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Date:      Fri, 5 Jul 96 14:52:14 -0700
From:      white@tehama.engr.ucdavis.edu (Michael White)
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:    Problem with ft on tape backup.
Message-ID:  <9607052152.AA15526@tehama.engr.ucdavis.edu>

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I was attempting to back up my system with ft (as described in
the man pages) and the program hung.  And I mean really hung.
I wasn't able to terminate the process with a "kill -9 pid_number".
I had to reboot to terminate the process.  The error message on
the console read:
ft0: unrecoverable write error on block 3200

I am running FreeBSD 2.1.0 (<- I think... I did a net install in
April '96) and my tape drive is an iomega DITTO 420 (QIC 80) and
the tape is a DC-2120XL QIC80 formatted mini data cartridge. The
drive is daisy chained with the two floppies. The tape was brand
new (just out of the wrapper).

What I did to try to solve the problem:  When I saw that the tar
was hung and that there was an error on the console, I tried to
^C out.  Failing that I tried to kill the process.  The ft process
would not die (I did manage to kill all of the parent processes,
including the login... And I was root at the time).

A possibly related incident (which if anyone knows if it is a
problem or not I'd like to know) is when I not ft the tape (to
try to see the label) I just get: "                          "
and the creation date (it was supposed to have the label:
"/ backup".  It also will give the following 3 lines before and
after the label:
ftc0: output ready timeout
ftc0: input ready timeout
ftc0: input ready timeout
Is this indicating a problem?  

Anyone know what is going on?  Do I need a separate format command
for the tape before I try to tar something on it?  I have searched
the faq, Handbook and the archives of mailing lists on the Web and
can find very little about this tape driver, so if I have missed
something, please let me know. 

Also, one last thing, is this the type of thing one would submit as
a bug or not.  I have not yet done so, but can file a bug report if
people think that it fits the area of problem reports.

Sorry this is so long.  Thanks in advance for any help.
                                                            - Mike

========================================================================
                                                    |   |
                                                    | _ |
Michael D. White                             _______|/V\|_______
University of California, Davis      X------------[_\(.)/_]------------X
Dept. of Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering    /o`~|~`o\       
white@halfdome.engr.ucdavis.edu                  O    H    O
                    http://www.engr.ucdavis.edu/~mdwhite
                 http://www-mae.engr.ucdavis.edu/CFD/white

========================================================================





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