ftape
ftape
You can get ftape
from many ftp sites in the world. The two main
sites are:
ftp://ftp.mcc.ac.uk/pub/linux/misc/ftape/
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes/
sunsite
is the official place to look for ftape
.
Dr. Owen LeBlanc has been kind enough to provide me with access to
Manchester's public ftp server, so I can drop ftape code directly into the
.../ftape
directory.
Due to my job and email change, the ftp area I have on
www.pip.dknet.dk
will go away my June 1st, 1996. I will not upload
new versions to pip
anymore for that reason.
I will eventually include an installation guide in this section. For the
moment being, you'll have to do with the document that is included in the
ftape
distribution.
ftape
There are three source distributions that you must have to get ftape
running:
ftape
v2.08modules
v1.3.57 or laterEven if you have a v1.2 kernel, you should use the modules-1.3.57 package, not the modules-1.2.8 package (Bjørn Ekwall, maintainer of the modules package, encourages this).
modules
utilitiesThe modules packages can be found on tsx-11.mit.edu
and
sunsite.unc.edu
. You must compile and install it before you compile
the kernel.
modules-1.3.57
?As of kernel version 1.3.57, ``kernel daemon'' (kerneld) support is included
in the standard kernel. kerneld
can automatically insert and remove
the neccessary modules to your kernel, at runtime. To be able to utilize
this, you must have the modules-1.3.57
package, which contains the
kerneld
daemon.
WARNING! If you use ftape
's non-rewinding devices
(/dev/nrft[0-3]
) you should never ever use kerneld
to automatically insert/remove ftape
. Failing to observe this may
cause you to loose the data on the tape.
modules
utilitlesExtract the files somewhere convienient. Then, go into the
modules-1.3.57
(or -1.3.69
) directory and say make all;
make install
. Remember that you must be root
to be able to
install the files and man pages.
If you wish to enable certain users (e.g. yourself, as non-root) to
insert/remove modules without having to log in as root, you can create a new
group (I call it trust
), change the group of insmod
to
trust
and the permisions to 4710
(i.e: suid root, the group
have execute rights, but `other' have no rights). This is, ofcourse, a
security, since any user who is member of the trust
group will be
able to insert anything into the kernel and by careful coding give herself
root
rights (you have been warned). However, if you do trust the
peploe in the trust
group, this is a convenience. I have just myself
in the trust
group, and uses this trick because I prefer working as a
normal user, but need to insert/remove the ftape.o
module while
working on it.
Since Linux version 1.2 has been out for some time I assume that everyone has
switched over to it (or v1.3.x for that matter). If you have not already
switched over, I assume you have a very good reason for not doing so, and that
you can cope with the differences in installation etc, that it will make for
you. If you wish to know what version the latest kernel is, simply try
finger @linux.cs.helsinki.fi
.
The kernel can be fetched from a large number of sites all over the world, including these:
sunsite.unc.edu [152.2.22.81]: /pub/Linux/kernel/tapes/
tsx-11.mit.edu [18.172.1.2]: /pub/linux/sources/system/
ftp.funet.fi [128.214.248.6]: /pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/
ftp.cs.helsinki.fi [128.214.48.123]: /pub/Software/Linux/Kernel/
You will find a number of subdirectories, including two named v1.2
and v1.3
. These contain (you guessed it!) v1.2
and
v1.3
of the kernel.
The v1.3
is the development kernel branch, while the v1.2
series are updated rather seldomly, and only after some serious bug has been
found in it, and a field-tested fix has been provided.
For a minimum-hazzle kernel, you should go for the v1.2
series, but
if you are more adventerous (or the v1.2
kernels lack your favorite
CDROM driver), you can get a v1.3
kernel.
Be warned, though, that the v1.3
kernels are of unknown stability,
and you should be well fared in patching, configuring, and compiling the
kernel.
The `standard' (recommended) place to install the kernel source is
/usr/src/linux
.
Go to /usr/src
and type tar xzf linux-1.2.13.tar.gz
(or
whatever kernel version you intend to compile). This will create the
linux
directory (and a lot of subdirectories), which holds the kernel
source code.
# cd /usr/src
# tar xzf linux-1.2.13.tar.gz
Go into the linux
directory and configure the kernel.
