WT(4)

💾 wt(4) — the cartridge tape driver, bestie edition 🎀

okay so this is the Kernel Interfaces Manual page for wt, aka the Archive/Wangtek cartridge tape driver. yes we're talking retro tape energy, and honestly? iconic. let's get into it ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

wt0 at isa? port 0x300 irq 5 drq 1

that's the whole config line, no cap. drop it in and your tape situation is so back 🫶

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

okay so the wt driver is literally the support system for these Archive and Wangtek boards:

• QIC-02
• QIC-36

periodt, those two 💅

now, raw devices are a whole thing — you spot them because there's an r sitting right in front of the device name. the driver can be opened either with rewind on close (/dev/rst*) or with no rewind on close (/dev/nrst*). pick your fighter, bestie 😌

the tape format? that's specified by adding 8 or 16 to the device number. the way that works — and this is the part people always get confused about — is like this: for the wt0 device's raw rewind-on-close device nodes,

• /dev/rwt0 — the 150 MByte density device 👑
• /dev/rwt8 — the 120 MByte density device 🦋
• /dev/rwt16 — the 60 MByte device 🌸

so the number on the end is doing so much heavy lifting, iykyk ✨

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🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

• intro(4)

💀 BUGS 💀

ngl this one's a little cursed 🙈 the wt driver conflicts unpleasantly with the we driver (that's the SMC Ethernet adapters) when they're sitting at the same I/O address. and like… it's worse than just not getting along — the probe literally reprograms their EEPROMs. yeah. that kind of conflict. so be careful out there, bestie 💅

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and that's the page!! brought to you by Debian, dated July 10, 1995 — yeah she's vintage, she's a keeper, we stan a classic 🎀✨💖