Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 12:48:56 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: dietz@cyrix.com (Carl Dietz) Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ft (QIC 40/80) Message-ID: <199512051948.MAA02289@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <9512051742.AA13181@max.cyrix.com> from "Carl Dietz" at Dec 5, 95 11:42:25 am
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> I guess this explains the troubles I've been having with my new floppy tape > drive I bought this last week. It wouldn't work with tar, dd, or mt. I was > beginning to think that something was wrong with the tape drive, 'cause the > FreeBSD docs say that the floppy tape is supported. FreeBSD was recognizing > it at boot-up, but wouldn't do anything else with it. > > I only bought the thing because FreeBSD said it supported it, and I can't > afford to buy the SCSI DAT drive that I'd really love to have (pipe dream :-) ). You have to use the ft filter between your program and the floppy tape device. > But the FreeBSD documentation never said that it wasn't fully supported like > the SCSI tape drives are. It's *impossible* to fully support the things without heavy kernel hacking on timer code and allowing kernel preemption (or buzz-looping). The NEC floppy controller chips used in most PC's doesn't have a FIFO, so it takes realtime features (or like DOS, running *only* the special backup software and no other programs) to support the things. > How exactly is the QIC 80 120MB floppy tape drive supported under FreeBSD ? With a filter. > Since tar, dd, and mt don't work, what do I use to read/write from/to the > drive ? man ft > Or should I just flush my new tape drive down the toilet ? New !== Good. You *can* use it, however, as long as you follow the rules and use the ft filter. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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