LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Benjamin Close <linux@senet.com.au>
  To  : LanSol Computers <steve@lansol.com.au>
  Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 15:57:33 +0930 (CST)

Re: Ftape

On Sun, 23 May 1999, LanSol Computers wrote:

> I am very new comer to Linux and am having quite a bit of trouble getting a
> tape drive to work. I have RH6 installed OK and as far as I can tell ftape
> is alreadly installed but I get an error message when I try and tar to it.
> eg.
> tar cf /dev/ftape  home
> tar: Cannot open /dev/ftape: No such device
> tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
> 
> The ftape is in /dev but I cant seem to write to it. I think it must be a
> configuration problem, I have read all the howto's and manuals on ftape but
> I am getting a bit lost.
> 
> The tape drive is a QIC-80 running off the FDC and I would like to get a TR3
> or 4 going  eventually.
> 

Hello,
	I have never used a tape drive before but looking around I find
that you need to install a module or compile support for the QIC-80 in to
the kernel. If you have a default redhat install you most likely have this
as a module.
try: 

modprobe ftape

It may fail, if it does we'll hope it is already in the kernel. 

An ls -l of my /dev/ftape gives:
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            4 May 13 08:40 /dev/ftape -> rft0

This shows that ftape is a link to another file.
My suspisions are that it should be linking to /dev/qft0
So try this instead:

tar cf /dev/qft0  home

Hope if works :)

If this fails could you send my the result of the following commands:

lsmod 
cat /proc/devices

Then I can see if the required drivers are installed.
Cheers,
 --

* Benjamin Close
* Benjsc@senet.com.au
* Web Page: http://users.senet.com.au/~benjsc

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