ATAPI tape problem

From: Joshua R. Bertram (jbertram@iastate.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 18 2000 - 16:55:45 EST


Hi,

I'm trying to diagnose and fix a tape backup/restore problem with a Connor
CTT8000-A tape drive. I've tried to get it working using both kernel
versions 2.2.12-20 (not sure where the -20 came from.. should be the
default installed with RH6.1) and 2.2.14, with the same results.

I started the backup with the following command:
tar cvf /dev/tape /home

/dev/tape is a symbolic link to /dev/ht0

I watched the archival go for maybe 10 mins before I went to class. After
some amount of time ( < 2 hrs ), I get the following errors:

ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = a, key = 6, asc = 28, ascq = 0
ide-tape: ht0: DSC timeout
hdd: ATAPI reset complete
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = a, key = 0, asc = 0, ascq = 0
ide-tape: ht0: DSC timeout
hdd: ATAPI reset complete
(times at least 6 more a,0,0,0 errors until the next a,6,28,0 error)

I looked up the sense key codes and found that the 6,28,0 error translates
to "UNIT ATTENTION: NOT READY TO READY TRANSITION ( MEDIUM MAY HAVE
CHANGED )". That particular error doesn't meant a lot to me, so maybe I'm
overlooking something very obvious. The tape didn't "change", as far as I
can tell--it's the same physical tape as I put in earlier and I didn't
remove the tape to inspect it until after I got the errors in the first
place. At this point, I have killed the tar process, but I'm still
getting the error messages on my console.

Now, one thing that I've noticed is that the home directory that I'm
backing up is ~4GB and my tape is a 4GB/8GB Travan tape. If I'm writing
more than 4GB to the tape (because tar doesn't actually compress, does
it?), would that cause this error? If so, why don't I get a nice,
friendly error message? I haven't had a chance to test it w/ a smaller
directory because the tape drive is essentially dead and I can't reset this
server until tonight.

I haven't found anything yet on the web or in this archive that matches
my problem, exactly, so I'm emailing this list in the event that it is a
kernel issue. If I can do anymore on this end to debug the problem,
please let me know.

Also, I'm not on this email list, so please CC me (jbertram@iastate.edu) on
any responses.

Thanks,
J.

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Joshua R Bertram ----$$$$$$$$$$------ jbertram@iastate.edu
Homepage: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jbertram
Resume: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jbertram/resume.html
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