Comment 176 for bug 441835

Comment 156 & 171:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udev/+bug/441835/comments/156
works for me as a workaround. I edited the old gfloppy menu item (from an updated jaunty) to 'mount /dev/fd0' rather than the no longer existent gfloppy in karmic. However, this workaround doesn't resolve system-wide applications, for instance:

1. The replacement for gfloppy is now the GNOME Disk Utility, which doesn't recognize the floppy even when mounted via the above. See:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-utils/+bug/474938
[Gnome-Utils does not install gfloppy as described]
So it seems that the only way to format a floppy in karmic is to pull in all of the relevent kde lib's and use kfloppy instead of the new GNOME Disk Utility (gnome-disk-utility).

2. The above workaround doesn't resolve the issue of Places|Floppy (changes when you actually mount a floppy & thats another bug) not working unless the floppy is mounted as above. Perhaps that application can simply be modified to use 'mount /dev/fd0'?

3. Ironically, the package: grub-rescue-pc (1.97) promotes:
This package contains two GRUB rescue images that have been built for use with
traditional PC/BIOS architecture:

 - grub-rescue-floppy.img: floppy image.
 - grub-rescue-cdrom.iso: El Torito CDROM image.

  I reckon that package will have a difficult time creating a grub-rescue-floppy.img if karmic (and lucid) can't even comunicate with the floppy in order to create the image...

I've 8 systems that have floppies on my personal network & nearly 100 customers that have (and use) floppies on their Ubuntu systems (not to mention relatives, friends, etc). Failure to find a resolution for this issue affects those, and every system out there that have, and still use, floppies.

I'm happy to provide any additional testing info requested to assist.