[K12OSN] Selective floppy access ???

[Rita Gibson]

norbert wrote:

> rgibson57 at earthlink.net wrote:
>
>> norbert wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> We're starting to encounter a problem with the floppyd function.
>>> Recently, without there being any changes to the system cedrtain
>>> thin-client cannot access the local floppy drive. Message is permission
>>> denied, but when I check both the lts.conf and the workstation
>>> permissions these are no different from the other workstation that can
>>> access the local floppy....... any suggestions
>>> K12LTSP V4.0.1
>>> Server P-IV 2.8GHz, 2GB, 2x 80GB SATA HD
>>> Workstations - Compaq P-I mix of 5175 to 5166
>>> NIC 3-Com 905
>>>
>>> and no its not a certain box but a mix of ws's..... ?
>>>
>>> thks
>>> norbert
>>>
>> I had what sounds like a similar problem last week. I spent a couple 
>> of hours trying to track down the problem. Freaking out thinking 
>> something was wrong building-wide. I finally decided it was bad 
>> floppies. The floppies in question wouldn't work in the server, or 
>> any Windows machines either. I formatted on the teachers windows 
>> machine a blank floppy and went to the thin clients that seemed to be 
>> having problems (with the two previous floppies). The new formatted 
>> floppy worked fine, copied back and forth, logged into the next 
>> machine, copied back and forth. Then, later the lab teacher told me 
>> that when a student brings in a bad floppy and has access problems, 
>> and she gets the permission denied message, she finds she must reboot 
>> the thin client for any floppy to work. (?)
>>
>> I chalked it off to the fact that in my experience about a third of 
>> any given box of floppies is bad right off the shelf. I always format 
>> a floppy before I use it, but most people may not do that.We have one 
>> linux workstation in the lab with USB ports in the front panel and 
>> the kids can log into that machine with a USB key and copy their 
>> stuff to their homes. We purchased some USB keys (watch for sales and 
>> rebates) and check them out like library books for kids who can't 
>> email their work to themselves because they don't have internet 
>> access, or if they are working on something big. The USB keys seem to 
>> be much more reliable than floppies. (We don't have any clients with 
>> USB ports, so I went and bought a newer case so the ports would be on 
>> the front with easy access just for the kids.)
>>
>> Rita Gibson
>> RMSEL Tech
>>
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>
>
> Hi Rita,
>
> Thank you for the response, I did consider bad floppies, but 
> discounted that when those same floppies were read without problems on 
> other clients. Further to eliminate the possibility that the drives 
> are we tested with new drives and the same problem appeared. The 
> strangest is that most of the WS use a boot floppy.
> I agree using USB would be great but the school doesn't have budgets 
> to swap them out ...
>
> thanks
> norbert
>
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>
Did you try rebooting the client to see if the floppies worked then? 
Also, have you cleaned the floppy drives lately?

Rita