From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 20 22:33:36 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E52DE16A4CF for ; Sun, 20 Feb 2005 22:33:36 +0000 (GMT) Received: from 301south.net (14.piel1.xdsl.nauticom.net [209.195.172.207]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6598543D53 for ; Sun, 20 Feb 2005 22:33:36 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from brandon@301south.net) Received: by ocean.301south.net (Postfix, from userid 500) id 3FAB2101A7; Sat, 19 Feb 2005 15:37:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ocean.301south.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33502FDC2 for ; Sat, 19 Feb 2005 15:37:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 15:37:04 -0500 (EST) From: Brandon Kuczenski To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20050218000023.B29499@ocean.301south.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Tape Drive -- broken? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 22:33:37 -0000 I recently acquired an old IDE QIC/Travan tape drive (for free) and I'm trying to get it to work on FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE. I don't know for sure whether the unit is any good, but I would like to rule out operator error before I throw it away. Here's what happens: at boot time, the tape drive is detected as device ast0: /kernel: ast0: TAPE at ata1-slave PIO4 When I insert a brand-new 4/8GB tape and run 'mt -f /dev/ast0 status' as root I get the following output: Mode Density Blocksize bpi Compression Current: 0x01:X3.22-1983 512 bytes 800 none ---------available modes--------- 0: default variable 0 none 1: default variable 0 none 2: default variable 0 none 3: default variable 0 none --------------------------------- File Number: 0 Record Number: 0 Residual Count 0 but I get the following message in /var/log/messages: /kernel: ast0: TEST_UNIT_READY - HARDWARE ERROR asc=0xf0 ascq=0x36 error=0x00 Similarly, if I run 'mt -f /dev/ast0 rewind', I get no output to the terminal but the following in the logs: /kernel: ast0: TEST_UNIT_READY - HARDWARE ERROR asc=0xf0 ascq=0x36 error=0x00 /kernel: ast0: REZERO - HARDWARE ERROR asc=0xf0 ascq=0x36 error=0x00 After either of these commands, if I run 'mt -f /dev/ast0 errstat' the terminal displays: mt: /dev/ast0: Inappropriate ioctl for device So, does this suggest the drive is fried, or am I doing something wrong? Google search shows that 'inappropriate' message popping up occasionally for all manner of devices on both Linux and BSD, but usually the hits are in the form of mailing list posts with few, if any, responses, and nothing that seems relevant to my situation. Any ideas? Thanks in advance, -Brandon