Tim Shoppa writes:
> > I have a TS05 half inch tape drive that is connected to a Vax 11/730.  I
> > would like to connect it to my uVax 3600 has anyone ever tried this and is
> > it compatible with NetBSD?
> 
> On the hardware side, you'll need a Q-bus to Pertec-formatted controller.
> The DEC M7196 is the official way to do this, but I've had good success 
> (under Q-bus VMS, RSX, BSD2.11, BSD4.3, and RT-11 systems) with
> Emulex TC03's and Dilog QD142's as well.  (The DEC board is a rebadged
> Dilog with some slightly modified firmware.)
> 
> The last time I checked, NetBSD's only tape support was for TMSCP-style
> devices.  The TS11-type driver source was present, but it didn't compile
> and didn't work.  I see from the hypertext FAQ that TS11 tapes are
> now officially supported, so I would guess that at some point in the
> past 6 months or so somebody fixed it.  I never saw an announcement on
> the port-vax list that this was fixed, but that's not too unusual...

Just to shed some light on the history of the TS05/TS11 driver:

Some time ago I had an uVAX-II/GPX with TSV05/TS05 and at that time
I tried to write a driver for that beast. Since the only tape-driver
available (at this time) I used the tmscp driver and modified it to
work with TSV05/TS05 (with moderate success). Since my TSV05 Manual
claimed that TSV05 is TS11 compatible I also implemented the named
differences and assumed that the driver would work for TS11 also,
but I never checked/verified that.

This was more than one year ago and in the meantime I don't have
access to the TSV05/TS05 and also there were some major modifications
to the device-interface in the kernel, where the driver was never
updated to be compliant with. This are AFAIK the main reasons why 
this driver is no longer supported and no longer "works".

Anyway, I still have the documentation for TSV05/TS05 and I'm willing
to give it away. Maybe I can also be of some help in understanding
the existing driver...

Ciao,
	bertram