as a separate product (at least in Japan).
This driver was written by David
Bateman on his Libretto 50, so the only machine he'll vouch for it
working on is his own. However it should work without difficulty on any
of the Libretto machines. This code was developed on a linux 2.0.34
kernel, and later ported to a 2.1.122 kernel.
It has been upgraded for 2.2 and 2.4 kernels by Christian Gennerat.
For most floppy disk controllers (FDC's) data is sent between the
CPU and the FDC using a DMA channel. However the PCMCIA 2.0/2.1
standard doesn't support DMA transfers, and consequently data must be
written to the FlashBuster with programmed I/O (PIO). The linux kernels
floppy driver doesn't support PIO, and so this new method of
communicating with FDC's is added to the floppy driver.
Unfortunately, as it stands, the linux floppy driver assumes that
all FDC's will use the same means of communicating. Hence the fact that
the FlashBuster uses a different method of talking to the FDC limits
the floppy driver from supporting a FlashBuster and another FDC at the
same time. In addition supporting two FDC's is further complicated by
the issue of sharing the interrupt line (IRQ) between the two FDC's.
Working around these problems will require a significant level of
alteration to the floppy driver, which I might do
at a future date.
Other machines
Can be used on Fujitsu Point510 tablet
(Now with Mandrake 8.2)
Can be used on Sony VAIO GRX316G (Now with Debian 3.0)
ChangeLog
Rev 2.00 Date 2000/11/01 12:34:56 (Christian Gennerat)
Adapt patch and driver for kernel 2.4.0 with pcmcia code integrated
in kernel source.
Update installation procedure.
This version is not compatible with older kernel, versions 2.0,
2.1, 2.2.
Rev 2.01 Date 2001/01/11 12:34:56
(Christian Gennerat)
Adapt patch to the recent updates of the kernel.
Rev 2.02 Date 2001/09/25 12:34:56
(Christian Gennerat)
Adapt patch to the recent updates of the kernel (2.4.10)
Rev 2.03 Date 2001/11/25 12:34:56
(Christian Gennerat)
Adapt patch to the recent updates of the kernel (2.4.14)
Move 'pcmcia' parameter definition to floppy.h
Rev 2.04 Date 2001/11/25 12:34:56
(Christian Gennerat)
First version for 2.5 kernels
Rev 2.05 Date 2002/12/02 12:34:56
(Christian Gennerat)
Add GPL license and fix bugs for 2.4.19
Installation
Debian Woody
On debian Woody (3.0) with DEVFS active, you must create the device
before loading the module. This is done (in Debian) by the file:
> cat /etc/modutils/floppy
pre-install floppy /bin/mknod
/dev/fd0 b 2 0
post-remove floppy /bin/rm -f
/dev/fd0
But the aliases must be off, unless kernel attempts to load floppy
module every time it is started, even without floppy hardware.
> grep '/flop\|/fd' /etc/modutils/1devfsd
#alias
/dev/floppy floppy
#alias
/dev/fd* floppy
alias
/dev/floppy off
alias
/dev/fd* off
>
Theese files are used by /sbin/update-modules to make the
/etc/modules.conf