Switching A & B floppies works with dos, not linux

[bhorne at banet.net (Bill Horne)]

Thanks for reading this.

I just upgraded one of my boxes to a new motherboard, and
decided to revive
the old 486 DX2 as a file/print server.  In the process,
I've come across a confusing
anomaly.

In the box I'm using, there's just no way to put the 3.5"
floppy on the 'A' end of the cable.
So, I put the 5.25" drive on the 'A' end, and the 3.5" drive
on the middle ('B') connector.
I then used the BIOS "Invert floppy" option to make the 3.5"
drive the "A" unit.
This works fine for windos.

However, Linux exhibeted strang behavior:  when I boot with
a Linux disk, and
then try to use the "rescue" option, Linux tries to load the
"rescue" disk from the
5.25" drive, even though the Linux disk booted OK from the
3.5" drive.
Clearly, Linux doesn't recognize the BIOS switch that flips
the drives for Dos.

Is there a way to cure this?  Failing that, how can I make a
compressed file
system on a 5.25" disk that will serve if I need a rescue
load?

TIA.

Bill Horne

--
Bill Horne
(remove ".nouce" from username for direct reply.  Sorry.)


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