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Text File | 1994-04-03 | 17KB | 329 lines

This section of the BTN documentation discusses how to install and configure the BTN software on your system. **** BTNtape: an AmigaDOS handler for SCSI tape drives **** Version 3.0 3/14/94 **** Freeware by Bob Rethemeyer (drBob@cup.portal.com) **** (c) Copyright 1990, 1994 Robert Rethemeyer. INSTALLATION: 1. Copy the BTN-HANDLER file to L: Copy the TAPEMON file to C: or a directory appropriate for you. 2. Create an entry in DEVS:MOUNTLIST something like this: TAPE: Handler = L:btn-handler Priority = 5 Stacksize = 4000 Mount = 1 /* optional. see CBM docs */ GlobVec = -1 Startup = "yourscsi.device/AA-x/BB-x/..." /* EXPLAINED BELOW */ # The most important line in the mountlist entry is the "Startup=" line. This line is discussed fully below. There is nothing magic about the name TAPE: You may use some other valid device name if you like. You may also create and mount more than one device using the same physical tape drive but different names and different startup parameters, provided you do not try to access them simultaneously. (Example: you could have both a TAPERW: for reads and writes, and a TAPERO: which is read-only using the AO flag.) 3. Install the handler in DOS using the CLI command "MOUNT TAPE:" NOTE: I recommend you use only the Commodore version of MOUNT. I cannot guarantee BTN will work with any other mount variants. If there is a problem during mounting, BTN will put up a requester with one of the following brief explanatory messages: "Can't open SCSI-direct" - OpenDevice("yourscsi.device") failed. Possibly due to misspelled device name or wrong case (name is case sensitive). Or driver doesn't recognize device, may have been powered off at boot time. "Can't select tape drive" - Problem with drive, SCSI bus, or adapter. SCSI device is not talking or has a serious error. "UNit is not a tape drive" - UN is wrong; may be pointing to a disk. Once you click the requester, BTN will terminate. You can then remedy the problem, reboot (or use the ASSIGN command with REMOVE or DISMOUNT to get rid of the dead device), and try again. 4. Run the TapeMon program. This step is not essential, but while you are learning to use BTN, it will be very helpful if you can see what is going on. And if you encounter an error, you will want to know what happened and what was going on at the time. THE STARTUP PARAMETERS The mountlist Startup string is used by the handler to determine how to access your drive. FAILURE TO ENTER PROPER INFORMATION IN STARTUP MAY RESULT IN PROBLEMS INCLUDING HANGS, VISITS FROM THE GURU, OR DATA LOSS. This is the ugliest part of installing. Pay attention. The Startup string must be in the form: Startup = "devicename/keyword-number/keyword-number/..." It must not have any embedded blanks and must be enclosed in quotes. Each parameter must be separated by slashes. The first parameter must be the name of the device driver which provides the SCSI-direct command interface. Do not include any path information. This name is defined by the manufacturer of your SCSI adapter. (If you don't know what it is, use a utility like XOPER, TASKX, or ARTM to look at the list of running tasks, and make a guess.) You MUST use the exact same upper and lower case letters (this is a DOS restriction). The driver names for the adapters I know about are: All Commodore machines and adapters (A2091, A590, A3000, etc.) except A2090A -> scsi.device Commodore A2090A -> hddisk.device Supra -> suprascsi.device (Series III v3.0 and above) GVP -> gvpscsi.device HardFrame -> HardFrame.device Nexus -> Nexus.device (NOT NexusTape.device!) Trumpcard -> IVS_SCSI.device Trumpcard Pro -> IVS_SCSIpro.device ICD Advantage -> icddisk.device Xetec -> harddisk.device Ashcom -> ADD_scsi.device The name parameter MUST be the first item in the string. All other parameters may be in any order, but the name must be first. The remaining items consist of pairs of two-letter keywords and a number separated by a dash (minus sign). The keywords are explained below. You may omit any of them (except UNit), and a default value will be assumed. The numbers may be decimal, or hex in the "0xNN" format. UNIT Keyword: UN Default: none ------------------------------------- The unit number of your tape drive, as it will be addressed by your hard disk driver. Usually you can just specify the SCSI bus ID. Example: "UN-4" for 4. More complex setups may require the form "UN-BLI", where B=board#, L=logical_unit#, and I=SCSI_bus_ID. (Example: UN-123 is board=1, lun=2, ID=3) Be sure you have set the drive's ID switches or jumpers to a value that is unique on the SCSI bus. (Remember, the adapter in your machine