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4. Getting and installing ftape

4.1 Getting ftape

You can get ftape from many ftp sites in the world. The two main sites are:

sunsite is the official place to look for ftape, while pip is where I have my private ftp area. If you are looking for the lastest and greatest ftape software, pip is the place to look (but be prepared for being BETA tester!).

I will eventually include an installation guide in this section. For the moment being, you'll have to do with the document that is included in the ftape distribution.

4.2 What you need to install ftape

There are three source distributions that you must have to get ftape running:

Note that you cannot use modules-1.2.8 with a pre-1.2.8 kernel; if you upgrade to modules-1.2.8, you must update your kernel too.

Likewise, do not expect to be able to use modules-1.3.57 with a pre-1.3.57 kernel.

The modules utilities

Newer kernels (from 1.1.85 and on), have improved support for loadable modules (by Bjørn Ekwall and Jacques Gelinas), which (if possible) allow you to insert modules compiled for an `old' kernel into a `new' kernel. To compile the kernel with this improved module support, you need either the modules-1.2.8.tar.gz or the modules-1.3.57.tar.gz package. The modules packages can be found on tsx-11.mit.edu and sunsite.unc.edu. You must compile and install it before you compile the kernel.

What's new in modules-1.3.57?

As of kernel version 1.3.57, ``kernel daemon'' (kerneld) support is included in the standard kernel. kerneld can automatically insert and remove the neccessary modules to your kernel, at runtime. To be able to utilize this, you must have the modules-1.3.57 package, which contains the kerneld daemon.

What is new in modules-1.2.8?

The v1.2.8 package no longer exhibits the infamous insmod Oops bug, when ftape is inserted into the kernel. This was, by the way, caused because insmod did not handle modules with more that 4Kbyte of static data correctly. However, this is not the greatest advantage of the v1.2.8 package.

With v1.2.8 comes the kerneld daemon which can automatically insert the needed modules as needed. This requires a patch to the v1.2.x kernels, but there is support included as a standard part of the kernel, from v1.3.57 (see above).

Installing the modules utilitles

Extract the files somewhere convienient. Then, go into the modules-1.3.57 (or -1.2.8) directory and say make all; make install. Remember that you must be root to be able to install the files and man pages.

The Linux kernel

Since Linux version 1.2 has been out for some time I assume that everyone has switched over to it (or v1.3.x for that matter). If you have not already switched over, I assume you have a very good reason for not doing so, and that you can cope with the differences in installation etc, that it will make for you.

The kernel can be fetched from a large number of sites all over the world, including these:

    sunsite.unc.edu    [152.2.22.81]:    /pub/Linux/kernel/tapes/
    tsx-11.mit.edu     [18.172.1.2]:     /pub/linux/sources/system/
    ftp.funet.fi       [128.214.248.6]:  /pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/
    ftp.cs.helsinki.fi [128.214.48.123]: /pub/Software/Linux/Kernel/

You will find a number of subdirectories, including two named v1.2 and v1.3. These contain (you guessed it!) v1.2 and v1.3 of the kernel.

The v1.3 is the development kernel branch, while the v1.2 series are updated rather seldomly, and only after some serious bug has been found in it, and a field-tested fix has been provided.

For a minimum-hazzle kernel, you should go for the v1.2 series, but if you are more adventerous (or the v1.2 kernels lack your favorite CDROM driver), you can get a v1.3 kernel.

Be warned, though, that the v1.3 kernels are of unknown stability, and you should be well fared in patching, configuring, and compiling the kernel.

The Linux kernelQuick guide to compiling the kernel

The `standard' (recommended) place to install the kernel source is /usr/src/linux.

Go to /usr/src and type tar xzf linux-1.2.13.tar.gz (or whatever kernel version you intend to compile). This will create the linux directory (and a lot of subdirectories), which holds the kernel source code.

        # cd /usr/src
        # tar xzf linux-1.2.13.tar.gz

Go into the linux directory and configure the kernel.

