I'm happy to announce the availability of ftape-3.04
What it is
==========
ftape is a floppy tape device driver for Linux.
ftape-3.x developed as the re-unification of the stock ftape-2.x driver
written by Bas Laarhoven and the enhancements/modifications I had
implemented in a separate development tree called "zftape".
ftape-3.04 is implemented as a stack of two kernel modules:
ftape.o - hardware driver (MANDATORY)
zftape.o - VFS front-end (MANDATORY)
zft-compressor.o - user-transparent on the fly compression (OPTIONAL)
Should I upgrade?
=================
Yes, if you
- need support for formatting of floppy tape cartridges
- are already using any version of ftape-3.x
- have problems with ftape-2.x
- have a QIC-3010/3020/TR-2/TR-3 capable drive.
- want to use a "high speed controller" at 2Mbit/sec data transfer rate
And of course:
EVERYBODY WHO ALREADY IS USING ONE OF THE BETA VERSIONS OF ftape-3.04
IS URGED TO UPGRADE TO THE FINAL RELEASE.
News
====
The main differences between the last publicly available version 3.03a
and 3.04 are the following:
- the internal version of the Ditto 2GB drive is supported
(credits to
"Jochen Hoenicke" <Jochen.Hoenicke@Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.DE>)
- the sftape.o module which implemented the VFS interface of the old
ftape-2.x has vanished.
- most of the code needed for formatting of floppy tape cartridges has
been moved to a user level program "ftformat"
- improved verification after formatting cartridges.
- several bug fixes w.r.t. to the interaction between the interrupt
service routine and the remainder of the kernel driver.
- a procfs interface gives status information about the detected
hardware, maximal data rate etc.
Please refer to the file RELEASE-NOTES of the ftape distribution for
further information.
Supported platforms
===================
Linux/Intel-ix86 for
Linux-1.2.13 (after patching)
Linux-2.0.*
Linux-2.1.* (at least up to 2.1.62)
Linux/alpha was supported once upon a time, but this hasn't been
tested for ages.
ftape-3.04 can be down-loaded from
==================================
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes/ftape-3.4.tar.gz
Another possibility is to down-load the package from my web page:
http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/claus/ftape
where you can also find links to related information, old versions of
ftape and current development snapshots (if any).
Kernel patches against 2.1.62 and 2.0.31 (yes, I know that's probably
too late) can be found on the web page ONLY.
IMPORTANT:
The web page won't be accessible before Monday morning (MET) at which
time hopefully somebody will fix the problems with our gateway.
Documentation
=============
The Ftape-HOWTO unluckily is out of date (i.e. documents the version 2
series of ftape). Recent documentation is included in the
distribution and can be viewed on-line from the ftape home page at
http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/claus/ftape
Have fun
Claus
-- Claus-Justus Heine Heine@physik.rwth-aachen.de http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/clausPGP Public Key: http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/claus/claus-public-key.asc
Ftape - the Linux Floppy Tape Project WWW : http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/claus/ftape Mailing-list: linux-tape@vger.rutgers.edu
--pgp-sign-Multipart_Sun_Nov__9_03:44:52_1997-1 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6.3i Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.4, an Emacs/PGP interface
iQCVAwUBNGUj1to/s1zPE7AdAQFLGgP9EjZGVNB7qbQzTen1+8qTn1qbRgl0yWN/ tVFIf96f7NoxJ9WRkVoGcHKT5obRWgL0gwyCcNqVwjyMsNqcLgPm/LS6GRUcWf0x XYyWcg4E0JKOylixRhu4BhgDd17D3U6znQYeXTYFfFp5FFELAoGwCR2lfT2wgrV5 fj29xMZA2oY= =iEa8 -----END PGP MESSAGE-----
--pgp-sign-Multipart_Sun_Nov__9_03:44:52_1997-1--