| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
flatmodel
n00b
Joined: 01 Mar 2013
Posts: 26
Location: UK
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:57 pm Post subject: Finding stuff like mt tape transport control? |
 |
|
It's a long time since I used tape of any sort, but I suddenly find myself needing to do so once again. I cannot remember even using tape in all the years I've been using gentoo, but anyway... the question is, where is "mt" the program for controlling the tape transport? mt rewind and that sort of thing? I have found mtx, for controlling autochangers and the like, but I cannot find mt for the life of me!
A more general question arises out of this, and that is: Is there a way of finding a long-lost program like mt, or something else I might want to find in the future? I have found equery files quite useful, and equery belongs too, but this is only any use for relating packages to programs and already installed ones at that.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks in anticipation.
Richard. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
John R. Graham
Administrator
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 10589
Location: Somewhere over Atlanta, Georgia
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 9:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
A very nice site that searches for files that you don't have installed is the Portage File List site.
However, I do use tape, and thus I know the answer: app-arch/mt-st. 
- John
_________________
I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flatmodel
n00b
Joined: 01 Mar 2013
Posts: 26
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| John R. Graham wrote: | A very nice site that searches for files that you don't have installed is the Portage File List site.
However, I do use tape, and thus I know the answer: app-arch/mt-st.
- John |
Brilliant! Thank you! I used to use http://www.gentoo-portage.com/ occasionally (rarely), but that seems to be defunct now. Interestingly, I tried emerge mt, but got this...
| Code: | ~ # emerge mt
Calculating dependencies... done!
emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy "mt".
emerge: searching for similar names...
emerge: Maybe you meant any of these: sys-block/mtx, net-analyzer/mtr, dev-haskell/mtl? |
You would have thought that mt-st would have been a suggestion, wouldn't you? Now I've been told it seems so obvious! D'oh!
Thanks once again!
_________________
Richard |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
John R. Graham
Administrator
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 10589
Location: Somewhere over Atlanta, Georgia
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Note that you could also have triedwhich will list all packages that contain "mt" in their name. The correct answer is produced but it's a needle hidden in a rather large haystack of other packages.
- John
_________________
I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flatmodel
n00b
Joined: 01 Mar 2013
Posts: 26
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:04 am Post subject: |
|
|
| John R. Graham wrote: | Note that you could also have triedwhich will list all packages that contain "mt" in their name. The correct answer is produced but it's a needle hidden in a rather large haystack of other packages.
- John |
Actually, I did do this, but I used "tape" as the search parameter and this didn't produce the desired result, and I also did exactly as you suggest, but I must have missed the thing I was looking for. Anyway - thanks again!
_________________
Richard |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flatmodel
n00b
Joined: 01 Mar 2013
Posts: 26
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
| John R. Graham wrote: | Note that you could also have triedwhich will list all packages that contain "mt" in their name. The correct answer is produced but it's a needle hidden in a rather large haystack of other packages.
- John |
Actually, while I have your ear, so to speak... You might know that Travan tapes are preformatted. If that formatting becomes damaged (for example, someone sticks it in a bulk eraser), the tape is rendered useless. I have a number of tapes that are useless for this kind of reason. Do you know if it is possible to re-format such tapes?
_________________
Richard |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
John R. Graham
Administrator
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 10589
Location: Somewhere over Atlanta, Georgia
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:39 am Post subject: |
|
|
Eeeuww, Travan. My first knee-jerk reaction is to tell you to go buy yourself a used 35/70GiB DLT drive on eBay for approximately $0 and throw the Travan drive in the trash.
That said, I haven't used a Travan drive in nearly 20 years. I think that these were designed to be talked to with a floppy controller, no? (Although the later ones may have had the floppy controller built-in and interface with PATA.) Formatting a floppy depends on the physical index hole in the disk. I believe that the Travan tapes lack the ability to provide an index signal, so, no, I don't think they're user formattable.
- John
_________________
I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flatmodel
n00b
Joined: 01 Mar 2013
Posts: 26
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 2:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
| John R. Graham wrote: | Eeeuww, Travan. My first knee-jerk reaction is to tell you to go buy yourself a used 35/70GiB DLT drive on eBay for approximately $0 and throw the Travan drive in the trash.
That said, I haven't used a Travan drive in nearly 20 years. I think that these were designed to be talked to with a floppy controller, no? (Although the later ones may have had the floppy controller built-in and interface with PATA.) Formatting a floppy depends on the physical index hole in the disk. I believe that the Travan tapes lack the ability to provide an index signal, so, no, I don't think they're user formattable.
- John |
Actually, I do ordinarily use DLT (when I use tape at all); but a system dropped into my hands which has a Travan drive built-in. Like you, I last used these a long time ago; but when I did it was quite workable. The tapes do have an index hole in the tape, so the drive controller knows not to de-spool the tape. The travan drives I used in the past were SCSI, and so is this one.
DLT formats itself as it goes along, I believe. Certainly the tapes can be degaussed without ruining them.
No matter, I was more curious than anything else.
_________________
Richard |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
John R. Graham
Administrator
Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 10589
Location: Somewhere over Atlanta, Georgia
|
| Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 3:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
The end of tape marker is not the same as the index hole on a floppy disk. You get an index signal once per revolution of the floppy and this serves as a "start to format" signal to the controller. This is what I believe that Travan tape cartridges do not provide and, if I'm correct, it's why you can't format a Travan tape without special equipment.
- John
_________________
I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Portage & Programming
