Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 18:44:03 -0600 (CST) From: Joe Diehl <joed@engg.ksu.edu> To: kfurge@ysi.com (K.C. Furge) Cc: bugs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Want to help with ft driver support for Colorado Jumbo 350 Message-ID: <199511190044.SAA05945@gandalf.me.ksu.edu> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.951118112313.7914A-100000@wqs1.ysi.com> from "K.C. Furge" at Nov 18, 95 11:27:02 am
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As K.C. Furge wrote: > > I seem to be having trouble getting the ft driver to work with my > Colorado Jumbo 350 floppy tape drive. I would like to fix the driver to > support my drive but have no information about the QIC-80 format. If you > have any information it would be greatly appreciated. The driver You can get a copy of the QIC standards by calling (805) 963-3853. If you call to get the standards, also ask for QIC-117. This is the command set standard for QIC-40, QIC-80, QIC-3020, and QIC-3010 tape drives. > properly identifies my drive but when switching to the second track > appears to have problems. It fails at block 3200 and just sits there and > "chirps" because it seems to get confused about which track the tape > drive is on. It says it should be on 1 but the tape drive reports that > it is on 2. Any clues to give me a head start would also be appreciated. > I can send more information from the debug output if necessary. This problem is most likly related to the Tape Geometry. The driver is most likly thinking the tape is a plain old DC2120 tape, not the 350Mb tape. Hmm.. I'm thinking the 350Mb tapes are 425ft. If this is correct, then here's the problem: When a particular command is sent to a tape drive, the drive will return an 8-bit binary number with tape type and format information. The new standards have the tape drive return one code for both 205ft and 425ft tapes, while the old standard (which the ft driver was written to) returns the same code for 205ft tapes only. The trick is to rewrite the entry in the geometry table (located in ft.c) for 205ft QIC-80 tapes for 425ft tapes. With a little bit of research, I believe I could tell you all the entries in the table except for the last one. I have yet to figure that one out. The method used to detect the tape geometry is completly out of date and needs to been rewritten from scratch. For this reason, I have decided to completly rewrite the driver from the ground up; however, this will take sometime. I believe, although I don't know for sure (havn't tried it, yet), that if you use a DC2120 250ft tape (good luck finding one), then the driver will work properly. Most stores are now selling DC2120 307.5ft tapes, which don't work in my Colorado T1000 (which, after some work, is recognized). According to HP Colorado, 205ft tapes are out of production. They suggested I try calling 3M, maybe they still have some. --- Joe Diehl <joed@freebsd.org>
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