ftape driverftape crashes on me when I do `...' - is that a bug?No, that is a feature ;‐)
Seriously, reliable software do not crash. Especially kernels do not
or rather should not crash. If the kernel crashes upon you
when you are running ftape, and you can show that it is
ftape that is messing things up, regard it as a Bug That
Should Be Fixed. Mail the details to the maintainer
(<kjj@primenet.com>) and to the tape list.
First, make sure you can reproduce the problem. Spurious errors are a
pain in the ass, since they are just about impossible to hunt down
:-/ This is a quick check list:
ftape versionftape.o file. I might want
you run try some patches out or run a different test on your system.
Increase the tracing level to 7 (just below maximum tracing) and run
the offending command again. Get the tracing data from the kernel log
or /proc/kmsg, depending on where you harvest your error
messages. Try to look at what ftape spews out at you. It
may look in-comprehensible to you at first, but you can get valuable
information from the logfile. Most messages have a function name
prepended, to make it easier to locate the problem. Look through the
source, don't just cry ``WOLF!'', without giving it a try. If your
version of the kernel (or ftape for that matter), is ``old'',
when compared to the newest version of the kernel, try to get a newer
(or even the newest) kernel and see if the problem goes away under the
new kernel. When you post your problem report, include the
information about ftape version, kernel version, expansion bus type
(ISA, VL-bus, PCI or EISA), bus speed, floppy controller, and tape
drive. State exactly what you did, and what happened on your system.
Some people have experienced that ftape would not run in a
PCI based box, but ran flawlessly in a normal ISA based 386DX machine
(see section
Getting PCI motherboards to work with ftape on PCI machines above)
Also, please think of the poor souls who actually pay the
their Internet access (like me): avoid posting a (huge) log from the
ftape run, without reason. Instead, you could describe the
problem, and offer to send the log to the interested parties.
Send your bug report to
<linux-tape@vger.rutgers.edu>. You might also want to
mail the bug to <claus@momo.math.rwth-aachen.de>.