He's a Complicated Man
Sometimes it's nice to know that even Linux computer gurus have problems that drive them nuts. Not that I enjoy their pain, but at least it shows that not everything is as easy as reading the How-To.
For instance, Jamie Zawinski (see the comments back and forth here) is trying to install something called Catweasel. This is a disk controller that apparently can read PC, Amiga, Atari, Mac, Commodore, and Nintendo (Nintendo?) diskettes.
But I guess the site correctly warns you that, at least for the ISA version, "The drivers are not designed to be easy-to-use. Instead, they are tools "for-freaks-only"."
Now, I don't know which version he is using but with that kind of there be dragons here warning, you shouldn't be surprised if you can't get it to work out-of-the-box. Still, if you've had any experience actually getting one of these things to work in Linux, give him a hand because he's a good guy and could use the help.