Whither the ide-tape module

[Rick Stevens]

Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 28, 2005 at 11:13:31AM -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>>Bob McClure Jr wrote:
>>
>>>What the heck has happened to the ide-tape module in the 2.6 kernels?
>>>The last FC2 kernel as distributed by KRUD,
>>>
>>>http://www.tummy.com/krud/
>>>
>>>that supported my IDE tape drives was 2.6.8-1.521.  Kernel
>>>2.6.9-1.6_FC2 does not.  And now that I've upgraded to FC3, with
>>>kernel 2.6.10-1.766_FC3, I'm stuck with a dead tape drive.  The one in
>>>my file server is still ok because I haven't and won't upgrade that
>>>until I have my backup needs covered.
>>>
>>>Now that they are no longer distributing the kernel-source RPM, I
>>>guess I'm supposed to download the latest from kernel.org and build a
>>>custom kernel.  Phooey, I thought I was free of that many years ago
>>>when they modularized the kernel.
>>
>>The kernel source is available, but not as "kernel-source-version.rpm".
>>You must download the "kernel-version-src.rpm" (a true source RPM), then
>>do the "rpmbuild -bp" on it.  The reasons for not including a kernel
>>source RPM are documented in the release notes and I won't go into them
>>here.
>>
>><excellent instructions (which I will save) snipped>

Glad to offer them.

>>>Is there some alternate device I'm supposed to use?
>>
>>Nope.
> 
> 
> I posted the same query to the krudusers list and just got the reply
> that said to use the ide-scsi module.  I tried it and it works fine.
> The device is /dev/(n)st0 on my system.

Really?  Gee, ide-scsi got a lot smarter than it was.  It didn't handle
it before.
> 
>>>Or do I bite the bullet and build a kernel?
>>
>>Build the kernel source as I outlined above.  ide-tape is not part of
>>the standard kernel build as there are, pardon my language, damned few
>>people who used it.
> 
> 
> Gee, and here I thought I was mainstream. :-)  The aforementioned
> respondent said ide-tape had been depreciated (sic) for some time.

Yeah.  Now that you say ide-scsi can handle it, I can understand why
it's not a default module.  In fact, the "make xconfig" reveals it to
be "EXPERIMENTAL" and really only to handle a couple of drives that
don't do ATAPI (essentially SCSI over IDE) well.

>>>Or do I accelerate my plan to start backing up to DVDs?
>>
>>ide-tape is ancient and not particularly reliable.  DVDs are one option.
>>So are things such as DAT or DLT (if you like tape).
> 
> 
> I used to be.  Unfortunately, it seemed that I could buy expensive
> drives that used cheap tapes, or cheap drives that used expensive
> tapes.  Since the price has come way down on DVD (re)writers and
> media, I think I know where I'm headed.

Yeah, DVDs are a good idea, except for the extra space needed to build
the DVD image before burning it.

>>At the current
>>cost of disk drives, an IEEE 1394 (firewire) or USB 2.0 enclosure and a
>>80GB drive make for a pretty cheap and reliable backup.  If you do it
>>right, you can even boot off it for emergency recovery.
>>
>>
>>>It would be a British understatement to say that I'm miffed.
>>
>>Again, VERY few people used ide-tape.  It's been termed "legacy" so it's
>>not a standard module any longer.  Installing the kernel source does
>>require a couple of extra steps and the reason for it is in the release
>>notes (you did read them, didn't you?).
> 
> 
> Yes, I usually do.  Must have missed any notes about the impending
> demise of ide-tape.

The bit about the release notes was in regard to the demise of the
kernel-source RPMs and why you have to install the kernel source RPM and
do the rpmbuild on it.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                 Dyslexics of the world: UNTIE!                     -
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