ftape
driverftape
crashes on me when I do `...' - is that abug?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 Bas (<bas@vimec.nl>
) and to the tape channel.
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. We may 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 <bas@vimec.nl>
.
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