"Douglas Bollinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>I am using Caldera OpenLinux 2.2, which comes with ftape/zftape 3.04d.
>>As root, I can do an <mt (or ftmt) -f /dev/nftape retension or
>>rewind>. However, when I try to do an <mt -f /dev/nftape erase or
>>fsf 2>, I get tape movement and a "/dev/(n)ftape: Permission denied"
>>on the device. Further, when I do <tar -cvf /dev(n)ftape ...>, I get
>>"Cannot write to /dev/(n)ftape: Permission denied." I checked the
>>permissions on /dev/{n)ftape and they are 600 (/dev/(n)ftape is a soft
>>link to /dev/(n)zqft0) and are character devices. I have modified
><snip>
>
>If you are root, you shouldn't be having permission problems. I'm not
quite
>sure what your problem is, but I checked my system and nftape points to
>nqft0; I don't have any of the z devices. Check this out:
>
>[doug@godzuki /dev]$ ll *ft0*
>crw------- 1 doug disk 27, 4 Aug 6 21:50 nqft0
>crw------- 1 doug disk 27, 36 Aug 6 21:50 nrawft0
>crw-rw---- 1 doug disk 27, 36 Apr 17 15:53 nrawqft0
>lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Aug 6 21:50 nrft0 -> nqft0
>crw------- 1 doug disk 27, 0 Aug 6 21:50 qft0
>crw------- 1 doug disk 27, 32 Aug 6 21:50 rawft0
>crw-rw---- 1 doug disk 27, 32 Apr 17 15:53 rawqft0
>lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Aug 6 21:50 rft0 -> qft0
>
>Anything loook weird on your system? Pay special attention to the
numbers.
>I usually use qft0, nqft0 and nrawft0 when using ftape.
Actually, following the "Ftape User and Installation Guide," I did a
chmod a+rw *qft*
but that had no effect on the outcome. Now, the qft0, nqft0, zqft0,
and nzqft0 devices are all crw-rw-rw-.
>
>>I looked in conf.modules and found that the defined ft_fdc_base=0x180,
>>but that /proc/ioports does not list the floppy controller, or anything
>>else, at 0x180. I noticed that ft_fdc_irq and ft_fdc_dma values did
>>not match those in /proc/irq or dma for the fdc, so I changed them to
>
>Hmmm, this is strange. While my memory of ftape 3.04d is already getting
>hazy, I don't believe you need to specify any FDC addresses in you
>conf.modules to get things working. In fact, you should only need 2
>modules: zftape and ftape. This is a big difference from the 4.x series,
>where you have an addition "hardware" module.
>
>>be consistent, but to no avail. There is nothing in ioports that one
>>could connect to the fdc base address, except maybe fdomain at 0x140.
>>My hardware manual and the old MSDOS diagnostics do not provide me
>>with any information about the base address for the floppy disk
>>controller. I have also tried ft_fdc_base=0x3f0, but the same
>>results. I have not been able to determine what fdomain is, so I
>>have not tired its address.
>
>If you need to get the FDC's IRQs, DMA and IO port, a good way to do it is
>format a floppy disk and poke around in the /proc directory. You must be
>USING the floppy drive for these numbers to show-up!
>
>[root@godzuki /dev]# superformat /dev/fd0:
>
>While that's running, do this:
>
>[doug@godzuki /dev]$ cd /proc
>[doug@godzuki /proc]$ cat dma
> 2: floppy
> 4: cascade
>[doug@godzuki /proc]$ cat interrupts
> CPU0
> 0: 471973 XT-PIC timer
> 1: 966 XT-PIC keyboard
> 2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
> 6: 324 XT-PIC floppy
><snip>
>[doug@godzuki /proc]$ cat ioports
>
><snip>
>03f0-03f5 : floppy
>03f6-03f6 : ide0
>03f7-03f7 : floppy DIR
>03f8-03ff : serial(auto)
>f800-f87f : eth0
>fbf0-fbf7 : ide0
>fbf8-fbff : ide1
>
>That should give you all the info on your FDC, assuming you can format
>floppies. :)
Thanks for this tip. I did do what you suggested and found that my
floppy base=0x3f0, floppy irq=6, and floppy dma=2. Actually, I had
already tried these settings in conf.modules, but the results were
the same. So, I have changed back to these values.
>
>>Since my kernel version is different from the tools distribution, I
>>have not been able to run ftformat on the tape, but I believe the tape
>>has been previously formatted (but am not absolutely sure, since the
>>system no longer contains MSDOS). I plan to build the tools once I
>>get the rpm source downloaded. That should move me up to ftape 4.02,
>
>You need the ftape tools included inside ftape-3.04d.tar.gz tarball. When
>ftape 4.x came out, the maintainer split off the tools into their own
>tarball, but these tools are NOT compatable with ftape 3.04d.
>
>Awhile ago, I posted several articles on how to get ftape working in
RH6.0.
>Even though you are using a different distro, the source is the same
(ftape
>3.04d) so you might find the information useful.
I am not sure why Caldera (or R.H.) did not include the tools in their
distribution. I went and got the 3.04d tarball last night and hope
to unload it and make the tools this evening.
>
>Look at this web page and search for "ftape and red hat" and my articles
>should be found under "Ftape and Red Hat 6.0 Info".
>
>http://www.searchlinux.com/
Thanks for the URL. It looks like good guidance.
>
>Good luck, and tell us how things turn out.
>
Since tape motion works, but writing or reading from tape seems to
give me errors, I must assume that the tape is not formatted. I
hope to alleviate that situation after building the tools. I will
keep you posted on my findings. I could have bypassed all of this
agony, if I had formatted a couple of tapes (for sure) prior to making
my box a total Linux machine. (Or left MSDOS available on one of my
partitions -- groan.) Good thing ftformat is available, otherwise I
would really be out of luck.
Thanks for you help and guidance,
Chuck Burton
