On Fri, May 28, 1999 at 09:47:30PM +0000, Jean-David Beyer wrote:
> > >
> > Hi, please upgrade to those "unstable" drivers - they are quite
> > stable, however:
> >
> > http://www.math1.rwth-aachen.de/~heine/ftape/archives/ftape-4.x/unstable/
>
> I have a similar system R.H.6.0, kernel 2.2.5-15, CPU is 166MHz Pentium, and
> I cannot get Ftape to work either. The version that is supplied is quite
> obviously 3.04d, because I can make it run enough to get entries in the
> /var/log/messages file and it so identifies itself. The main trouble I have
> with it is that it insists on running the floppy disk controller even though
> I have a dedicated CTC-2Mb controller just for the tape drive. This worked
> for R.H.5.0, but not for 6.0. I stuck parameters into the /etc/conf.modules
well, the kernel is the crucial point: There is no way to avoid getting those
unstable drivers to work, if you want to run a kernel 2.2.x. It's obligatory.
> file as follows:
>
> # Load ftape/zftape automatically
>
> alias char-major-27 zftape
> pre-install ftape /sbin/swapout 32
> # Try to set CTC-2Mb floppy controller
> # and
> # Try to reduce overruns: can be [1-16]: higher: less overruns
> options ftape ft-fdc-base=0x370 ft-fdc-irq=6 ft_fdc_dma=2 ft-fdc-threshold=16
>
...under 4.0x and under those unstable drivers the hyphens have to be replaced by
underlines, i.e. ft_fdc_base instead of ft-fdc-base.
> # Try harder to reduce overruns: can be [1000, 500, 250]: lower: less
> overruns
> #options ftape ft_fdc_rate_limit=250
>
...don't know if this option is essential with your drive, but in case it is
the comment sign "#" has to be removed.
> but it seems to ignore them. It certainly sees the alias car-major-27 zftape
> line and the pre-install ftape /sbin/swapout 32 line. An extract of my
> /var/log/messages file, after I ran ftape -f /dev/ftape status, is:
>
> May 27 14:34:01 localhost kernel: ftape v3.04d 25/11/97
(...)
> May 27 14:34:01 localhost kernel: Compiled for Linux version 2.2.5-15 with
> versioned symbols
(...)
> May 27 14:34:01 localhost kernel: zftape for ftape v3.04d 25/11/97
(...)
> May 27 14:34:06 localhost kernel: [012] ftape-ctl.c (ftape_activate_drive)
> - no tape drive found !.
...no surprise to me.
(...)
>
> It is quite obvious, from the line marked [010] that it is ignoring the
> address I specify (0x0370) I specify. I assumed if I rebuilt the driver I
hmm, I don't know the syntax of 3.04x, but more recent versions need those
underlines.
> could compile in the address (as I did with the old 3.04d driver) and have it
> come up OK. I cannot even compile the 3.04d driver on this system. None of
> them.
>
> There are a lot of different drivers in
> http://www.math1.rwth-aachen.de/~heine/ftape/archives/ftape-4.x/unstable/ .
> Does it matter which one I use? I tried ftape-4.x-1999_04_25 and all I get is
No, not really, I tried
ftape-4.x-1999_02_26.tar.gz
and
ftape-4.x-1999_04_25.tar.gz
successfully.
(...)
> make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/ftape-4.x-1999_04_25/ftape/compressor'
> set -e; for i in setup lowlevel internal parport zftape compressor; do make
> -C $i modules; done
> make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/ftape-4.x-1999_04_25/ftape/setup'
> make[2]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/src/linux/.config', needed by
> `.ftape-setup.d'. Stop.
> make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/ftape-4.x-1999_04_25/ftape/setup'
> make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/ftape-4.x-1999_04_25/ftape'
> make: *** [all] Error 2
>
> It obviously insists on a .config file, which I do not have in the
> /usr/src/linux directory, since I have never configured or built a kernel,
> nor do I wish to. I did not need this when building 3.04d on Red Hat Linux
> 5.0. All I needed to do was fill in the MCONFIG file correctly. I could
> install the kernel source, make a .config file, and perhaps even compile the
> OS. Since the help messages take over 86 pages, and I do not understand them
> well enough to configure my kernel, I hesitate to do this. As far as I can
well, you don't really need to perform the whole compilation process. Just
to produce .config you can restrict yourself to
install the kernel sources
make xconfig,
have a glance at the section "ftape" to ensure, the defaults don't have
ftape compiled into the kernel;
change nothing (else) in the setup
save and exit,
and stop at this point, i. e. no make dep clean and so on.
This won't put any harm onto your system.
But I must admit I don't know why "make" insists on generating /usr/src/linux/.config
Does anybody else know better?
> tell, my kernel was not built with the ftape driver in it. I infer this from
> the following:
hmm, not necessarily, this shows only the active devices; you better derive this
piece of information from /usr/src/linux/.config - oops...
>
> [jdbeyer@localhost jdbeyer]$ cat /proc/devices
Good luck, Juergen.
--
*****************************************************************
* Juergen Leising, E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* http://www.stud.uni-bayreuth.de/~a0037/ *
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