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Subjectfloppy problem & Award BIOS floppy swap -Reply
I tried the same thing and found even stranger results:
-- Linux followed the hardware A/B (my 3.5" A: was /dev/fd1)
-- Windows95 formatted my 3.5" floppies (format a:) as 1.2MB

My guess on the matter is that the drive swap is done in the BIOS code. I
assume that Linux talks with the floppy controller directly (like any good
OS should) and sees the hardware as it really is; Windows95 would sem to
talk to the controller directly to find out what type of drive it is working
with, then uses the BIOS to do the formatting.

>>> Ulrich Windl <Ulrich.Windl@rz.uni-regensburg.de> 04/16/96 03:04am >>>
Introduction:

Recently I decided to add my 5.25" floppy drive to my new computer (Asus board
with Triton chipset). I wanted the 5.25" drive to be the second drive, but
unfortunately the connector plugged into A: was the conector on the far end of
the cable, and in the middle was the connector(s) for drive B:. As I needed to
have B: on the far end of the cable, I thought swapping the connectors AND
changing the drive select would be a good idea. Unfortunately this ended up in
a strange situaltion, where the light on drive A: went on simultaneously with
the motor of drive B: and for the light of drive B: the motot of A: went on. So
I undid the changes...

Now the Asus BIOS is basically an Award BIOS that allows to swap floppy drives.
As it seems this feature is not supported by hardware, but is done in software.
It works fine for DOS, but for Linux the drive parameters seem swapped, and
probably due to that I can't successfully access any drive. Now, is there any
possibility for the floppy driver to work without the BIOS parameters, or is
there a way to find out if drives are swapped in Award BIOS?

To really solve my problem, it seems I need a different cable...

Ulrich





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