boyle@gca.com (David Boyle) writes:

quoted text
> What tape drive do you use with linux (manufacturer and interface)?

I've got a Wanktek 5150EN that works with the latest Linux tape driver
(available at tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/ALPHA/QIC-02/tpqic02-r2.tar) but
I'm running Linux 0.98pl1 and applied the patches by hand.  There is a
readme in that directory, also.

I run a 386/40 with 8 megs of RAM and a 15ms (average) drive.  The
controller board is configured for irq2 (told Linux that it was irq9),
dma 3 and port 288.

I kept getting start-stop action with the tape (the note about piping it
through 'dd' didn't work for me at all) until I remade the filesystem
and restored the tape.  It looks like disk fragmentation can really slow
the machine down.  I still get some {over,under}runs, but not _nearly_
as much as before.  I've been running Linux on this partition since
March or April, so I'm sure things were spread _ALL OVER_ the disk.

It _does_ give you a working tape backup, because I've actually used it.
I made sure I had three tapes of my partition first, though.  ;-)

quoted text
> Is it also compatible with DOS?

Uhh... the Wangtek isn't a recognized DOS device so 'tar' for DOS
doesn't know anything about it.  Wangtek tech support told me that
PCTools 8.0 was going to have support for it in the backup program they
have.  The only thing I _KNOW_ currently works with it is Sytos/Sytos+.

quoted text
> Is is compatible with Sun's tar?

I wish I had a Sun here to test it out on.  Hmmm... maybe a friend at
{wustl.edu} can help me find out.  It'll be a couple of days before I
know anything, though... our FM morning team is spending Thursday night
at a "haunted" house in the area, and I "get" to set the equipment up
and stay up all night for the broadcast... lucky me.  Anybody want a
very temporary part-time job tomorrow night??  All you have to do is
baby-sit a few pieces of equipment and two prima-donnas. :-)

Pete C.


+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Cervasio                | pete%q106fm.uucp@wupost.wustl.edu     |
| I fish, therefore I am.      | pete.cervasio@f1.n2250.z1.fidonet.org |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  If you think of C as a preprocessor for your assembler, it makes    |
|                   just as little sense as before.   (me)             |
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