Public bug reported: I have found that you cannot format a completely blank disk (one erased with a magnet) using Gfloppy or fdformat unless you use:
setfdprm -p /dev/fd0 1440/1440 and then format with Gfloppy. I am surprised that the floppy density selection in Gfloppy doesn't set these parameters for you. If I run the setfdprm -p /dev/fd0 1440/1440 command just before formatting in Gfloppy, everything works fine. In other words, Linux pukes on a floppy that does not already have a recognizable file system unless you run setfdprm just before the format. Gfloppy should set this the floppy parameters based on the density chosen. ** Affects: gnome-utils (Ubuntu) Importance: Untriaged Status: Unconfirmed -- Gfloppy will not successfully format a completely blank disk https://launchpad.net/bugs/50685 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs