Linux 5.17 Lands Fix For Hanging If Ejecting A Broken Floppy

If you are in the rare group of folks still relying upon floppy disks and doing so while running up-to-date software stacks, Linux 5.17 will be of interest to you.

Back in early December I wrote about the pending Linux fix where a hang could happen if trying to read a broken floppy and then ejecting it. For Linux 5.17 that niche bug is indeed addressed.

This fix is for an issue that came into the kernel all the way back in 2012 to the floppy code. If trying to read a broken floppy disk and ejecting it while the I/O is being attempted/retried, a hang could happen.

Last week along side all the exciting and modern I/O improvements like ongoing optimization work and making IO_uring even more attractive, the block driver changes include that ejection hang fix as well as some other mundane floppy code fixes.

Now how many people are still out there using floppy disks and relying upon up-to-date kernels and other modern software? At least most of the airliners and industrial systems still relying on floppies are doing so on software stacks from long ago...