Hi everyone,

I want to add to my existing home Linux network.
(Currently BT5r2, Ubuntu x2, Freenas and out of box NAS etc.)

I've gotten hold of two old DEC/HP TZ88 tape drives and a few dozen used and new data cartridges. two Adaptecc PCI Scsi cards, Cables and terminators etc

I've done a bit of background reading about mt and tar.

Can anyone recommend a suitable distro for networking "only" these tape drives. (Ideally to run on a Pentium 2.

I'm not brave so if enough people say don't bother I probably wont.

Nick

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What is the model number of the SCSI cards?
How much memory do you have in your P2?

My first choice would probably be debian without a GUI. I assume the prime purpose is a backup server for the rest of the network.

Here is one example of a backup server
http://www.amanda.org/

Thanks Michaelk,

Yes a bit more backup. Its late here and I'll be plugging everything together tomorrow. I'll search out the Scsi card details and memory details and post those. Had a quick look at Amanda tonight, but I'm too tired to concentrate.

thanks again Nick

Yesterday was a bad day but that was yesterday.

Well this morning I went through a box of bits and found the following
3x Adaptec SCSI AHA 2940 AU Ultra kits with floppys and CDs

3Adaptec SCSI (individual cards) AHA1510BS7, AHA1542CP, AHA1535A

2x HP/DEC TZ88 tape drives and cables and terminators Etc.

I connected everything up on the bench and powered it up.

Remarkably the pentium P2 WIN NT4 booted and I even remembered the password. (this was a production machine 10years back)

Now here are my restrictions;

The maximum RAM the P2 appears to accept is limited to 64Mb.(I tried all the combinations I make up from my treasure trove of old RAM)
The bios won't recognise DVD drive only a CD drive.

I haven't wasted my time trying larger HDD yet (but I've got a wide selection of IDE HDDs ranging in size from from 3Gb upwards.

So back to the question has anyone any prefered small distro which will squeeze onto the P2 within these restrictions?

Basic GUI would be nice remembering I only want to add these tape drives to the network really.

BTW Amanda looks great any thoughts of the best distribution for it?

Thouhts?

I would still try debian and if a GUI is a must maybe lxde with the 2940 cards. Without knowing the exact date of the BIOS you might be limited to a max drive size of <=32GB.

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With a maximum of 64MB RAM even LXDE would be overkill. If a GUI really is necessary I would go for one of the real lightweights, like JWM or IceWM or a simple tiling manager (dwm or something like that).

1 members found this post helpful.

Yep, those would be better choices.

Thanks guys,

I'll try those tomorrow and post back my results when I have them.

Progress now thank you.

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