I would think 'fdformat' would work, but...
[ 1063553.609981] umass1 at uhub2 port 3 configuration 1 interface 0
[ 1063553.612982] umass1: TEACV0.0 (0x0644) TEACV0.0 (0x0000), rev 1.10/2.00, addr 3
[ 1063553.620984] umass1: using UFI over CBI with CCI
[ 1063553.621985] atapibus0 at umass1: 2 targets
[ 1063553.692011] sd1 at atapibus0 drive 0: <TEAC, USB UF000x, 0.00> disk removable
[ 1063554.506165] sd1: 1440 KB, 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 2880 sectors
# disklabel sd1
# /dev/rsd1:
type: ATAPI
disk: USB UF000x
label: default label
flags: removable
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 18
tracks/cylinder: 2
sectors/cylinder: 36
cylinders: 80
total sectors: 2880
rpm: 10240
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0 # microseconds
drivedata: 0
3 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
a: 2880 0 4.2BSD 0 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 79)
c: 2880 0 unused 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 79)
disklabel: boot block size 0
disklabel: super block size 0
arm64# ./fdformat -f /dev/rsd1
fdformat: Device `/dev/rsd1' does not support floppy formatting: Inappropriate ioctl for device
arm64# ./fdformat -f /dev/rsd1a
fdformat: Device `/dev/rsd1a' does not support floppy formatting: Inappropriate ioctl for device
arm64# ./fdformat -f /dev/rsd1c
fdformat: Device `/dev/rsd1c' does not support floppy formatting: Inappropriate ioctl for device
arm64# ./fdformat -f /dev/rsd1e
fdformat: Cannot open /dev/rsd1e: Device not configured
NetBSD arm64 9.99.102 NetBSD 9.99.102 (MIKE64) #0: Wed Oct 26 22:54:20 UTC 2022 mac@arm64:/usr/obj/sys/arch/evbarm/compile/MIKE64 evbarm (same as GENERIC64 but HZ=1000)
mtools expects there to be a low-level format available from the OS.
Thanks for any pointers here!
The other thing is: if I format on a different machine, when reading / writing and some floppy HW error occurs, pretty much, the only way to 'clear' the error is to unplug the USB connector & plug it back in. The machine more or less 'hangs' if, e.g., a sector has gone bad.
I know these questions are from a different era of computing, but, gosh, I do really like the backward compatibility of NetBSD.
Thanks again,
-Mike