also has an ID, which is usually 7.) (2090A owners- add 3 to the physical ID number.) BLOCK SIZE Keyword: BS Default: BS-512 --------------------------------------------- The number of bytes in a SCSI logical block for your tape drive. Consult your drive documentation. If you don't know this info, try 512, the most common value. (See the hardware.doc file for the values to use with 3M drives.) Some drives allow you to specify different block sizes, within a legal range; the handler will command the drive to use the size you specify. Others can use only one fixed size. If your drive can use different block sizes, you must use the same size when reading a tape as you did when writing it. NUMBER OF BLOCKS Keyword: NB Default: NB-1 ---------------------------------------------- The number of SCSI logical blocks to write or read in each tape operation. This is a performance adjustment only. Use what works best for you. Most drives will be mechanically more efficient writing multiple blocks. You may want to tweak this parameter to find out. The handler will wait until NB blocks have been accumulated before starting a write. Buffered drives will also have a limit on the number of blocks the buffers can hold, so the size of NB relative to that number may have an effect. Consult your drive docs. This parameter also determines how much memory is needed for buffers. The handler uses double buffering, so it will need 2 * BS * NB bytes when you Open() it. For example, if BS=8192 and NB=8, then 8192*8 = 64K, doubled for a total of 128K. BUFMEMTYPE Keyword: BT Default: BT-0 ----------------------------------------- The type of memory to allocate for the tape buffers, same as BufMemType for mountlists. Use 0 or 1 for "any", 2 or 3 for "chip", 4 or 5 for "fast". FILEMARKS Keyword: FM Default: FM-1 ----------------------------------------- Specifies number of filemarks to write when closing at the end of a write, or the number to skip for each file when opening for read. FM-1 (the default) is recommended. FM-0 means no filemarks are written, and read references to TAPE:num become the equivalent to TAPE:R. Allowed range is 0-255. Sequential drives only. RETENSION flag Keyword: RT Default: RT-0 --------------------------------------------- If RT-1 is specified, the handler will retension the tape (run to the end of the tape and back) on the first access after a new tape is inserted (indicated by Unit Attention status). Specify RT-0 (or omit it) if your drive already does this automatically, or does not support the necessary SCSI command, or if you don't want it. *Note* Some SCSI adapters, such as GVP and IVS, may periodically poll the drive for readiness, which has the effect of losing the the Unit Attention status. A clue: the light on the drive may blink every few seconds. For such adapters, the RT function will not work; use tape.rexx. X VARIABLE BLOCK flag Keyword: VB Default: VB-0 X --------------------------------------------------- X SORRY, this feature has never worked right, and I don't X have the means to fix it now, so it has been disabled. X If you think you really need it, use BTN version 2.1. X The handler normally operates sequential X drives in fixed block mode. Specifying VB-1 will force X operation in variable block mode instead. Use this X if your drive does not support fixed block mode or X you for some reason need variable block mode. RESERVED BLOCKS Keyword: RB Default: RB-0 ---------------------------------------------- For direct access (3M) drives only. Specifies how many blocks to skip at the beginning of the tape. DEVICE FLAGS Keyword: DF Default: DF-0 ------------------------------------------- Equivalent to the Flags parameter in mountlists. It is passed in the OpenDevice() call to open the SCSI- direct driver. If you don't already know what you would use this parameter for, then you probably don't need it. NO-REWIND flag Keyword: NR Default: NR-0 --------------------------------------------- Controls rewinding behavior when referencing TAPE: . Set this flag according to your personal preference. If NR-0, reference to TAPE: is equivalent to TAPE:R. If NR-1, reference to TAPE: is equivalent to TAPE:NR. See "usage.doc" for what these mean. REWIND-ON-CLOSE flag Keyword: RC Default: RC-0 --------------------------------------------------- Specify RC-1 to cause BTN to rewind the tape whenever it is closed after reading or writing. Set this flag according to your personal preference. EJECT-ON-CLOSE flag Keyword: EC Default: EC-0 -------------------------------------------------- Specify EC-1 to cause BTN to eject the tape whenever it is closed after reading or writing. Set this flag according to your personal preference. You may also use tape.rexx