Hello there,
I am trying to install ftape for several days now. I wasn�t successful.
There is not only one problem but a large number. Help for any of it
is appreciated.
Extract from my system configuration:
SuSE Linux 6.1, Kernel 2.2.7
Gigabyte 686 BXC mainboard (it�s a PCI board)
onboard floppy disk controller
Peacock QIC 80 floppystreamer
ftape-version from the kernel
Problems:
1. When accessing the drive I sometimes (approx. 50% of all attempts) get
the error message
mt:/dev/nftape:Device not configured
If it works, it will work until I open or close another terminal window.
This might swap the state "working" to "not working". Conversely, if it
doesn�t work, the only thing that helps is opening or closing other
terminal windows.
Without X the state "working"/"not working" won�t switch. (Bad luck in
case it doesn�t work)
2. In case the tape works there are fatal errors on many tapes: Sometimes
the drive attemps to write on the same position over and over as if the
tape were damaged and finally stops with a fatal io error. On some tapes
this happens immediately after starting the backup, on others after the
drive has worked for a while.
These errors do not occur under DOS (same computer, same drive, same tape)
3. I downloaded ftape-tools (latest version). However ftformat does not
work. It tells something about unknown API.
4. I tried to install ftape 4.02 and 4.03 instead of the one which was
included
in the distribution. However compilation stops with:
fdc-io.c: In function `fdc_interrupt_wait':
fdc-io.c:433: structure has no member named `timeout'
fdc-io.c:454: structure has no member named `timeout'
make[2]: *** [fdc-io.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2
I have configured MCONFIG. I understood all settings there and think I
configured it correctly.
In case this is important: I compiled my own kernel some time ago. As
the mouse did not work for some reason I could not figure out, I continued
using the precompiled kernel included in the distribution.
I looked in my BIOS, but there are no switches similar to those descpribed
in the manual to have to be switched for PCI boards.
Please help. Even solving one of above problems would be great.
Onno Garms
