ufiformat.man

.\"
.\"
.\"
.TH ufiformat 8
.SH NAME
.ad l
.hy 0
.nf
ufiformat \- Format a USB floppy disk.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ufiformat
[ \fB\-hiqvV\fP ]
[ \fB\-f\fR|\fB\-\-format\fP [\fIsize\fP\|]]
[
.I devicepath
]
.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-f\fP, \fB\-\-format\fP [\fIsize\fP\|]
Specify format capacity SIZE in KB.
Without \fB\-f\fP option, the format of the current media will be used.
.TP
.BR \-V , \ \-\-verify
Verify the medium after formatting. Only meaningful without \fB\-i\fP option.
.TP
.BR \-F , \ \-\-force
Do not perform any safety checks.
.TP
.BR \-i , \ \-\-inquire
Show device information, instead of performing format.
Without \fIdevicepath\fP argument, list all USB floppy disk devices
attached to the system.
.TP
.BR \-v , \ \-\-verbose
Be verbose.
.TP
.BR \-q , \ \-\-quiet
Suppress minor diagnostics.
.TP
.BR \-h , \ \-\-help
Show help message.
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B ufiformat
is a raw level formatting disk utility for USB floppy devices.
.PP
Raw level format is to write gap,index,sectors to the unformatted disk
using special commands specific to the disk controller,
to make the plain magneto-sensitive film into sector-addressable medium.
Note that raw level format is \fBNOT\fP about creating filesystems
(\fIfs\fP(5))
on the disk.
.PP
After mid-1990's, floppy disks are sold generally pre-formatted in
MS-DOS 2HD format:
80 cylinder, 2 heads, 18 sectors/track, 512 bytes/sector;
it is seldom in need for raw formatting.
Nevertheless raw formatting could cure some disk and drive mismatchings.
.PP
.I WARNING:
You will \fBNOT\fP raw format an LS-120 disks or (removable) hard disks;
they are precision formatted in factory and cannot be raw reformatted.
.PP
.B ufiformat
supports only the following format capacities:
.RS
   1440/1232/1200 (for 2HD disk)
   720/640        (for 2DD disk)
.RE
The device should support the capacities also,
otherwise \fBufiformat\fP shows an error message.

The above format capacities are predefined in the program, but
each USB floppy device also has a limited set of formats (defined internally)
that it can format media to.  The allowed format capacities are obtained by
querying
.RB ( \-i )
the device, but this only returns the total format capacity
and not CHS (cylinder, heads and sectors), hence a mapping is
required in the program.

.\"Currently it is known to work under the following environment.
.\"  * Plamo Linux 4.0.2(kernel 2.6) + YE-DATA USB-FDU(OEM)
.\"  * Plamo Linux 4.0.2(kernel 2.4) + YE-DATA USB-FDU(OEM)
.\"  * SuSE-10 + TEAC FD-05PUB(OEM)
.\"  * Linux Zaurus SL-C700(kernel 2.4) + REX-CFU1 + YE-DATA USB-FDU
.\"    (some kernel modules and recent libext2 are needed)
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
Inquiry the device for available format:
.nf
# modprobe sg
# ufiformat \-i /dev/sda
vendor:  Y\-E DATA
product: USB-FDU
write protect: off
media type: 2HD
status      block size   kb
formatted    2880  512 1440
formattable  2880  512 1440
formattable  1232 1024 1232
formattable  2400  512 1200
.fi
.TP
Format the floppy disk in 1.44MB, and create a FAT filesystem:
.nf
# ufiformat \-f 1440 /dev/sda
# mkdosfs \-I /dev/sda
.fi
.
.SH PREREQUISTES
.B ufiformat
needs
.BR /dev/sg *
SCSI pass-thru device to operate.
If the device does not exist, add the driver by invoking
\fBmodprobe sg\fP.
.PP
You often need to be root to do anything with \fB/dev/sd\fP*.
.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR fdformat (8),
.IR floppy (8),
.IR sg (4)
.PP
"Universal Serial Bus Mass Storage Class - UFI Command Specification"
Revision 1.0 December 14 1998
.br
https://www.usb.org/document-library/mass-storage-ufi-command-specification-10