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-Intro
-=====
-
-This file describes some issues involved when using the "ftape"
-floppy tape device driver that comes with the Linux kernel.
-
-ftape has a home page at
-
-http://ftape.dot-heine.de/
-
-which contains further information about ftape. Please cross check
-this WWW address against the address given (if any) in the MAINTAINERS
-file located in the top level directory of the Linux kernel source
-tree.
-
-NOTE: This is an unmaintained set of drivers, and it is not guaranteed to work.
-If you are interested in taking over maintenance, contact Claus-Justus Heine
-<ch@dot-heine.de>, the former maintainer.
-
-Contents
-========
-
-A minus 1: Ftape documentation
-
-A. Changes
- 1. Goal
- 2. I/O Block Size
- 3. Write Access when not at EOD (End Of Data) or BOT (Begin Of Tape)
- 4. Formatting
- 5. Interchanging cartridges with other operating systems
-
-B. Debugging Output
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Tuning the debugging output
-
-C. Boot and load time configuration
- 1. Setting boot time parameters
- 2. Module load time parameters
- 3. Ftape boot- and load time options
- 4. Example kernel parameter setting
- 5. Example module parameter setting
-
-D. Support and contacts
-
-*******************************************************************************
-
-A minus 1. Ftape documentation
-==============================
-
-Unluckily, the ftape-HOWTO is out of date. This really needs to be
-changed. Up to date documentation as well as recent development
-versions of ftape and useful links to related topics can be found at
-the ftape home page at
-
-http://ftape.dot-heine.de/
-
-*******************************************************************************
-
-A. Changes
-==========
-
-1. Goal
- ~~~~
- The goal of all that incompatibilities was to give ftape an interface
- that resembles the interface provided by SCSI tape drives as close
- as possible. Thus any Unix backup program that is known to work
- with SCSI tape drives should also work.
-
- The concept of a fixed block size for read/write transfers is
- rather unrelated to this SCSI tape compatibility at the file system
- interface level. It developed out of a feature of zftape, a
- block wise user transparent on-the-fly compression. That compression
- support will not be dropped in future releases for compatibility
- reasons with previous releases of zftape.
-
-2. I/O Block Size
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The block size defaults to 10k which is the default block size of
- GNU tar.
-
- The block size can be tuned either during kernel configuration or
- at runtime with the MTIOCTOP ioctl using the MTSETBLK operation
- (i.e. do "mt -f /dev/qft0" setblk #BLKSZ). A block size of 0
- switches to variable block size mode i.e. "mt setblk 0" switches
- off the block size restriction. However, this disables zftape's
- built in on-the-fly compression which doesn't work with variable
- block size mode.
-
- The BLKSZ parameter must be given as a byte count and must be a
- multiple of 32k or 0, i.e. use "mt setblk 32768" to switch to a
- block size of 32k.
-
- The typical symptom of a block size mismatch is an "invalid
- argument" error message.
-
-3. Write Access when not at EOD (End Of Data) or BOT (Begin Of Tape)
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- zftape (the file system interface of ftape-3.x) denies write access
- to the tape cartridge when it isn't positioned either at BOT or
- EOD.
-
-4. Formatting
- ~~~~~~~~~~
- ftape DOES support formatting of floppy tape cartridges. You need the
- `ftformat' program that is shipped with the modules version of ftape.
- Please get the latest version of ftape from
-
- ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes
-
- or from the ftape home page at
-
- http://ftape.dot-heine.de/
-
- `ftformat' is contained in the `./contrib/' subdirectory of that
- separate ftape package.
-
-5. Interchanging cartridges with other operating systems
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- The internal emulation of Unix tape device file marks has changed
- completely. ftape now uses the volume table segment as specified
- by the QIC-40/80/3010/3020/113 standards to emulate file marks. As
- a consequence there is limited support to interchange cartridges
- with other operating systems.
-
- To be more precise: ftape will detect volumes written by other OS's
- programs and other OS's programs will detect volumes written by
- ftape.
-
- However, it isn't possible to extract the data dumped to the tape
- by some MSDOS program with ftape. This exceeds the scope of a
- kernel device driver. If you need such functionality, then go ahead
- and write a user space utility that is able to do that. ftape already
- provides all kernel level support necessary to do that.
-
-*******************************************************************************
-
-B. Debugging Output
- ================
-
-1. Introduction
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The ftape driver can be very noisy in that is can print lots of
- debugging messages to the kernel log files and the system console.
- While this is useful for debugging it might be annoying during
- normal use and enlarges the size of the driver by several kilobytes.
-
- To reduce the size of the driver you can trim the maximal amount of
- debugging information available during kernel configuration. Please
- refer to the kernel configuration script and its on-line help
- functionality.
