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(?) The Answer Guy (!)


By James T. Dennis,
LinuxCare, http://www.linuxcare.com/


(?) Dell EIDE TR5 Tape Drive

From Yixin Diao on Tue, 12 Oct 1999

Hi, Jim,

I know you after I read your message "Open Letter Re: Linux on Dell Hardware". May I ask you a question? Can Dell's tape drive "10/20GB EIDE TR5 Tape Backup" work well under Linux?

Thanks! Yixin

(!) Ahh Yes! The old "open letter to Dell." Of course I can't take any credit for the fact that Dell does now offer Linux pre-installed on selected models. I don't even know if my letter ever made it to Micheal Dell or anyone beyond "secretary." Ironically I work for the company that provides Linux technical support to Dell.
I haven't played with any TR5 tape drives. However, I suspect that it should work. Be sure to compile a kernel with support for IDE tape drives (it's in the menuconfig options after IDE CD-ROM drives, and IDE hard drives).
According to /usr/src/linux/Documentation/ide.txt you should be able to use /dev/ht0 to access your IDE tape drive, just as you'd use /dev/st0 to work with a SCSI tape drive.


Copyright © 1999, James T. Dennis
Published in The Linux Gazette Issue 48 December 1999
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