I am a new list subscriber hoping for help to solve problems(s) installing
ftape. Anyone not interested in background, please save some time and skip
on to the "problem" paragraphs.
Background -- I have Linux 2.2.13-4mdk (obtained as the current commercial
release of MacMillan/Mandrake/RedHat titled Linux 6.5) running on an HP
Pentium II, equipped with an Iomega Ditto Max (*might* be the
'Professional' model) tape drive using a separate ISA floppy controller
from Iomega. (The controller is not the one that shipped with the drive a
year ago -- Iomega had to send a separate one that was suitable for use
with Windows NT that also runs on my host.) In experimenting with kernels
to support various devices, I eventually compiled ftape from the Mandrake
distribution into a kernel, noting the controller parameters when prompted
for them under the CONFIG_FT_ALT_FDC submenus. This is ftape v3.04d
25/11/97 for Linux 2.2.13-4mdk. For good measure, I put the same
parameters in a lilo.conf 'append' statement. The kernel booted ok. The
*ft* devices showed up ok in /dev. Trying to access *ft0 via commands like
'mt -f /dev/rft0 status' always failed on the first attempt after booting
with a message something like "device not configured", but succeeded on
second and later attempts. Trying to actually work with the tape drive
(e.g. mt -f /dev/rft0 rewind, or tar -f /dev/rft0 /etc) always failed. I
also found messages like the following showing up in /var/log/messages:
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: ============ unknown vendor id ===========
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: A new, yet unsupported tape drive is found
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: Please report the following values:
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: Vendor id : 0x8885
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: Wakeup method : Colorado
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: And a description of your tape drive
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: to the ftape maintainer
Nov 11 16:45:02 rlb kernel: ==========================================.
So I headed off to the ftape home page and found the apparent solution,
i.e. that the Ditto Max and Ditto Max Pro are only supported in ftape 4.x
releases. I downloaded ftape 4.02, the latest stable version of the
drivers. Now I'm at last to the point for describing my main problem...
Problem #1 -- After unpacking the distribution and editing MCONFIG by
commenting out these lines
#FDC_OPT += -DCONFIG_FT_STD_FDC_$(STD_DEV) \
# -DCONFIG_FT_INT_$(STD_DEV)=1
and uncommenting or adding these lines
FDC_OPT = -DCONFIG_FT_FDC_BASE_$(82078_DEV)=0x370 \
-DCONFIG_FT_FDC_IRQ_$(82078_DEV)=6 \
-DCONFIG_FT_FDC_DMA_$(82078_DEV)=2 \
-DCONFIG_FT_NR_BUFFERS=3
-DCONFIG_FT_INT_$(82078_DEV)=1
FDC_BASE = 0x360
FDC_IRQ = 7
FDC_DMA = 3
I run make only to have it fail 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[2]: Leaving directory
`/usr/local/packages/ftape/ftape-4.02/ftape/lowlevel'
make[1]: *** [modules] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/packages/ftape/ftape-4.02/ftape'
make: *** [all] Error 2
The offending references are in lines like:
current->timeout = jiffies + (1000 * time + FT_USPT - 1) / FT_USPT;
and
current->timeout = 0; /* interrupt hasn't cleared this */
I've tried tracking down the declarations of 'current' and it's structure,
but no luck. In any case, this smells a lot more like a problem with
mismatched package versions than like something I could hope to fix at the
source code level. For info, my installed gcc (shipped with the OS) is as
follows:
[root@rlb lowlevel]# gcc --version
pgcc-2.91.66
Also for info, the 'make' failure is the same for ftape 4.02 distributions
downloaded either from the ftap homepage or from the UNC Metalab site. Is
this make failure a known installation hitch? Solution?
Problem #2 -- I thought I might find answer to Problem #1 in the available
documentation. I downloaded same (ftape-4.x-doc-1.03) from UNC, but can't
get *it* to install. The configure script fails as follows:
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/packages/ftape/ftapedocinstall
...lots of info with no apparent problem, then...
checking for sgml2info... no
checking whether is broken... yes
checking for own version ... ...
and the script hangs. I have used autoconfigurator without problem for one
other package (opie one-time password utilities) since setting up my
system. Will be grateful for ideas on how to make this work for ftape.
Thanks in advance...
Robert L. Becker, Jr.
Col, USAF, MC
Department of Cellular Pathology
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Washington, DC 20306-6000
202-782-1573
