I just came across my old parallel port 200/420MB QIC-Wide tape drive. I'd like to experiment with it under Linux. I know in older kernels the kernel had the ftape driver right in the configuration, but in the latest (2.6.21.1) kernel I don't see ftape anywhere. I'm guessing it's been deemed "unneeded" - which is kind of silly because there's plenty of other "unneeded" device driver code in Linux that's still maintained.

In either case, 1. does anyone know if these devices are actually supported, and 2. how do I get ftape and the "bpck-fdc" driver in order to play around with this?

Thanks to any help.

flint

Instead of individual module support for each device on the planet, the kernel appears to moving towards simplifying devices with a somewhat "unified" module approach, but only to a point and it may just be appearing that way since a throng of devices will use the same chip with a different emblem slapped on top of it.

Anyway, to my point. Your device may be supported with one of the generic options now. Another possibility is that you may not have a sequence of options chosen to reveal the 'ftape' module option. Be sure you have parallel support before poking in other areas to ensure the right options are available.

Cool

So I was looking at the changelog for 2.6.20, and it appears the kernel guys completely ditched ftape because "it isn't used by many people" and "it's outdated." Nice, really nice. ftape is used by much more than old little 200mb tape units; the later Travans can be ftape-driven and such. anyway, it looks like my only choice is to drop to a much older kernel to use my old tape drive!

if anyone comes across a better idea, let me know.