From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 21 18:54:52 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F140170954 for ; Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:54:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from mail-out4.apple.com (mail-out4.apple.com [17.254.13.23]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 88CA213C467 for ; Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:54:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from relay8.apple.com (a17-128-113-38.apple.com [17.128.113.38]) by mail-out4.apple.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l1LIsqh3006038; Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:54:52 -0800 (PST) Received: from relay8.apple.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by relay8.apple.com (Symantec Mail Security) with ESMTP id 223F64007F; Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:54:52 -0800 (PST) X-AuditID: 11807126-9c7c7bb00000685d-64-45dc957c6f9e Received: from [17.214.13.96] (cswiger1.apple.com [17.214.13.96]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by relay8.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with ESMTP id 0A1454001F; Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:54:52 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <2534.65.117.48.154.1172083643.squirrel@admintool.trueband.net> References: <2534.65.117.48.154.1172083643.squirrel@admintool.trueband.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <97F07537-EC68-4206-88FB-171478E2F738@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Chuck Swiger Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:54:51 -0800 To: jhall@vandaliamo.net X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Ultrium 448 Tape Drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:54:52 -0000 On Feb 21, 2007, at 10:47 AM, jhall@vandaliamo.net wrote: > From what I have read, I think the Ultrium tape drive is completely > compatible with FreeBSD. If I am understanding the specs > correctly, it > uses hardware compression to compress data. And, again if I am > understanding everything correctly, I should be able to use the mt > command > to tell the tape drive to use hardware compression. Pretty much all SCSI-based tape drives work just fine with the normal st device; and yes, one can use "mt comp" command to enable or disable the built-in hardware compression. However, most tape drives default to enabling their preferred compression algorithm already, so you most likely won't need to do anything special except run tar, dump, or whatever to actually write data to the tape... Ultrium/LTO is a pretty good form-factor-- certainly better than the helical-scan 4mm DDS systems, but I have a mild preference for (s)DLT. -- -Chuck