First post, by feipoa
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For users of Linux, how are you setting up your Gotek floppy emulator USB stick? From what I have gathered, there are a few ways to setup the Gotek, but none that target Linux from what I can tell. Please pardon all the questions, I am new to floppy emulators and spent quite a bit of time reading and watching videos, but still have questions galore.
1. It is possible to use the default Gotek firmware and not setup the USB stick with any fancy software. To do so, you insert the USB stick into the Gotek, hold both buttons down, and power the unit up. The Gotek will cycle through all the numbers on the front display then "format" your USB stick to be a 1.44 MB floppy disk. If you now remove that USB stick and put it into your Linux system, you can drag/drop individual files to the USB stick so much as that they do not exceed 1.39 MB total. Then put the USB stick back into the Gotek (mine is on a 486) and you can read those files on the A:/ or B:/ prompt in the root folder, or 000.
If you press the increment button on the Gotek, the system switches to another emulated floppy disk, which will be blank. This folder is now 001. From the 486's hard drive, you can move files to and from the 001 folder. However, when I remove the USB stick and put it back into the Linux system, Linux only sees the 000 folder. Is there a way to get Ubuntu 18.04 to see the 001 folder? Otherwise, I am limited to a single 1.44 MB folder on the Gotek. It seems like the Gotek needs to write "last state" information to the USB stick which sets your last folder as primary. But how do I tell it to do this?
Also, I have no idea if this method can be used to read and copy over floppy disk image files.
If I am indeed limited to a single floppy size of 1.44 MB using this method, is it possible to make it a 2.88 MB floppy instead?
2. Since the Gotek software for formatting proper floppy folders/images is in Mandarin, people have been using the software from IPCAS called USB Floppy Emulator v2. https://web.archive.org/web/20150219114822/ht … n-download.html Unfortunately, this software is for Windows! Is there something similar for Linux? It seems like when people use the IPCAS software, they are leaving the default Gotek firmware in place. I'm not sure if it will work with the HxC or FlashFloppy firmware, will it?
3. Use the HxC firmware. I watched some video on installing this. I thought the guy said something about needing to obtain a licence for this? Nonetheless, I got the impression that the HxC firmware is also wanting you to use floppy disk image files named in a certain way for it to work. I mostly want to use the Gotek for individual files and not mess with disk images. It seems that recently there was an "Image-less" mode supported by HxC. Does HxC provide some GUI software to get this up and running? Also, can this also work with imaged mode on the same USB stick? I've read that it can support 128 virtual floppy drives. When I install the USB stick in Ubuntu, will 128 drives pop up, or is there some software I can use to disable unused virtual drives?
4. Popular now seems to be the FlashFloppy firmware. It is still being updated and is free. Unfortunately, I was also under the impression that this firmware wants floppy images files for it to work properly.
5. Do any of the firmware work properly as a 2.88 MB floppy emulator? I have read about some experimental FlashFloppy releases that work as a 2.88 MB floppy emulator, but user reviews indicate it wasn't working well.
6. Is there any hack, either to the Gotek, MB BIOS, or both, which lets the Gotek work as a sort of general purpose USB stick of nearly limitless file sizes?
What do I want to do?
I want to use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as the system which moves files onto and off of the USB stick. Ideally this would be done through whatever file manager is installed, e.g. Nautalis, Caja, etc. I don't want to be required to create floppy disk images just to read some files off the Gotek, but if it is absolutely necessary, what Linux GUI software can do this correctly? Is there something like the IPCAS USB Floppy Emulator v2 software that works in native Linux WITHOUT needing to go through Wine? At some point, the effort to get things working exceeds the alternative, which is just to continue using old fashion floppies.
Is there any firmware which lets me create folders on the USB sticks, 000, 001, 002, 003, etc and stick files in those folders and have it work on the Gotek with the increment buttons? That is originally what I thought the Gotek would do out of the box. Method 1. above is the closest, but if I can only switch the increment when in Linux.
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.