PREV UP next The Ftape Installation and Usage Guide - Inserting ftape


6.4.3: Loading the driver with modprobe

What follows are an example how to insert the driver manually into the kernel using the modprobe utility. Note that you have to be `root' to do that.

As we use modprobe which scans the `/etc/conf.modules' file there is no need to specify any modules options explicitly. Edit `/etc/conf.modules' instead! See Modifying `/etc/conf.modules'. Some of the modprobe runs may exit with an error code, depending on your setup.

modprobe zftape
modprobe zft-compressor
modprobe ftape-internal
modprobe trakker
modprobe bpck-fdc

In detail, this has the following effect: modprobe reads the file `/etc/conf.modules' and the file `/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.dep' and deduces from the information found therein that is has to do run the following commands in the given order:

/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/ftape.o FTAPE_OPTIONS
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/zftape.o
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/zft-compressor.o
/usr/local/bin/swapout MEGS
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/ftape-internal.o FTAPE_INTERNAL_OPTIONS
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/trakker..o TRAKKER_OPTIONS
/sbin/insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/bpck-fdc.o BPCK_OPTIONS

where the ...OPTIONS have to substituted by the values given in the appropriate options line for the respective module. See Modifying `/etc/conf.modules'. See Automated memory de-fragmentation. swapout is only available on your system if you installed the ftape-tools package. Also `/usr/local/bin/' only reflects the default installation path of swapout and may be different on your system. See Optional utilities.

Of course, if you don't have a parallel port floppy tape drive then you may omit the lines

modprobe trakker
modprobe bpck-fdc

and if you don't have an internal floppy tape drive, then

modprobe ftape-internal

isn't needed. If you are a first-time ftape user then you can omit

modprobe zft-compressor

as well as you don't need it. See Compatibility with ftape-3.04d.


ftape logo Use these buttons to jump to the top menu

TOP (previous node) TOP (parent node) TOP (next node) TOP (this node)