other: 0.212
semantic: 0.163
device: 0.102
performance: 0.090
PID: 0.059
permissions: 0.055
graphic: 0.048
debug: 0.045
vnc: 0.044
network: 0.043
KVM: 0.039
socket: 0.036
boot: 0.033
files: 0.032
KVM: 0.321
debug: 0.136
device: 0.120
other: 0.078
semantic: 0.060
files: 0.053
boot: 0.046
PID: 0.041
network: 0.041
performance: 0.034
socket: 0.031
permissions: 0.014
graphic: 0.013
vnc: 0.013

Qemu fails on -fda /dev/fd0 when no medium is present

# qemu-system-x86_64 --version
QEMU emulator version 1.0 (qemu-kvm-1.0), Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard

# qemu-system-x86_64 -fda /dev/fd0
qemu-system-x86_64: -fda /dev/fd0: could not open disk image /dev/fd0: No such device or address

Starting with a medium (floppy disk) inserted, then removing or changing the medium works fine.

Is this still an issue with the latest version of QEMU (currently v2.10), or could we close this ticket nowadays?

Sorry, it has been more than five years and I don't have a system with a floppy disk to test anymore.

Best,
Herbert

Likely the bug as reported still exists, because this attempts to use the disk image, not the floppy drive as a whole. If there's no floppy inserted, there's no disk image to use. Later versions of QEMU even explicitly remove support for pass-through floppy disks.

Basically, what you want to do is to create a normal emulated floppy drive in QEMU, and then use the block device add commands to use the /dev/fd0 as a media which can then be virtually inserted into the virtual floppy device.

QEMU does not have support for doing pass-through of the floppy controller / drive itself presently. (Uh, unless you have a PCI floppy controller or something, but... you probably don't!)

We can close this bug as WONTFIX, essentially.