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Date:      Sat, 6 Jul 1996 00:42:28 GMT
From:      James Raynard <fqueries@jraynard.demon.co.uk>
To:        white@tehama.engr.ucdavis.edu
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Problem with ft on tape backup.
Message-ID:  <199607060042.AAA04742@jraynard.demon.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <9607052152.AA15526@tehama.engr.ucdavis.edu> (white@tehama.engr.ucdavis.edu)

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[A number of ft-related problems]

The ft driver is known to need some serious work done on it, but it
seems to have become "orphaned". Apparently it's not exactly a very
friendly device to write drivers for - no less than three people have
rolled up their sleeves, determined to finally get it sorted out, only
to give up in despair.

Sadly this is a weakness in free software - if the only reward for
doing something is the enjoyment gained from doing it, there is very
little incentive to do things which are not enjoyable. :-(

If anyone does fancy having a go at it, Linux has a working driver
which could perhaps be used as a base for an upgrade (so I'm told).

The other possibility is paying someone to write one, but I suppose
most people with floppy tapes would have bought something else if they
could afford this kind of thing...

> Also, one last thing, is this the type of thing one would submit as
> a bug or not.  I have not yet done so, but can file a bug report if
> people think that it fits the area of problem reports.

The "unrecoverable write error" certainly fits the bill. I'm not so
sure about the other one, but if you're fairly certain it wasn't
"pilot error", by all means add it to the report.

> Sorry this is so long.  Thanks in advance for any help.

Sorry this isn't very helpful. :-(

-- 
James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland
james@jraynard.demon.co.uk
http://www.freebsd.org/~jraynard/



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