Re: [Bacula-users] Getting an ATAPI drive to work (Seagate STT320000A)

[Kern S. <ke...@si...>]

Hello,

I haven't seen any responses to this, so I'll throw in
my 2 cents hoping that I don't discourage anyone else
from responding too.

In general Unix is a really nice operating system with well
documented simple system calls. Over the years, it has slowly
evolved (threads, ...).  

However, there are two areas in which I work where Unix is
really a MESS. They are USB programming and tape handling.
In the case of USB, the API is quite extensive but 
unfortunately not standard from one Unix to another. In
addition, the USB specification is really complicated 
(no fault of Unix).

The other area that interests us here is tape handling.
Here the API is almost non-existent, and the few ioctl()
calls that do exist don't give the programmer
the information he needs (such as min/max block sizes,
whether an EOT was reached or a real error occurred, ...).
In addition, the stupid ioctl()s that do exist are
for the most part not system independent and are
very poorly documented to the extent that the Linux
implementors didn't know what some ioctl() fields
are really supposed to do! In other words, it is a mess.

As you can see, this really frustrates me.  Just the
same, if anyone has a tape drive that doesn't work
with Bacula, I am very willing to spend a fair amount
of effort to try to provide support for it. In fact,
the current Bacula tape driver is quite adaptable.
If you understand the behavior of your drive, it is
very probable that by using the correct set of Bacula
records in the Device resource, it will work. Just
the same, there is certainly more I can do to
support these devices given access to such a device 
or proper feedback.

Best regards,

Kern




On Mon, 2002-11-25 at 03:51, Adrian Close wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Sorry if this is a little off-topic, but I figure the readership of this
> list is more likely than most to have a clue about my question.  Which is
> along these lines:
> 
> I have a Seagate ATAPI tape drive (labelled as a STT320000A) that I'd like
> to use with Bacula (on RH8.0).  Unfortunately, it fails the btape tests,
> with respect to tape positioning.  I'm guessing this is because of driver
> issues.
> 
> So, just as a first pass, does this sound familiar to anyone?  Pointers to
> where I should be looking?  I'm not afraid of rebuilding kernels or even
> hacking source if that should be required - just looking for expressions
> of solidarity (or alternatively someone to stop me wasting my time!).
> 
> Incidentally, I have a SCSI version of this same drive which works just
> fine...
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Adrian Close                               email:  ac...@sa...
> NOC Analyst                                mobile: +61 411 828 823
> Saise                                      phone:  +61 3 8635 1738
> 10/50 Queen St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, AU   fax:    +61 3 9620 4887
> 
> 
> 
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