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Ftape-HOWTO

Claus-Justus Heine, <heine@math1.rwth-aachen.de>

v3.0, August 1998

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This HOWTO discusses essential do's and dont's for the .:: ml007.k12.sd.us ::. .:: cm88group.bloguetechno.com ::. .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: forum.tkool.jp ::. .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. .:: www.redsea.gov.eg ::. .:: ai-db.science ::. ftape floppy tape driver under Linux. It focusses on the newest version which is .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. .:: redirect.camfrog.com ::. .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. .:: www.arc.agric.za ::. .:: aboutpharmacistjobs.com ::. .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. .:: gesoten.com ::. ftape-4.02 at the time of this writing. This HOWTO is to be intended as first step help and source of information. The .:: mpc.imu.edu.kg ::. .:: tempel.in ::. .:: www.bakinsky-dvorik.ru ::. .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: www.just.edu.jo ::. ftape driver interfaces to QIC-40, QIC-80, QIC-3010 and QIC-3020 compatible drives, and to the Iomega Ditto 2GB and Ditto Max drives. The QIC-3010 and QIC-3020 standards are also known as `Travan' (TR-2 and TR-3). These drives connect via the floppy disk controller ( .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. .:: ml007.k12.sd.us ::. .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: ml007.k12.sd.us ::. .:: postheaven.net ::. .:: management.ju.edu.jo ::. [Reddit: Recursion Discussion] .:: at.pinterest.com ::. .:: mindef.gov.bn ::. .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. FDC) which may be either an internal FDC or inside of certain parallel port floppy tape drives. Please refer to the section .:: links-indexer-speedyindex.vercel.app ::. .:: telescope.ac ::. .:: 6949151eef8aa.site123.me ::. .:: sustalks.com ::. .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: www.redsea.gov.eg ::. Supported drives for further information. ftape does not cover SCSI or QIC-02 tape drives. DAT tape drives usually (always?) connect to a SCSI controller. This is but one of the Linux HOWTO documents. You can get an index of the HOWTOs from .:: docs.google.com ::. .:: www.ixawiki.com ::. .:: ioninja.com ::. .:: chromewebstore.google.com ::. .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. the Linux HOWTO index, while the real HOWTO's can be fetched (using ftp) from sunsite.unc.edu:pub/Linux/doc/HOWTO (this is the ``official'' place) or via the World Wide Web from .:: telegra.ph ::. .:: hedgedoc.digillab.uni-augsburg.de ::. .:: www.logic-sunrise.com ::. .:: pad.degrowth.net ::. [ArXiv: OAuth Analysis] .:: vuf.minagricultura.gov.co ::. .:: podcasts.apple.com ::. .:: www.just.edu.jo ::. .:: writeablog.net ::. the Linux Documentation Project home page.

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1. Legalese

2. Revision History

3. The preliminaries

• 3.1 Other sources of information
• 3.2 Contacts
• 3.3 What is ftape

4. Getting and installing ftape

• 4.1 Getting ftape
• 4.2 Differences between ftape-2.x, ftape-3.x and ftape-4.x versions
• 4.3 Installing the driver with v2.0.x and earlier kernels
• 4.4 Installing the driver with v2.1.x and later kernels
• 4.5 Following the development of the ftape driver
• 4.6 Mixing ftape and floppies

5. The Care and Feeding of Tape and Tape Drives

• 5.1 Formatting
• 5.2 Retensioning
• 5.3 Drive Cleaning
• 5.4 Repairing de-spooled cartridges

6. Hardware support

• 6.1 Supported tape drives
• 6.2 Supported special controllers
• 6.3 Unsupported tape drives
• 6.4 Using an external tape drive with ftape
• 6.5 PCI motherboards and ftape

7. Backing up and restoring data

• 7.1 Writing an archive to a tape
• 7.2 Restoring an archive
• 7.3 Testing the archive
• 7.4 Putting more than one backup on a tape
• 7.5 Appending files to an archive
• 7.6 Mount/unmounting tapes

