ftape, 1.3.93, dmaalloc()

B. James Phillippe (bryan@eternity.aa.net)
Wed, 1 May 1996 10:37:23 -0700 (PDT)


Hello fellow Linux users,

Can anyone shed some light on this matter? I'm having a problem
with ftape compiled as a module, under 1.3.93. Background: normally, it
works great. I've made and read several backups under this same setup.
My only previous annoyance was a message in logfiles generated by ftape.o
upon first insertion (by kerneld) that FDC could not be locked (or something
similar). I'm guessing it's because my floppy driver is compiled as a
module as well(?)

Anyway, the REAL problem is this: last night I made a backup.
When I accessed my tape drive, the module wouldn't load. It complained
three times (I tried four times) about dmaalloc() unsuccessful, then it
loaded and I made a backup. Today, when I tried to review that backup,
it did the same thing, except now I can't get the module loaded at all
(manual or not) and I've tried many many times. No other modules have
any problems, and I use them exclusively. I have plenty of ram. The
machine has been up for about 9 days.

Here is some of my logging output..[from different logs]
May 1 10:22:22 eternity kernel: (c) 1995-1996 Kai Harrekilde-Petersen (khp@pip.dknet.dk)
May 1 10:22:22 eternity kernel: QIC-117 driver for QIC-40/80/3010/3020 tape drives
May 1 10:22:22 eternity kernel: Compiled for kernel version 1.3.93
May 1 10:22:22 eternity kernel: [000] kernel-interface.c (ftape_init) - dmaalloc() failed.
May 1 10:23:00 eternity kernel: ftape-2.08 960314
May 1 10:23:00 eternity kernel: (c) 1993-1995 Bas Laarhoven (bas@vimec.nl)
May 1 10:23:00 eternity kernel: (c) 1995-1996 Kai Harrekilde-Petersen (khp@pip.dknet.dk)
May 1 10:23:00 eternity kernel: QIC-117 driver for QIC-40/80/3010/3020 tape drives
May 1 10:23:00 eternity kernel: Compiled for kernel version 1.3.93
May 1 10:23:00 eternity kernel: [000] kernel-interface.c (ftape_init) - dmaalloc() failed.

May 1 10:15:30 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:16:07 eternity last message repeated 4 times
May 1 10:16:49 eternity last message repeated 4 times
May 1 10:18:12 eternity last message repeated 3 times
May 1 10:19:19 eternity last message repeated 7 times
May 1 10:19:46 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:21:01 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:22:22 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:23:00 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed

May 1 10:15:30 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:16:07 eternity last message repeated 4 times
May 1 10:16:49 eternity last message repeated 4 times
May 1 10:18:12 eternity last message repeated 3 times
May 1 10:19:19 eternity last message repeated 7 times
May 1 10:19:46 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:21:01 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:22:22 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:23:00 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed

[last night's load of ftape is these first two lines]
May 1 00:22:45 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 00:23:22 eternity last message repeated 3 times
May 1 10:15:30 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:16:41 eternity last message repeated 6 times
May 1 10:17:44 eternity last message repeated 4 times
May 1 10:18:12 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:19:46 eternity last message repeated 8 times
May 1 10:21:01 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:22:22 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed
May 1 10:23:00 eternity insmod: Initialization of ftape failed

Thanks for any input you can give me. I'm going to upgrade to 1.3.latest
sometime soon.

-Bryan

--
# B. James Phillippe # System Administrator, eternity.aa.net #
# bryan@eternity.aa.net  (see http://eternity.aa.net/~bryan) #
# System Technician, SSC., Inc. (Linux Journal; www.ssc.com) #
# Specializing in UNIX, Linux, Internet and networking stuff #