I am a new user of ftape. I installed it on two RedHat Linux installations
(kernel 2.0.34-6; IBM Aptiva S90 and L61, pentium II computers). I got both
to run fine for two weeks or so with two Iomega Ditto 3200 Easy parallel
port drives on qft0 using bpck-fdc.o driver.
One of the installations is still working fine. However, after not using
ftape for a few days, the other ftape installation has stopped working. When
I attempt to access the drive, it gives the error:
vtblc -f /dev/nrawft0
Error opening tape dev: Device not configured.
There is no doubt it should be on device 0. (It also fails on devices 1, 2,
and 3). I have tried reinstalling the setup by deleting the
/usr/src/ftape-4.02 directory, untarring the ftape-4.02.tar file (same one
as had worked before), altering the MCONFIG file in /usr/src/ftape-4.02 so
that only bkpk-fdc is activated.
#MCONFIG (snip) NOTE: THIS IS THE ONLY UNCOMMENTED FDC_OPT += LINE:
BPCK_DEV=0
FDC_OPT += -DCONFIG_FT_PARPORT_$(BPCK_DEV)=-1\
-DCONFIG-FT-PAR-$(BPCK_DEV)=1\
-DCONFIG_FT_BPCK-$(BPCK_DEV)=1
#
The "make" command in /usr/src/ftape-4.02 proceeds without error,
generating the expected *.o drivers in /lib/modules/2.0.34/misc (ftape.o,
bkpk-fdc.o, trakker.o, ztape.o, and zcompressor.o drivers).
The "make install" command in usr/src/ftape-4.02 proceeds with no
errors. It indicates that some of the drivers in /dev already exist and asks
me if I want to overwrite them. I say yes, and it completes with DONE!.
The INSERT file is as follows and asigns bpck-fdc to the "0" devices:
# beginning of INSERT file
/sbin/insmod ./ftape.o ft_fdc_driver=bpck-fdc,none,none,none
ft_tracings=3.3.3.3.3
/sbin/insmod ./zftape.o ft_major_device?number=27 # ${27-FT_MAJOR}
/sbin/insmod ./bpck-fdc.o
# end of INSERT file
Running "INSERT" from /usr/src/ftape-4.02/modules proceeds with no
errors. Doing /sbin/lsmod after the module is loaded yields the expected
information:
bpck-fdc 9 0
zftape 19 0
ftape 34 [bpck-fdc ztape] 0
3c509 2 1 (autoclean)
nls_cp437 1 3 (autoclean)
nls-cps437
Despite all appearing well to this point,
vtblc -f /dev/nrawft0 gives "device not configured"
tar t-f /dev/qft0 or /dev/nqft0 give "device not configured"
I have reinstalled ftape four times, now, without success. There
doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the drive since it works using
Ditto tools under Win98 on the same computer (boot manager installation).
The only thing I have done since the drive was working was to play
around with lp to get an HP laserjet 4 working on the local parallel port.
It is working via lp0. The printer is plugged into the tape drive so that
printing goes through the bypass parallel connection of the drive.
The specs of the parallel port are IRQ 7, DMA 3, 0x3BC on both the
computers and have not been changed since the drive was working.
I have exausted my ideas about why the drive should fail to work
with ftape under linux.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Richard Denney
