Copyright © 10 August 2001 Claus-Justus Heine
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The Ftape Installation and Usage GuideThis document describes basic usage and installation of the floppy tape device driver ftape for Linux.
This document applies to version 4.05 of the ftape device driver.
| Copying | Your rights and freedoms. |
| Introduction | What is ftape. |
| Reporting bugs | Submitting bug and problem reports. |
| Documentation | Ways to get access to the documentation. |
| Quick Installation | If you are fed up with RTFM. |
| Installation | How to install. |
| Loading ftape | Loading the kernel modules. |
| Testing ftape | Testing the driver. |
| File System Interface | VFS Interface and Implementation Notes. |
| Concept Index | Index. |
| Ways to get access to the documentation | |
| Sources of Documentation | Other documentation packages. |
| HTML | The HTML version of the manual. |
| Info | The Info version of the manual. |
| Postscript | The Postscript version of the manual. |
| TeXinfo | Rebuilding the documentation from source. |
| Installation | |
| Requirements | What is needed for the Installation. |
| Kernel patches | Inclusion into kernel, compatibility patches. |
| Compiling ftape | Compiling ftape, compile time configuration. |
| Installing ftape | Installing the kernel modules and utilities. |
| Un-installing ftape | Un-installing the kernel modules and utilities. |
| Requirements | |
| Ftape distribution | The floppy tape driver distribution `ftape-4.05.tar.gz'. |
| Kernel Sources | The kernel sources for Linux v1.2.13 or later. |
| Modules Utilities | Utilities for managing kernel modules. |
| Tape Software | Backup software and related programs. |
| Optional utilities | Utilities designed for ftape. |
| Kernel log daemons | Kernel Log Daemons. |
| The hardware | A floppy tape drive. |
| PnP configuration | Plug and Pray (PnP) Utilities. |
| Documentation formatting | Optional: recent documentation formatting tools. |
| Kernel Patches | |
| Very old kernels | What to do if running prehistoric kernels. |
| v1.2.13 | Installation under Linux v1.2.13. |
| v2.x.x | Installation under Linux v2.0.0 and up. |
| Installation under Linux v1.2.13 | |
| Patching 1.2.13 | Changing 1.2.13 by using the patch command. |
| Changing 1.2.13 by hand | Doing it yourself. |
| Compiling ftape, compile time configuration | |
| FDC_OPT | Setting up for your hardware. |
| CONFIG_MODVERSIONS | Versioned symbols. |
| BROKEN_FLOPPY_DRIVER | Ignore bad behaviour of the floppy driver. |
| CONFIG_FT_PROC_FS | The procfs Interface of ftape. |
| TRACE_FLAGS | Controlling the amount of debugging output. |
| Loading the Kernel Modules | |
| Module Stack | Which modules are needed? |
| Autoloading | Using the kernel's module auto-loading. |
| Configure ftape | Load time configuration. |
| Inserting ftape | Inserting the ftape modules into the kernel. |
| Load time configuration | |
| ftape.o | ftape.o module options. |
| zftape.o | zftape.o module options. |
| zft-compressor.o | zft-compressor.o module options. |
| ftape-internal.o | ftape-internal.o module options. |
| trakker.o bpck-fdc.o | trakker.o and bpck-fdc.o module options. |
| All FDC driver modules | General FDC driver module options. |
| Inserting the ftape modules into the kernel | |
| conf.modules | Modifying `/etc/conf.modules'. |
| request_module | Using the kernel's module auto-loading mechanism. |
| modprobe | Loading the driver with modprobe. |
Modifying `/etc/conf.modules'
| |
| Auto-loading | Prepare for module auto-loading. |
| FDC drivers | FDC drivers specification in `/etc/conf.modules'. |
| FDC driver options | FDC drivers specification in `/etc/conf.modules'. |
| Tricks | Automated memory de-fragmentation with swapout. |
| Complete examples | Complete examples for `/etc/conf.modules'. |
| Testing the driver | |
| Ftape Tools | Useful utilities for ftape. |
| Preparing the tests | Avoiding super user privileges. |
| Running the tests | Performing sample backups. |
| Other tests | Other test runs. |
| ftape Debugging Messages | ftape Debugging Messages. |
| Output of the status command | Output of ftmt status. |
| Syslog example | Syslog example, first tape access. |
| Useful utilities for ftape | |
| Swapout | Swapout, the memory de-fragmentation utility. |
