From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Sep 4 23:38:58 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.11/8.6.6) id XAA09426 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 4 Sep 1995 23:38:58 -0700 Received: from localhost.lightside.com (user58.lightside.com [198.81.209.58]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.11/8.6.6) with ESMTP id XAA09420 for ; Mon, 4 Sep 1995 23:38:56 -0700 Received: (from jehamby@localhost) by localhost.lightside.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id XAA00317; Mon, 4 Sep 1995 23:39:09 -0700 Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 23:39:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Jake Hamby X-Sender: jehamby@localhost To: Peter da Silva cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: QIC-80 tape driver sucks.. In-Reply-To: <199509050437.XAA02376@bonkers.taronga.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: hackers-owner@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk On Mon, 4 Sep 1995, Peter da Silva wrote: > >Is anyone using the floppy tape driver in FreeBSD for QIC-80 extended > >length tapes? I have a Colorado Jumbo 350 and the 'ft' program really > >screws up when I use the DC2120-XL (170MB) tapes. I'm also thinking about > >upgrading to a T1000 Travan drive which supports up to 400MB > >(uncompressed) tapes but I'm afraid it will have a similar problem. > > Upgrade to SCSI. Floppy tape is fundamentally broken and unfixable. > > NECXDirect has some pretty cheap (6-700 bux) SCSI QIC and DAT drives. > If I had $600-$700 to spend I would probably have bought a DAT or 8mm SCSI drive, but I thought it would be much more economical (since this computer is for home use and my backup needs aren't that great) to stick with a floppy tape backup since it only cost $170. Don't blame the hardware for FreeBSD's lack of driver support. Linux supported my QIC-80 drive just fine. As soon as I analyze Linux's FTAPE and the existing broken FreeBSD drivers, I'll try to come up with a better solution, and if I do, I'll be happy to maintain it for the FreeBSD team. I'll keep everyone posted... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jake Hamby | E-Mail: jehamby@lightside.com Student, Cal Poly University, Pomona | System Administrator, JPL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------