xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/fdc.4 (revision 2e3f49888ec8851bafb22011533217487764fdb0)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Wilko Bulte
3.\" Copyright (c) 2001 Joerg Wunsch
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28.Dd October 10, 2023
29.Dt FDC 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm fdc
33.Nd "PC architecture floppy disk controller driver"
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd device fdc
36.Pp
37In
38.Pa /boot/device.hints :
39.Cd hint.fdc.0.at="isa"
40.Cd hint.fdc.0.port="0x3F0"
41.Cd hint.fdc.0.irq="6"
42.Cd hint.fdc.0.drq="2"
43.Cd hint.fdc.0.flags="0x0"
44.Cd hint.fd.0.at="fdc0"
45.Cd hint.fd.0.drive="0"
46.Cd hint.fd.0.flags="0x0"
47.Cd hint.fd.1.at="fdc0"
48.Cd hint.fd.1.drive="1"
49.Cd hint.fd.1.flags="0x0"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51.Ss Device Usage
52This driver provides access to floppy disk drives.
53Floppy disks using
54either FM (single-density) or MFM (double or high-density) recording
55can be handled.
56.Pp
57Floppy disk controllers can connect up to four drives each.
58The
59.Nm
60driver can currently handle up to two drives per controller (or four
61drives on ACPI).
62Upon
63driver initialization, an attempt is made to find out the type of the
64floppy controller in use.
65The known controller types are either the
66original NE765 or i8272 chips, or alternatively
67.Em enhanced
68controllers that are compatible with the NE72065 or i82077 chips.
69These enhanced controllers (among other enhancements) implement a FIFO
70for floppy data transfers that will automatically be enabled once an
71enhanced chip has been detected.
72This FIFO activation can be disabled
73using the per-controller flags value of
74.Ar 0x1 .
75.Pp
76By default, this driver creates a single device node
77.Pa /dev/fd Ns Ar N
78for each attached drive with number
79.Ar N .
80For historical reasons, device nodes that use a trailing UFS-style
81partition letter (ranging from
82.Sq a
83through
84.Sq h )
85can also be accessed, which will be implemented as symbolic links to
86the main device node.
87.Pp
88Accessing the main device node will attempt to autodetect the density
89of the available medium for multi-density devices.
90Thus it is
91possible to use either a 720 KB medium or a 1440 KB medium in a
92high-density 3.5 inch standard floppy drive.
93Normally, this
94autodetection will only happen once at the first call to
95.Xr open 2
96for the device after inserting the medium.
97This assumes the drive
98offers proper changeline support so media changes can be detected by
99the driver.
100To indicate a drive that does not have the changeline support,
101this can be overridden using the per-drive device flags value of
102.Ar 0x10
103(causing each call to
104.Xr open 2
105to perform the autodetection).
106.Pp
107When trying to use a floppy device with special-density media, other
108device nodes can be created, of the form
109.Pa /dev/fd Ns Ar N . Ns Ar MMMM ,
110where
111.Ar N
112is the drive number, and
113.Ar MMMM
114is a number between one and four digits describing the device density.
115Up to 15 additional subdevices per drive can be created that way.
116The
117administrator is free to decide on a policy how to assign these
118numbers.
119The two common policies are to either implement subdevices
120numbered 1 through 15, or to use a number that describes the medium
121density in kilobytes.
122Initially, each of those devices will be
123configured to the maximal density that is possible for the drive type
124(like 1200 KB for 5.25 inch HD drives or 1440 KB for 3.5 inch HD
125drives).
126The desired density to be used on that subdevice needs to be
127configured using
128.Xr fdcontrol 8 .
129.Pp
130Drive types are configured using the lower four bits of the per-drive
131device flags.
132The following values can be specified:
133.Bl -tag -width 2n -offset indent
134.It Ar 1
1355.25 inch double-density device with 40 cylinders (360 KB native
136capacity)
137.It Ar 2
1385.25 inch high-density device with 80 cylinders (1200 KB native
139capacity)
140.It Ar 3
1413.5 inch double-density device with 80 cylinders (720 KB native
142capacity)
143.It Ar 4
1443.5 inch high-density device with 80 cylinders (1440 KB native
145capacity)
146.It Ar 5
1473.5 inch extra-density device with 80 cylinders (2880 KB native
148capacity, usage currently restricted to at most 1440 KB media)
149.It Ar 6
150Same as type 5, available for compatibility with some BIOSes
151.El
152.Pp
153On IA32 architectures, the drive type can be specified as 0 for the
154drives.
