From owner-freebsd-hackers  Wed Aug 28 00:14:21 1996
Return-Path: owner-hackers
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id AAA08050
          for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 28 Aug 1996 00:14:21 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from ns.eu.org (valerian.glou.eu.org [193.56.58.251])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id AAA08028
          for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Wed, 28 Aug 1996 00:14:13 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from uucp@localhost) by ns.eu.org (8.7.3/8.7.1/951117) with UUCP id JAA27003; Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:13:33 +0200 (MET DST)
Received: (from regnauld@localhost) by tetard.glou.eu.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/tetard-uucp-2.7) id JAA02260; Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:11:06 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Philippe Regnauld <regnauld@tetard.glou.eu.org>
Message-Id: <199608280711.JAA02260@tetard.glou.eu.org>
Subject: Re: OK, next question.  IOMEGA Easy accelerator board
To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith)
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:11:06 +0200 (MET DST)
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org (hackers)
In-Reply-To: <199608280131.LAA09658@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from Michael Smith at "Aug 28, 96 11:01:39 am"
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL15 (25)]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

Michael Smith écrit / writes:

> > Anybody know what kind of boards these IOMEGA tape drive boards are, and
> > the level of complexity in writing a driver for them?  These little backup
> > tape units are great under win95, but of course, I want FreeBSD.

	They suck under FreeBSD. 

> > It appears to be a floppy disk controller, but apparently runs at a faster
> > rate than the standard FDC.
> 
> Then I would guess that it's a floppy-disk controller (or at least something
> rather similar).  

	It's not at all recognized, even if you force the card in irq 6,
	and disable on-board floppy. 

	I've got one tied up in a P133, using the new 'lft' you mentioned -
	after a few tests it came out that: 

	- 'ft' is unusable
	- 'lft' is a bit better
	-  1/4 times it times  out on inquiry (i.e.:  status), and the tape
	  runs for a couple of hours by itself, short of extracting it
	- the tapes need to be fornatted (!), and that takes: 

	- 6 hours (3.2 Gb) on the fast controller (i.e. under dos)
	- 16 hours through floppy controller

	Conclusion: 

	The thing  went into a w95  box, and we  back up by samba/ ethernet
	the disks :-P 

	BTW, the current Windows driver  hangs if you  try to backup  files
	with a Danish 'ø' (that's o with a / in it for non-latin people). 

	Hilarious. Not. 


> There was a post a little while back (from JMB?) about someone having 
> written a new control program for the 'ft' device which was supposed to be
> better than its predecessor. 
> 
> Note that nobody in their right mind uses those stupid floppytape devices,
> as they're basically impossible to talk to without busy-waiting on them.

	Right. 

-- 
-[ Philippe Regnauld / regnauld@eu.org / +55.4N +11.3E @ Sol3 / +45 31241690 ]-
-[ "To kärve or nøt to kärve, that is the qvestion..."          -- My sister ]-