        # cd linux
        # make config

The configuration script will ask you about which drivers you wish to include, and what functionality (networking, filesystems, etc) that you want. If you use a kernel version later than v1.3.34, there will be NO ftape option. This is because ftape has been taught to allocate its dma buffers at insmod time. Hence, the need for `kernel support' vanished. If you have a pre-2.04 ftape distribution, you can get a patch from my homepage which will implement the dynamic buffers.

Note that you can safely insert a ftape module into a kernel which is configured for `ftape support'. The only drawback is that you will lose around 112Kbyte of precious dma'able memory.

If you use a v1.2 kernel, you must make a short detour around the kernel directory, to apply a patch to the kernel/ksyms.c file at this point. The patch can be found as ftape-2.06/linux-1.2/ksyms.patch. Change to the directory and apply the patch.

        # cd kernel
        # patch < ../../ftape-2.06/linux-1.2/ksyms.patch
        # cd ..

(this assumes that you have the ftape source lying in /usr/src/ftape-2.06).

After you have configured the kernel, you must generate the dependency files and then compile the kernel.

        # make dep
        # make zImage

If everything goes well, you should find the compiled kernel in arch/i386/boot/zImage. If you have selected any drivers to be compiled as modules, you must also do a `make modules'.

Now, you can compile ftape for you new kernel (there is no need to reboot your first).

        # cd /usr/src/ftape-2.06

There are a few options that you can tinker with in the Makefile. Most importantly, if you still use gcc v2.4.5 you must add `-DGCC_2_4_5_BUG' to the `FTAPE_OPT' variable. Also, if you have one of Colorado's FC-10 or FC-20 controllers you must tell ftape this.

4.3 What you need to install ftapeFollowing the development of the ftape driver

If you want to follow the development of the ftape driver, you should consider subscribing to the TAPE mailing list on vger. To subscribe to it, send a mail saying `subscribe linux-tape' to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu. When you subscribe, you will be sent a greeting mail, which will tell you how to submit real mails and how to get off the list again.

4.4 Can I format my tapes under Linux?

No! Honestly, noone is working on it: If you want to work on it, drop me a line. Until then, you'll have to use MessyDOS (arghhh!) instead or buy preformatted tapes. However, some of the preformatted tapes are not checked for bad sectors!. If the ftape driver encounters a tape with no bad blocks, it will issue a warning. If ftape barfs at your preformatted tapes, try out your DOS software. If both the DOS software and ftape barfs on your tapes, a reformat will very probably cure the problem.

Note that to be able to use your newly formatted tapes under ftape, you must erase the tape first: 

        mt -f /dev/nftape erase

4.5 Which formatting programs can I use under DOS?

These are known to work:

These programs are known to be more or less buggy:

In fact, most software under DOS should work. The Conner Backup Basics v1.0 has a parameter off by one (someone could not read the QIC-80 specs right!), which is corrected in version 1.1. However, ftape detects this, and will work around it. Dennis T. Flaherty (<dennisf@denix.elk.miles.com>) report that Conner C250MQ owners can obtain the new v1.1, by calling Conner at 1-800-4Conner (in the US) and ask for an upgrade (for a nominal fee for the floppy). The Windows versions should work fine. Some versions of Colorado's tape program for windows, has an off-by-one error in the number of segments. ftape also detect and work around that bug.

Central Point Backup can be used, but it wastes precious tape space when it encounters a bad spot on the tape.

NOTE: If you are running a formatting software under DOS, which is not mentioned here, please mail the relevant info to me ( <khp@pip.dknet.dk>), so I can update the list.

4.6 Mixing ftape and floppies

Since both the floppy driver and ftape needs the FDC (and IRQ6), they cannot run concurrently. Thus, if you have mounted a floppy and then try to access the tape drive, ftape will complain that it cannot grab IRQ6 and then die. This is especially a problem when designing a emergency disk for use with ftape. This solution is to either load the boot/root disk into a ramdisk and then unmount the floppy, or have two FDC's.

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