155In that case, the CMOS configuration memory will be
156consulted to obtain the value for that drive.
157The ACPI probe automatically determines these values via the _FDE and
158_FDI methods, but this can be overridden by specifying a drive type hint.
159.Pp
160Normally, each configured drive will be probed at initialization
161time, using a short seek sequence.
162This is intended to find out about
163drives that have been configured but are actually missing or
164otherwise not responding.
165(The ACPI probe method does not perform this seek.)
166In some environments (like laptops with
167detachable drives), it might be desirable to bypass this drive probe,
168and pretend a drive to be there so the driver autoconfiguration will
169work even if the drive is currently not present.
170For that purpose, a
171per-drive device flags value of
172.Ar 0x20
173needs to be specified.
174.Ss Programming Interface
175In addition to the normal read and write functionality, the
176.Nm
177driver offers a number of configurable options using
178.Xr ioctl 2 .
179In order to access any of this functionality, programmers need to
180include the header file
181.In sys/fdcio.h
182into their programs.
183The call to
184.Xr open 2
185can be performed in two possible ways.
186When opening the device
187without the
188.Dv O_NONBLOCK
189flag set, the device is opened in a normal way, which would cause the
190main device nodes to perform automatic media density selection, and which
191will yield a file descriptor that is fully available for any I/O operation
192or any of the following
193.Xr ioctl 2
194commands.
195.Pp
196When opening the device with
197.Dv O_NONBLOCK
198set, automatic media density selection will be bypassed, and the device
199remains in a half-opened state.
200No actual I/O operations are possible, but
201many of the
202.Xr ioctl 2
203commands described below can be performed.
204This mode is intended for
205access to the device without the requirement to have an accessible
206media present, like for status inquiries to the drive, or in order to
207format a medium.
208.Dv O_NONBLOCK
209needs to be cleared before I/O operations are possible on the descriptor,
210which requires a prior specification of the density using the
211.Dv FD_STYPE
212command (see below).
213Operations that are not allowed on the half-opened
214descriptor will cause an error value of
215.Er EAGAIN .
216.Pp
217The following
218.Xr ioctl 2
219commands are currently available:
220.Bl -tag -width ".Dv FD_READID"
221.It Dv FD_FORM
222Used to format a floppy disk medium.
223Third argument is a pointer to a
224.Vt "struct fd_formb"
225specifying which track to format, and which parameters to fill into
226the ID fields of the floppy disk medium.
227.It Dv FD_GTYPE
228Returns the current density definition record for the selected device.
229Third argument is a pointer to
230.Vt "struct fd_type" .
231.It Dv FD_STYPE
232Adjusts the density definition of the selected device.
233Third argument
234is a pointer to
235.Vt "struct fd_type" .
236For the fixed-density subdevices (1 through 15 per drive), this
237operation is restricted to a process with superuser privileges.
238For
239the auto-selecting subdevice 0, the operation is temporarily allowed
240to any process, but this setting will be lost again upon the next
241autoselection.
242This can be used when formatting a new medium (which
243will require to open the device using
244.Dv O_NONBLOCK ,
245and thus to later adjust the density using
246.Dv FD_STYPE ) .
247.It Dv FD_GOPTS
248Obtain the current drive options.
249Third argument is a pointer to
250.Vt int ,
251containing a bitwise union of the following possible flag values:
252.Bl -tag -width ".Dv FDOPT_NOERRLOG"
253.It Dv FDOPT_NORETRY
254Do not automatically retry operations upon failure.
255.It Dv FDOPT_NOERRLOG
256Do not cause
257.Dq "hard error"
258kernel logs for failed I/O operations.
259.It Dv FDOPT_NOERROR
260Do not indicate I/O errors when returning from
261.Xr read 2
262or
263.Xr write 2
264system calls.
265The caller is assumed to use
266.Dv FD_GSTAT
267calls in order to inquire about the success of each operation.
