2 The preliminaries

Contents of this section

2.1 What is ftape

ftape is a driver program that controls various low-cost tape drives that connect to the floppy controller. Specifically, ftape supports drives that conform to the QIC-117 and QIC-80/QIC-40 standards. ftape does not support QIC-02 tape drives or drives that connect via a SCSI interface, e.g. a DAT drive. SCSI drives are accessed as /dev/st[0-7] and are supported by the kernel directly. See section Supported drives and Un-supported drives for a list of supported and unsupported drives.

2.2 Who is the mastermind of ftape?

ftape is written more or less from scratch by Bas Laarhoven <bas@vimec.nl>, with a little help from his friends to sort out the ECC (Error Correcting Code) stuff. If you like ftape please send a mail to Bas saying so. (At the last headcount, only five - five! - users bothered to send Bas a mail saying that they were using ftape).

2.3 The newest version of ftape - and where to get it

The newest version of the ftape driver is ftape-1.13b, and can be fetched from the following sites:

    tsx-11.mit.edu   [18.172.1.2]: /pub/linux/ALPHA/QIC-80/
    sunsite.unc.edu [152.2.22.81]: /pub/Linux/kernel/tapes/
    ftp.funet.fi  [128.214.248.6]: /pub/OS/Linux/BETA/QIC-80/

You should get the files: ftape-1.13b.tar.gz, ftape-1.13b.lsm and modules.tar.gz. The .tar.gz file is the ftape driver proper, while the .lsm file is a Linux Software Map (LSM) file for the LSM project, and the modules file is a set of utilities for manipulating loadable drivers (insertion and removal). Note: if you have an old version of the modules utilities, e.g. modutils-0.99.14.tar.gz or modutils-0.99.15.tar.gz, you will probably need to upgrade them).

2.4 Following the development of the ftape driver

If you want to follow the development of the ftape driver, you should consider subscribing to the TAPE channel on Linux-activists. To subscribe, you send a mail to <linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi>, with the first line (or as a part of the header) saying `X-Mn-Admin: join tape'. If you send an empty mail (or the automagical mail-response system chokes on your mail), you are sent a HOWTO mail.

To submit a real mail to the mailing lists, send a mail to <linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi>, and remember that the first line (or a header line) should read `X-Mn-Key: TAPE'.

2.5 Following the development of the ftape driver Supported drives

All drives that are both QIC-117 compatible and either QIC-40 or QIC-80 compatible should work. Currently, the list of drives that are known to work with ftape is:

Support for the FC-10 controller has been merged into the ftape driver in version 1.12. See the RELEASE-NOTES and the Makefile files in the ftape distribution.

Some tape drives (Iomega) falsely set the `new-cartridge-loaded' status every time the driver is fopen()ed. These drives won't work together with file-marks as ftape will incorrectly think that it got a new tape, which needs to be rewound. Effectively, all files end up at the beginning of the tape (sigh).

If you have a Tallgrass FS300 and an AHA1542B, you need to increase the bus-on / bus-off time of the 1542B. Antti Virjo (klanvi@uti.fi), says that changing CMD_BUSON_TIME to 4 and CMD_BUSOFF_CMD to 12 in linux/drivers/scsi/aha1542.c will do the trick.

NOTE: If you have a drive that works fine, but it is not listed here, please send a mail to the HOWTO maintainer (khp@login.dknet.dk).

2.6 Following the development of the ftape driver Un-supported drives

Generally, ALL drives that connect to the parallel port are NOT supported. This is because these drives uses (different) proprietary interfaces, that are very much different from the QIC-117 standard.

The Colorado TC-15 controller (and it's like) are not supported directly by the ftape driver. The only `special' controller that can be used with ftape is the Colorado FC-10. Support for the FC-10 was integrated in version 1.12.

The Irwin AX250L (and the IBM Internal Tape Backup Unit) does not work the ftape. This is because they only support QIC-117, but not the QIC-80 standard (they use Irwin's proprietary servoe (Rhomat) format). I know nothing about the Rhomat format, nor where to get any info on it. Sorry.

The COREtape light does not work (yet). We have some info on it, but we have not got it to accept the initialisation data. As the user who had the COREtape drive swapped it for another tape drive in frustration, we may never get it to work with ftape (no test drive).

2.7 Using an external tape drive with ftape

If you have a floppy controller which has a female DB37 connector on the bracket and some means of delivering power to the tape drive, you can use it with ftape. OK, that sentence was not very obvious. Let's try it this way: Some FDC's (the very ancient one's), have a DB37 connector on the bracket, for connecting to external floppy drives. If you make a suitable cable (from a quick glance on an FDC that I've got lying around, it seems to be almost a straight 1-to-1 cable. However, ymmv) from the DB37 connector (on the FDC) and to your external tape drive, you can get ftape to control your tape drive. This is because that from a program's view there is no difference between the internal and the external connectors. So, from ftape's point of view, they are identical.

2.8 Compiling and installing the ftape driver

There is included an installation guide (the file Install-guide) in the ftape distribution; please read that.

2.9 Where to get the kernel sources

You can get the kernel sources from the same place as you got the ftape sources. The sources are kept at the following sites (and many mirror-sites)

    tsx-11.mit.edu   [18.172.1.2]: /pub/linux/sources/system/
    sunsite.unc.edu [152.2.22.81]: /pub/Linux/kernel/
    ftp.funet.fi  [128.214.248.6]: /pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus

You will find a number of subdirectories, including two named v1.0 and v1.1. These contain (you guessed it!) v1.0 and v1.1 of the kernel. I suggest that you get version 1.1.<something>.

2.10 Can I format my tapes under Linux?

At the moment, no! We have looked at how to do it under Linux, but don't hang around waiting for it. Until it's finished, 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.

2.11 Which formatting programs can I use under DOS?

These are known to work:

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. Dennis T. Flaherty (dennisf@denix.elk.miles.com) report that Conner C250MQ owners can obtain the new v1.1, by calling 1-800-230-5638 (in the US) and ask for an upgrade (for a nominal fee for the floppy). The Windows versions should work fine.

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 maintainer (khp@login.dknet.dk) the relevant info, so I can update the HOWTO.

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