Hi, all.

I need to get some sort of backup in place, so I figured maybe a tape drive
would do. I'm not quite flushed with cash to the point where I can grab a
scsi controller and a tape drive both right now, never mind media, but I
can afford an ATAPI tape drive.

Looking around on the net, it looks like Linux supports ATAPI tape drives,
but we don't.

I'm wondering... I've been told that our SCSI and ATAPI subsystems are
really well integrated, but looking in /usr/src/sys/dev/scsipi, it looks
like there is a definite distinction.

I've never delved into the kernel to any great degree, but I think it might
be worthwhile to try to whack out ATAPI tape drive support. Can someone give
me an initial idea of what such a project might involve? While I admit it's
more respectable and traditional to just suck in the source and understand
it on my own, I'd be just as happy taking the ignoble route and asking for
help. (I'm looking at the source, but comments are... sparse... and I'm not
completely sure what the bounds of the big picture are.)

Thanks in advance for ideas.

PS: The drive in particular I'm looking at is the Seagate TapeStor 8000,
an internal ATAPI tape drive.

-- 
                           /\
     Mason Loring Bliss   /()\   mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us
 awake ? sleep : dream;  /    \  http://acheron.ne.mediaone.net