aloha friends

warning ... this is a somewhat long description of steps i have tried
to get ftape working, a chronicle of my struggles ..thanks much for reading
it.
i am praying someone can help me.

re, iomega ditto 2gig internal floppy tape drive.  having trouble and am
hoping someone can offer a suggestion ..basic system is pentium 166, 
32mb ram, redhat 4.1  (but with new kernel).  there is a sticker on the tape
drive box that says "new 3.7gb expanded capacity cartridge".

i have been struggingling with ftape.. 4.02 .. i think i've done everything
in the instructions; installed a new kernel 2.0.36, with qic-80 support
disabled, edited modules.conf with dma, irq, i/o base .. iomega dos software
finds the drive but under linux i get 'device busy' when i try to insert the
ftape-internal module, and 'no such device' when i try ftmt or mt
on it.  so i cannot access the drive at all. so with ftape i got nowhere??
but perhaps i just made a simple error? i cannot tell.   

dmesg says:

[000]    fdc-io.c (fdc_config) - Using the standard fdc controller.
[001]    fdc-io.c (fdc_probe) - Type 82077AA FDC found.
[002]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_activate_drive) - drive wakeup method: Colorado.
[003]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - ============ unknown vendor id
=====
======.
[004]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - A new, yet unsupported tape
drive is
 found.
[005]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - Please report the following
values:.
[006]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) -    Vendor id     : 0x8883.
[007]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) -    Wakeup method : Colorado.
[008]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - And a description of your tape
drive
 to:.
[009]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - Claus Heine
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
chen.de>.
[010]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) -
====================================

gee, maybe my drive is unsupported.

thus, i start thinking of abandoning ftape.  using kernel support instead. 

so next i tried that.

 if i recompile the kernel with the floppy tape support turned on, then
i can rewind or retension the tape using mt -f /dev/qft0 retension (yeah!
at least, now it finds the tape drive! yipee! progress..)  but
when i try to make a tape with tar, i see a few file names then immediately
an i/o error.

example:

 tar -cvf /dev/qft0 ./ftape-4.02
./ftape-4.02/
./ftape-4.02/BUGS
./ftape-4.02/COPYING
tar: Cannot write to /dev/qft0: I/O error 

i thought, could the problem be that i have one of the new 3.7gb
cartridges?  its
preformatted, and not write protected.  i see this from dmesg:

[031]      fdc-isr.c (fdc_isr) - probably fatal error during FDC Result Phase.
[032]      fdc-isr.c (fdc_isr) - drive may hang until (power) reset :-(.
[033]    ftape-io.c (ftape_set_data_rate) - post QIC-117B drive @ 1 Mb/s.
[034]    ftape-io.c (ftape_set_data_rate) - unknown length QIC-3020 tape.
[035]    ftape-ctl.c (ftape_calc_timeouts) - Unknown tape length, using
worst ca
se timing values!.
[036]   ftape-read.c (read_header_segment) - wrong signature in header
segment.
[037]       fdc-io.c (fdc_result) - fdc not ready.
[038]      fdc-isr.c (fdc_isr) - probably fatal error during FDC Result Phase.
[039]      fdc-isr.c (fdc_isr) - drive may hang until (power) reset :-(.
[040]       fdc-io.c (fdc_result) - fdc not ready.


then i realized i was doing this *without* having uninstalled ftape.  so
i unstalled it (but that of course leaves the device files).  then again
i recompiled the kernel, this time i set the option in the ftape subdirectory
in the Makefile (we are now talking the linux ftape, not the claus ftape at
this point)

FDC_OPT         = -DFDC_BASE=0x378 -DFDC_IRQ=6 -DFDC_DMA=3    

i rebooted, with power off, and now, again, cannot access the drive at all.

dmesg says:

[000]    fdc-io.c (fdc_config) - Using fdc controller at alternate address.
[001]      fdc-io.c (fdc_reset) - missing interrupt after reset.
[002]       fdc-io.c (fdc_command) - fdc not ready.
[003]         fdc-io.c (fdc_command) - fdc not ready.
[004]        fdc-io.c (fdc_issue_command) - fdc_command failed.
[005]       fdc-io.c (fdc_sense_interrupt_status) - issue_command failed.
[006]         fdc-io.c (fdc_command) - fdc not ready.
[007]        fdc-io.c (fdc_issue_command) - fdc_command failed.
...
[032]     fdc-io.c (fdc_issue_command) - fdc_command failed.
[033]    fdc-io.c (fdc_probe) - No FDC found.
[034] kernel-interface.c (ftape_open) - _ftape_open failed.


this basically from the command:

[root@dt090n25 /tmp]# mt -f /dev/qft0 rewind
/dev/qft0: I/O error

ok.  so i have now gone in reverse.  i'll try kernel support again
without that option in the Makefile this time and if that doesnt work,
i'll go back to ftape. here goes ..

by the way, the only character devices in /dev with major 27 are the
ones that were created by the ftape installation .. and when i recompiled
the kernal with qic-80 support it made a line in /proc/devices as:

27 ft

so hopefully its ok to try ftape's (4.02) device files with the kernel ftape.?

.. yes, ok, finished recompiling the kernel again, this time left out
the specific i/o base etc in the ftape makefile ..  and now, again, i can
access the drive with mt, but as before, the mt rewind comand leaves
this for dmesg:

(btw ..it says Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077)

[000]    fdc-io.c (fdc_config) - Using the standard fdc controller.
[001]    fdc-io.c (fdc_probe) - Type 82077AA FDC found.
[002]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_activate_drive) - drive wakeup method: Colorado.
[003]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_get_drive_status) - error status set.
[004]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - ============ unknown vendor id
=====
======.
[005]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - A new, yet unsupported tape
drive is
 found.
[006]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - Please report the following
values:.
[007]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) -    Vendor id     : 0x8883.
[008]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) -    Wakeup method : Colorado.
[009]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - And a description of your tape
drive
 to:.
[010]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) - Claus Heine
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
chen.de>.
[011]   ftape-ctl.c (ftape_log_vendor_id) -
====================================
======.
[012]    ftape-io.c (ftape_set_data_rate) - post QIC-117B drive @ 1 Mb/s.
[013]    ftape-io.c (ftape_set_data_rate) - unknown length QIC-3020 tape.
[014]    ftape-ctl.c (ftape_calc_timeouts) - Unknown tape length, using
worst ca
se timing values!.
[015]       fdc-io.c (fdc_result) - fdc not ready.
[016]      fdc-isr.c (fdc_isr) - probably fatal error during FDC Result Phase.
[017]      fdc-isr.c (fdc_isr) - drive may hang until (power) reset :-(.

so what should i do>?  go back to starting over with the newest ftape
from claus's site??  

i think i'm stuck.




any thoughts?
thanks in advance!
sadhu

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