to manually cause this function at any time. Note- some drives are not capable of a programmed eject. READ-ONLY flag Keyword: RO Default: RO-0 -------------------------------------------------- If you specify RO-1, the handler cannot be opened for write operations. You may use this as protection against accidental data loss in cases where you know you will only be reading tapes. When you do not use this mode, you can still write-protect tapes individually using the write-protect tab on cartridge. NOTE- this mode will not protect the tape from data loss by the use of RAW commands. See also features.doc file. APPEND-ONLY flag Keyword: AO Default: AO-0 (Sequential only) -------------------------------------------------- This flag activates a safety mode in the handler that helps prevent accidentally writing over files that already exist on the tape. When AO-1 is specified, you may only open the handler for writing using TAPE:APP or TAPE:END, and also TAPE:NR if you are currently positioned at the end of data. The result is that you are only allowed to add files to the end of the tape, and cannot overwrite earlier files. This feature has no effect when reading files. NOTE- this mode will not protect the tape from data loss by the use of RAW commands. See also features.doc file. ERROR RECOVERY flag Keyword: ER Default: ER-0 -------------------------------------------------- Specify ER-1 to cause BTN to display a requester whenever a device error occurs during a read or write operation. The requester gives you the choice "IGNORE" or "FAIL". If you choose FAIL (or ER=0), the error status is returned to the program. (This was the default behavior of earlier BTNs, which did not have this flag). If you choose IGNORE, BTN forces the program to receive good status, even though data in the affected buffer may be partially or completely lost. For reads, this may allow TAR to skip bad blocks and read the remainder of the archive. MOUNT-REQ-BYPASS Keyword: MR Default: MR-0 ---------------------------------------------- Some versions of the MOUNT command may cause a system requester to appear if there is no tape in the drive or if it is write-protected. If your MOUNT does this, specify MR-1 to avoid this nuisance requester. It is always safe to use the default MR-0, but do not specify MR-1 unless you are sure that your version of MOUNT causes a requester with MR-0. If you use MR-1 with a MOUNT version that does not cause a requester, your system will crash! SWAP-BYTES flag Keyword: SW Default: SW-0 ---------------------------------------------- Specify SW-1 to cause BTN to swap the order of each pair of data bytes when going to or from the tape. This mode of operation should only be used when you wish to read or write tapes for use on some workstations which expect swapped bytes. (perhaps infested by Intel inside?) This flag reduces performance. Most people don't need it. OVERLAPPED I/O flag Keyword: OV Default: OV-1 --------------------------------------------------- The handler normally (OV-1) attempts to overlap tape drive I/O and DOS I/O to maximize throughput. Specifying OV-0 disables overlapping and double buffering, for systems that can't walk and chew gum at the same time. DEBUG flag Keyword: DB Default: DB-0 ---------------------------------------------- DB-1 causes the handler to print the data for all DOS packets it receives and all replies it returns. It only works when the handler has been compiled with the DBUG symbol defined. X SUPRA flag Keyword: SU DELETED!!!! X ----------------------------------------- X The Supra Series II v1.10 circumvention has been removed X from BTN, due to a deficiency in the old Supra driver. X You now have no excuse- upgrade to the Series III driver! CBM 2090A flag Keyword: C9 Default: C9-0 --------------------------------------------- Activates the circumvention for the Commodore 2090A problem. Specify C9-1 to activate this. See "hardware.doc" file! EXAMPLES Here are some examples of valid Startup strings: Startup = "scsi.device/UN-4" /* this is the bare minimum */ Startup = "gvpscsi.device/BS-512/NB-128/UN-4/RT-1" Startup = "suprascsi.device/un-4/bs-8192/nb-8/bt-1" A QUICK FUNCTIONALITY TEST Before jumping into disk backups and restores, try the following simple test to see if your setup is basically working. Write a large ASCII text file to the tape and see if you can can read it back intact. This can be done with the CLI TYPE command: TYPE filename TO TAPE: ; writes the file to tape then... TYPE TAPE: ; reads the file back The second TYPE should legibly print the ASCII file on your screen. (If using a direct access drive, there is no filemark to signify the end of the file, so use control-C to abort the second TYPE).