Re: tlug: MO drives and Linux?

[Rob Bickel <rob@example.com>]

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Marcus Metzler wrote:

> I was thinking about getting a MO drive for backup purposes. Since
> those drives don't seem to be as popular in Germany (thats where I come
> from) as they are here in Japan, I have no idea how and if one can 
> use them under Linux. I guess it should be possible since they are SCSI
> devices and if the device is not too specific like e.g. a scanner,
> they should be as easy to handle as a Jaz drive (which I have, but whose
> media are too expensive to use them just for backups). 
> If it is possible to use MO drives, I would also like to know which
> one would be the best to buy.

I can't give you advice about which one to buy, but I can tell
you that linux does support some.  In particular I use a Fujitsu
640MB MO.  One problem is that it uses a 2048 byte sector for
storing data and I believe older versions of SCSI drivers have
a problem with this.  There is a fix though.  If you use a 230 MB
MO you will not have this problem.  The fix is located at:

http://liniere.gen.u-tokyo.ac.jp/2048.html

According to this page, if you have kernel 2.0.32 and beyond this
is not a problem though.  Anyway, I did apply the fix (patch) and 
mine works fine.  

Rob

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