268This
269is intended to allow even erroneous data from bad blocks to be
270retrieved using normal I/O operations.
271.It Dv FDOPT_AUTOSEL
272Device performs automatic density selection.
273Unlike the above flags,
274this one is read-only.
275.El
276.It Dv FD_SOPTS
277Set device options, see above for their meaning.
278Third argument is a
279pointer to
280.Vt int .
281Drive options will always be cleared when closing the descriptor.
282.It Dv FD_CLRERR
283Clear the internal low-level error counter.
284Normally, controller-level
285I/O errors are only logged up to
286.Dv FDC_ERRMAX
287errors (currently defined to 100).
288This command resets the counter.
289Requires superuser privileges.
290.It Dv FD_READID
291Read one sector ID field from the floppy disk medium.
292Third argument is
293a pointer to
294.Vt "struct fdc_readid" ,
295where the read data will be returned.
296Can be used to analyze a floppy
297disk medium.
298.It Dv FD_GSTAT
299Return the recent floppy disk controller status, if available.
300Third
301argument is a pointer to
302.Vt "struct fdc_status" ,
303where the status registers (ST0, ST1, ST2, C, H, R, and N) are being
304returned.
305.Er EINVAL
306will be caused if no recent status is available.
307.It Dv FD_GDTYPE
308Returns the floppy disk drive type.
309Third argument is a pointer to
310.Vt "enum fd_drivetype" .
311This type is the same as being used in the per-drive configuration
312flags, or in the CMOS configuration data or ACPI namespace on IA32 systems.
313.El
314.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
315.Bl -tag -width "debug.fdc.debugflags"
316.It Dv debug.fdc.debugflags
317Selectively enable debugging by setting one or more flags.
318.Bl -tag -width "0x40"
319.It Dv 0x01
320Dump device registers on reset.
321.It Dv 0x02
322When an IO operation completes, print the number of retries
323when that number is greater than zero.
324.It Dv 0x04
325Print when the number of retries exceeds
326.Dv debug.fdc.retries
327.Pq Dv EIO .
328Print when the option
329.Dv FDOPT_NOERROR
330is set and an error would have returned from a write operation.
331.It Dv 0x08
332Print detailed IO command information.
333.It Dv 0x10
334Print status registers.
335.It Dv 0x20
336Print detailed status registers when interrupts complete.
337Print the source code line number close to the source of a
338non-zero return from a thread worker operation.
339.It Dv 0x40
340Print when the disk appears to be lost.
341Print cylinder, head, sector, and sector shift information
342after a request to read an ID field.
343Notify whether a disk probe resulted in finding a disk.
344When detecting the density of media present, indicate whether
345the autosensing was successful, and if so, the size of the
346medium in kilobytes.
347Print detailed type information when setting the drive type.
348.It Dv 0x80
349Print when an unknown IOCTL is used.
350.El
351.It Dv debug.fdc.fifo
352For enhanced controllers, allows a non-default FIFO
353threshold setting. The default is 8 bytes.
354.It Dv debug.fdc.retries
355Maximum number of retries to attempt. The default is 10.
356.It Dv debug.fdc.spec1
357Specification byte one (step-rate + head unload).
358The default step rate is 6 ms. The default head unload
359time is 240 ms.
360.It Dv debug.fdc.spec2
361Specification byte two (head load time + no-dma).
362The default head load time is 16 ms, and no-dma is 0
363.Pq disabled .
364.It Dv debug.fdc.settle
365Head settling time in
366.Sy settle
367/ hz seconds. The default value is set during device attach.
368.El
369.Sh FILES
370.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /dev/fd*" -compact
371.It Pa /dev/fd*
372floppy disk device nodes
373.El
374.Sh SEE ALSO
375.Xr fdread 1 ,
376.Xr fdwrite 1 ,
377.Xr ioctl 2 ,
378.Xr open 2 ,
379.Xr read 2 ,
380.Xr write 2 ,
381.Xr fdcontrol 8 ,
382.Xr fdformat 8
383.Sh AUTHORS
384.An -nosplit
385This man page was initially written by
386.An Wilko Bulte ,
387and later vastly rewritten by
388.An J\(:org Wunsch .
389