# cd linux
# make config
The configuration script will ask you about which drivers you wish to include, and what functionality (networking, filesystems, etc) that you want. If you use a kernel version later than v1.3.34, there will be NO ftape option. This is because ftape has been taught to allocate its dma buffers at insmod time. Hence, the need for `kernel support' vanished. If you have a pre-2.04 ftape distribution, you can get a patch from ftp.mcc.ac.uk which will implement the dynamic buffers.
Note that you can safely insert a ftape module into a kernel which is configured for `ftape support'. The only drawback is that you will lose around 112Kbyte of precious dma'able memory.
If you use a v1.2 kernel, you must make a short detour around the
kernel
directory, to apply a patch to the kernel/ksyms.c
file at this point. The patch can be found as
ftape-2.08/linux-1.2/ksyms.patch
. Change to the directory and apply
the patch.
# cd kernel
# patch < ../../ftape-2.08/linux-1.2/ksyms.patch
# cd ..
(this assumes that you have the ftape
source lying in
/usr/src/ftape-2.08
).
After you have configured the kernel, you must generate the dependency files and then compile the kernel.
# make dep
# make zImage
If everything goes well, you should find the compiled kernel in
arch/i386/boot/zImage
. If you have selected any drivers to be
compiled as modules, you must also do a `make modules
'.
Now, you can compile ftape for you new kernel (there is no need to reboot your first).
# cd /usr/src/ftape-2.08
There are a few options that you can tinker with in the Makefile. Most
importantly, if you still use gcc v2.4.5 you must add
`-DGCC_2_4_5_BUG
' to the `FTAPE_OPT
' variable. Also, if you
have one of Colorado's FC-10 or FC-20 controllers you must tell ftape this.
ftape
Following the development of the ftape
driverIf you want to follow the development of the ftape
driver, you should
read the Usenet newsgroup linux.dev.tape
. This is really gatewayed
from the mailing list linux-tape@vger.rutgers.edu
, but since
vger
is brought to it's knees due to the load of the various Linux
mailing lists, I recommend everyone to read the newsgroup instead.
If you are unable to read news, you can subscribe to the TAPE mailing list by
sending a mail saying `subscribe linux-tape
' (in the body)
to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
. When you subscribe, you will be sent
a greeting mail, which will tell you how to submit real mails and how to get
off the list again.
Please note that I do not, repeat DO NOT, have any special powers with regard this mailing list. If you're stuck on the list, don't bother to tell me that. I can only shrug and send you my sympathy (but that won't get you off the list).
No! Ian Burrell has offered to work on this and has teamed up with Steven Sorbom to work on this. This is probably not just ``around the corner'', so please be patient.
Until formatting becomes available under Linux, you'll have to use MessyDOS
(arghhh!) instead or buy preformatted tapes. However, some of the
preformatted tapes are not checked for bad sectors!. If the
ftape
driver encounters a tape with no bad blocks, it will issue a
warning. If ftape
barfs at your preformatted tapes, try out your DOS
software. If both the DOS software and ftape
barfs on your
tapes, a reformat will very probably cure the problem.
Note that to be able to use your newly formatted tapes under ftape, you must erase the tape first:
mt -f /dev/nftape erase
These are known to work:
tape.exe
)qs3.exe
-- QICstream v3?)These programs are known to be more or less buggy:
In fact, most software under DOS should work. The Conner Backup Basics v1.0
has a parameter off by one (someone could not read the QIC-80 specs right!),
which is corrected in version 1.1. However, ftape
detects this, and
will work around it. Dennis T. Flaherty
(<dennisf@denix.elk.miles.com>
) report that Conner C250MQ owners
can obtain the new v1.1, by calling Conner at 1-800-4Conner (in the US) and
ask for an upgrade (for a nominal fee for the floppy). The Windows versions
should work fine. Some versions of Colorado's tape program for windows, has
an off-by-one error in the number of segments. ftape
also detect and
work around that bug.
Central Point Backup can be used, but it wastes precious tape space when it encounters a bad spot on the tape.
NOTE: If you are running a formatting software under DOS, which is not mentioned here, please mail the relevant info to me ( <khp@dolphinics.no>), so I can update the list.
ftape
and floppiesSince both the floppy driver and ftape
needs the FDC (and IRQ6), they
cannot run concurrently. Thus, if you have mounted a floppy and then try to
access the tape drive, ftape
will complain that it cannot grab IRQ6
and then die. This is especially a problem when designing a emergency disk
for use with ftape. This solution is to either load the boot/root disk into a
ramdisk and then unmount the floppy, or have two FDC's.