8. Creating an emergency boot floppy for ftape

9. Frequently Asked Questions

10. FAQ: "Compiling and installing Ftape" related questions !

• 10.1 What Ftape version should I use?
• 10.2 I'm having problems getting my XYZ drive to run under the 2.0.xx kernel with the built-in driver. How do I fix this?
• 10.3 I'm running Linux/SMP and the system just freezes when trying to access the Ftape devices!
• 10.4 Why does depmod complain about "undefined symbols"?
• 10.5 "insmod" says the kernel version is wrong
• 10.6 "insmod" says that kernel 1.2.0 and 1.2.0 differ
• 10.7 Trying to compile Ftape gives me the error "modversions.h: no such file or directory"
• 10.8 What is this versioned symbols stuff anyway?
• 10.9 I seem to be getting sftape instead of zftape. When I run "ftmt status" command, I get output that the Ftape docs says corresponds to sftape ( /dev/qft0: Invalid argument ). Why?
• 10.10 My Ditto DASH/FC-20/Exabyte Accelerator card works under Microsoft Windows, but I get a drive not found type of error in /var/log/messages when trying to use it under Linux.
• 10.11 Ftape DMA transfers gives ECC errors
• 10.12 Help! I'm getting 'dmaalloc() failed' in my syslog file.
• 10.13 Syslogd works overtime when running Ftape
• 10.14 How do I change the trace-level?
• 10.15 I'm having problems with Ftape. I'm using the latest version of Ftape from the Ftape Home Page and believe that I've located a real bug. What should I do?

11. FAQ: "Using Ftape" related questions !

• 11.1 How fast is Ftape ?
• 11.2 When I write to some of my tapes, they seem to spend a lot of time "shoe-shining," or repositioning instead of streaming. Is something wrong with my system?
• 11.3 Do I have to reboot to the DOS world to format tapes?
• 11.4 Is it possibly to format Ditto 2GB tapes with ftape?
• 11.5 Is it possibly to format Ditto Max or Max Pro tapes with ftape?
• 11.6 Ftape detects more bad sectors than DOS on QIC-3020 tapes
• 11.7 Is it ok that I'm not hearing the tape move when I do a fsf or a bsf with mt?
• 11.8 Why does my XYZ backup program complain about "Invalid argument" errors?
• 11.9 I/O errors and FDC - some explanations.
• 11.10 Why do I get "/dev/qft0: No such device" errors?
• 11.11 I get "device busy" when I make multiple backups on a tape using some script.
• 11.12 How do I "..." with tar?
• 11.13 What block-size should I use with tar ?
• 11.14 Where can I find the tar/mt/cpio/dd binaries - sources - manpages?
• 11.15 If I use tapers compression, is it a bad idea to use the compression with zftape, or would it be better to not use tapers compression, and let zftape do it?
• 11.16 How does zftape compression compare to say gzip -9?
• 11.17 I don't trust compression, but hear that the sftape interface is going away. What should I do?
• 11.18 Ftape says "This tape has no 'Linux raw format"
• 11.19 Can I exchange tapes with someone using DOS?
• 11.20 How does `mt eom' work when you've started overwriting a tape in the middle?
• 11.21 When I made backups before using taper, under the 2.0.29 ftape my drive didn't support fsf, under the new zftape it does, why would this be, and what exactly is fsf ?
• 11.22 What exactly is the difference between ftape, and zftape?
• 11.23 What is the difference between a rewinding, and non rewinding drive?
• 11.24 Can someone tell me how to use mt to rewind my TR-3 drive one record using zftape record, so I can verify it?
• 11.25 By non-rewinding, they mean that it doesn't automatically rewind, correct? It doesn't mean that under no circumstances it will rewind, right? I tried using /dev/zqft0, and it instantly rewinds the tape.
• 11.26 What is the difference between what mt considers a record and what it considers a file?
• 11.27 Reusing tapes with zftape without reformatting the tape.
• 11.28 This script implements a simple contents listing for the zftape package using the "MTIOCVOLINFO" ioctl.

12. FAQ: "Tape and Drivers" related questions !

• 12.1 What are good makers of Travan tapes?
• 12.2 Where can I obtain the QIC standards?
• 12.3 Is the Iomega Ditto 2GB drive supported?
• 12.4 Is the Iomega Ditto Max drive supported?
• 12.5 Is the Iomega Ditto Max Pro drive supported?

13. FAQ: Miscellaneous !

• 13.1 How to subscribe to the Ftape Mailing List?
• 13.2 How to un-subscribe from the Ftape Mailing List?
• 13.3 Links to related information.

14. Debugging the ftape driver

• 14.1 The kernel/ftape crashes on me when I do `...' - is that a bug?
• 14.2 OK, it's a bug ...ehhh... feature - How do I submit a report?

15. Contributions

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