On 1 Aug 2000, at 10:20, Paul Broadwith wrote:
> At 17:17 31/07/00 -0500, you wrote:
> > Why won't taper and kbackup don't
> > work, kbackup says that /dev/nqft3,
> >the device that initializes my tape, is rewinding and it wants a
> >nonrewinding device. Using the plain tar command it acts as if it's
> >nonrewinding. How do I fix this? The taper program, when choosing
> >make tape from the utilities menu says invalid argument after
> >attempting to erase a tape, nothing happens.
>
> I had exactly the same problem with KBackup - I gave up with it.
> Taper though worked fine, just couldn't handle the number of files I
> have on my system without crashing :-(
I'm pretty sure I found the 'answer' to this once in the KBackup
mailing list archives at Egroups.com. Search for the text of the
error message you got (about needing a non-rewinding device) in the
KBackup archives. A subscriber to the list once posted a patch to
KBackup to improve support for ftape and supposedly fix that very
error. I believe this same patch also comes with the source
distribution of ftape-tools (in the contrib subdirectory). Perhaps
someone on the list knows (of) the person who contributed this patch,
and could provide better information on the status of the patch.
I hastily applied the patch to KBackup and didn't see immediately
satsifying results with respect to the 'non-rewinding tape device'
situation, so I'm still using plain ol' tar until I have time to look
more closely at it. The person who posted the patch to the KBackup
list (and also the KBackup docs) suggested a number of other possible
tweaks which I didn't get around to trying either.
Unfortunately, I seem to remember a somewhat derisive comment from
the author of KBackup regarding ftape and floppy interface tape
drives, to the tune of 'get a real tape drive.' That wasn't a very
encouraging answer. It's sort of like that Dilbert cartoon, the one
with the Condescending Unix Computer User: 'Here's a nickel, kid. Get
yourself a *real* tape drive.'
Sorry I can't better provide all the specifics. Hopefully this is
enough to get you started. Hopefully you have better luck than I did.
--Kevin
