May depend on how Dell wired the floppy, maybe not. If it uses an atapi
driver thru the ide channel then when you swap, the cdrw needs the
ide-scsi emulation on the ide channel. No compatibility to be had there
and you have created a demand for a hot swap ide driver module. But it
could just be that the floppy module needs to be unloaded and then a new
module loaded for the cdrw. If the devices have modules that can be
unloaded, you could manage them yourself. Look in the kernel
configuration (/usr/src/linux then make xconfig) where the ide stuff is
located, I don't recall the page titles. If the floppy and ide-scsi
stuff has module options then you could compile a custom kernel and try
to unload the module for the floppy before you unplug it and then after
you plug in the cdrw you could load the module for the ide-scsi. Don't
know if this would work but it would be worth a shot. You will want to
learn about lsmod, insmod, modprobe, and kernel compilation. Have fun.
Tom Berkley
Jason Straight wrote:
>
> Is there anything I can do on my laptop to have the kernel remove and or
> reprobe devices?
>
> ie. I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 which I'm running Mandrake 7.2, this
> notebook has a removeable device which I share between the CDRW and the
> floppy drive. I boot with the CDRW in and I can hot swap to floppy fine
> and use the floppy drive. When I swap back the the CDRW my machine freezes.
