Return to BSD News archive
#! rnews 2638 bsd
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!zib-berlin.de!irz401!uriah.heep!bonnie.heep!not-for-mail
From: j@bonnie.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: rft0 not configured -- for /dev/ft0 (qic-80)
Date: 22 Aug 1995 14:51:03 +0200
Organization: Private U**x site, Dresden.
Lines: 46
Message-ID: <41cjrn$1nb@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de>
References: <417ls1$8u1@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu>
Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.109.108.139
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Sean Emery <emerys@wam.umd.edu> wrote:
>
>I am trying to mount my new tape drive under FreeBSD, and am having no
>luck at all. I've already configured and recompiled my kernel (with
>support for ft0 on drive 1.) Rebooting and running ft (floppy based
>tape control (8)), replies with
>
>confucius:290] ft
>/dev/rft0: Device not configured
>
>mounting has no effect, either (as you can see, I'm a little new at this):
>
>confucius:295] mount /dev/rft0 /tape
>/dev/rft0 on /tape: Block device required
>
>Is that the right device? What am I doing wrong? Better yet, what am I
>doing right?
Running the `ft' command was right.
Mounting wouldn't work: under Unix, mounting refers to installing a
file system that's residing on a (buffered) block device into the Unix
file hierarchy. You need a block-addressable device, for tape drives,
only the classic half-inch reel-to-reel tapes would be capable of
this. These days, nobody would really do it however -- performance
sucks.
Unfortunately, the floppy tape driver is not in a state where every-
body would like it were. So it's even impossible to access the floppy
tape device via regular read/write system calls; that's why there is
this special utility called `ft'.
I'm not sure what you've done wrong with configuring the ft device in
the kernel; the GENERIC kernel should already have all you need.
Maybe you have to declare it as ``drive 2'' (as opposed to 1), even if
the floppy disk drive 1 is missing. (Sorry, i don't use a floppy tape
myself.) The least you should be able to see is the announcement of
the drive at boot time. As long as the driver didn't find it there,
you don't have a chance later.
Which tape drive are you using?
--
cheers, J"org private: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
http://www.sax.de/~joerg/
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)