-
- The amount of debugging output maps to the "tracing" boot time
- option and the "ft_tracing" modules option as follows:
-
- 0 bugs
- 1 + errors (with call-stack dump)
- 2 + warnings
- 3 + information
- 4 + more information
- 5 + program flow
- 6 + fdc/dma info
- 7 + data flow
- 8 + everything else
-
-2. Tuning the debugging output
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- To reduce the amount of debugging output printed to the system
- console you can
-
- i) trim the debugging output at run-time with
-
- mt -f /dev/nqft0 setdensity #DBGLVL
-
- where "#DBGLVL" is a number between 0 and 9
-
- ii) trim the debugging output at module load time with
-
- modprobe ftape ft_tracing=#DBGLVL
-
- Of course, this applies only if you have configured ftape to be
- compiled as a module.
-
- iii) trim the debugging output during system boot time. Add the
- following to the kernel command line:
-
- ftape=#DBGLVL,tracing
-
- Please refer also to the next section if you don't know how to
- set boot time parameters.
-
-*******************************************************************************
-
-C. Boot and load time configuration
- ================================
-
-1. Setting boot time parameters
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Assuming that you use lilo, the LI)nux LO)ader, boot time kernel
- parameters can be set by adding a line
-
- append some_kernel_boot_time_parameter
-
- to `/etc/lilo.conf' or at real boot time by typing in the options
- at the prompt provided by LILO. I can't give you advice on how to
- specify those parameters with other loaders as I don't use them.
-
- For ftape, each "some_kernel_boot_time_parameter" looks like
- "ftape=value,option". As an example, the debugging output can be
- increased with
-
- ftape=4,tracing
-
- NOTE: the value precedes the option name.
-
-2. Module load time parameters
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Module parameters can be specified either directly when invoking
- the program 'modprobe' at the shell prompt:
-
- modprobe ftape ft_tracing=4
-
- or by editing the file `/etc/modprobe.conf' in which case they take
- effect each time when the module is loaded with `modprobe' (please
- refer to the respective manual pages). Thus, you should add a line
-
- options ftape ft_tracing=4
-
- to `/etc/modprobe.conf` if you intend to increase the debugging
- output of the driver.
-
-
-3. Ftape boot- and load time options
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- i. Controlling the amount of debugging output
- DBGLVL has to be replaced by a number between 0 and 8.
-
- module | kernel command line
- -----------------------|----------------------
- ft_tracing=DBGLVL | ftape=DBGLVL,tracing
-
- ii. Hardware setup
- BASE is the base address of your floppy disk controller,
- IRQ and DMA give its interrupt and DMA channel, respectively.
- BOOL is an integer, "0" means "no"; any other value means
- "yes". You don't need to specify anything if connecting your tape
- drive to the standard floppy disk controller. All of these
- values have reasonable defaults. The defaults can be modified
- during kernel configuration, i.e. while running "make config",
- "make menuconfig" or "make xconfig" in the top level directory
- of the Linux kernel source tree. Please refer also to the on
- line documentation provided during that kernel configuration
- process.
-
- ft_probe_fc10 is set to a non-zero value if you wish for ftape to
- probe for a Colorado FC-10 or FC-20 controller.
-
- ft_mach2 is set to a non-zero value if you wish for ftape to probe
- for a Mountain MACH-2 controller.
-
- module | kernel command line
- -----------------------|----------------------
- ft_fdc_base=BASE | ftape=BASE,ioport
- ft_fdc_irq=IRQ | ftape=IRQ,irq
- ft_fdc_dma=DMA | ftape=DMA,dma
- ft_probe_fc10=BOOL | ftape=BOOL,fc10
- ft_mach2=BOOL | ftape=BOOL,mach2
- ft_fdc_threshold=THR | ftape=THR,threshold
- ft_fdc_rate_limit=RATE | ftape=RATE,datarate
-
-4. Example kernel parameter setting
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- To configure ftape to probe for a Colorado FC-10/FC-20 controller
- and to increase the amount of debugging output a little bit, add
- the following line to `/etc/lilo.conf':
-
- append ftape=1,fc10 ftape=4,tracing
-
-5. Example module parameter setting
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- To do the same, but with ftape compiled as a loadable kernel
- module, add the following line to `/etc/modprobe.conf':
-
- options ftape ft_probe_fc10=1 ft_tracing=4
-
-*******************************************************************************
-
-D. Support and contacts
- ====================
-
- Ftape is distributed under the GNU General Public License. There is
- absolutely no warranty for this software. However, you can reach
- the current maintainer of the ftape package under the email address
- given in the MAINTAINERS file which is located in the top level
- directory of the Linux kernel source tree. There you'll find also
- the relevant mailing list to use as a discussion forum and the web
- page to query for the most recent documentation, related work and
- development versions of ftape.
-
- Changelog:
- ==========
-
-~1996: Original Document
-
-10-24-2004: General cleanup and updating, noting additional module options.
- James Nelson <james4765@gmail.com>