| mt | The tape control program. |
| vtblc | The volume table manipulation program. |
| ftformat | The formatting program. |
| VFS Interface and Implementation Notes | |
| Devices description | Devices provided by ftape-4.05. |
| ftape-2x compatibility | Compatibility with ftape-2.x. |
| ftape-3x compatibility | Compatibility with ftape-3.04d. |
| ftape-402 compatibility | Compatibility with ftape-4.02. |
| File marks | `End Of File' marks with ftape-4.05. |
| Tape blocks | Recording fixed length data blocks. |
| Compression | Builtin Compression. |
| Ioctls | The ioctl interface to ftape. |
| Devices provided by ftape-4.05 | |
| devfs support | Device naming with devfs. |
| Rewinding devices | Rewinding and non-rewinding devices. |
| Drive selection | The meaning of the digit suffix. |
| zftape devices | Devices provided by ftape-3.04d (and later versions). |
| Rewinding and non-rewinding devices | |
| Header segments | Updating of the header segments. |
| tape motion commands | Rewinding devices and tape motion commands. |
| Devices provided by ftape-4.05 | |
| zftape devices table | Table of devices. |
| zftape devices overview | Overview. |
| /dev/qft | Devices with QIC-113 volume table segment. |
| /dev/rft | Synonym to `/dev/qft' (sym-link). |
| /dev/zqft | Obsolete, no longer supported. |
| /dev/rawft | Synonym to `/dev/qft' (sym-link). |
| Compatibility with ftape-2.x | |
| ftape-2x support | Read only support for ftape-2.x. |
| ftape-2x EOF semantics | Changed MTBSF and EOM semantics. |
| Compatibility with ftape-4.02 | |
| Tape block addressing | Tape block addressing. |
| Raw access mode | Raw access mode. |
| File marks | |
| ftape-2x file marks | File mark implementation with ftape-2.x. |
| ftape-3x file marks | File mark implementation with ftape-3.04d (and later versions). |
| tar EOF | File marks and tar. |
| The ioctl interface to ftape | |
| MTIOCTOP | The tape operation wrapper ioctl. |
| MTIOCGET | Query the tape status. |
| MTIOCPOS | Query the tape position. |
| MTIOCRDFTSEG and MTIOCWRFTSEG | Read and write floppy tape segments. |
| MTIOCVOLINFO | Query info about the current volume (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTIOCGETSIZE | Query the size of the cartridge (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTIOCFTFORMAT | Format a floppy tape cartridge (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTIOCFTCMD | Send raw QIC-117 commands to the tape drive. |
| MTIOCFTMODE | Switching between raw and regular mode. |
The tape operation wrapper ioctl MTIOCTOP
| |
| MTRESET | Reset drive and driver. |
| MTFSF | Skip forward over file marks. |
| MTBSF | Skip backward over file marks. |
| MTFSR | Skip forward over tape records. |
| MTBSR | Skip backwards over tape records. |
| MTWEOF | Write file mark. |
| MTREW | Rewind cartridge. |
| MTOFFL | Put drive off-line. |
| MTNOP | No op, set status. |
| MTRETEN | Retension the cartridge. |
| MTBSFM | Skip backwards over file marks. |
| MTFSFM | Skip forward over tape file marks. |
| MTEOM | Skip to end of recorded area. |
| MTERASE | Erase cartridge. |
| MTSETBLK | Setting the block size (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTSETDENSITY | Setting the debugging level (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTSEEK | Seek to absolute tape block (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTTELL | Request tape position, buggy. |
| MTSETDRVBUFFER | Set amount of driver memory (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTLOCK | Lock the tape door (Ditto Max). |
| MTUNLOCK | Unlock the tape door (Ditto Max). |
| MTLOAD | Unimplemented (Ditto Max). |
| MTUNLOAD | Unimplemented (Ditto Max). |
| MTCOMPRESSION | Switch compression on and off (ftape-3.04d (and later versions)). |
| MTSETPART | Set the active partition (Ditto Max). |
Formatting of cartridges using MTIOCFTFORMAT
| |
| FTFORMAT compatibility | Differences between ftape-3.04d and ftape-4.05. |
| struct mtftformat | MTIOCFTFORMAT ioctl definition. |
| FTFMT_SET_PARMS | Set software parameters. |
| FTFMT_GET_PARMS | Get software parameters. |
| FTFMT_FORMAT_TRACK | Start formatting a tape track. |
| FTFMT_STATUS | Monitor formatting a tape track. |
| FTFMT_VERIFY | Verify a floppy tape segment. |
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