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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mira.net.au!vic.news.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!iafrica.com!pipex-sa.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!inet-nntp-gw-1.us.oracle.com!nntp-hub.barrnet.net!nntp.hybrid.com!usenet From: keng@hybrid.com (Ken Gaugler) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Floppy tape device? Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 23:17:51 GMT Organization: Hybrid Networks, Inc. - Cable Modem Leaders Lines: 42 Message-ID: <4pkuum$5ii@dracula.hybrid.com> References: <4om2a7$1j8@news.aimnet.com> <4ot16h$sv@uriah.heep.sax.de> <4p9ma1$jb8@dracula.hybrid.com> <4pc6cb$dsh@uriah.heep.sax.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: keng-lap.hybrid.com X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) wrote: >keng@hybrid.com (Ken Gaugler) wrote: >> >Nobody ever gots round to make ft(4) a regular tape driver. Several >> >people were about to start this task, but nobody finished. Call it >> >the ``Bermuda Triangle'' of FreeBSD. :) >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> That's too bad. It would be so nice to be able to say >> dump 0f /dev/ft0 <filesystem> >> >> Oh well, maybe someday (HINT HINT) someone will get around to it. >If you do it, name the device ``/dev/rft0''. :-) >That's what it is supposed to be... /dev/ft0 is supposed to be a >block device you could mount a file system on, i guess that's not your >actual intention. >Handling QIC-80/QIC-113 tapes seems to be so scaring an operation that >you most likely will have to fork out some $$$ for someone to write a >driver. Most people here are hacking for fun, but QIC-80 is no fun. >-- >cheers, J"org >joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE >Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-) Sadly, I lack the necessary C programming experience under unix to do this job myself. I am only interested in the floppy tape device for my personal system at home; therefore it is not possible for me to justify paying for a fully operational floppy tape driver. I might play around with writing a driver for the heck of it, but the learning curve will be formidable -- not impossible. Think I'll look to see if the source for ft is there to get an idea of what is involved. Of course the floppy module for linux might be a good place to start, too...