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Date:      Mon, 17 Jul 1995 11:06:46 -0600
From:      kelly@fsl.noaa.gov (Sean Kelly)
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   SCSI DAT tape acting funny; insanity predicted
Message-ID:  <9507171706.AA27607@emu.fsl.noaa.gov>

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Okay, what's going on?

In 2.0R, I was able to reliably make backups using dump(8) to a
Wangtek 6130-HS DAT drive.  In 2.0.5R, it happens successfully about
once out of every 40 times.  Seriously.  I'm starting to get
nightmares about system crashes but with no backup media with which to
recover.

I've tried isolating the drive on the SCSI bus, booting with a tape in
the drive, booting with no tape, trying fixed and variable block
sizes, trying various magic tricks to kick-start the driver (mt status
before, after, or before and after loading the tape; mt rew instead of
mt status, etc.)

The problems I see, in order of decreasing frequency:

*  Premature end of tape detected by dump immediately after starting
   the dump, occasionally accompanied by console messages saying
   `invalid request, must be between 0 and 0'.

*  System hangs; requires RESET button to reboot.

*  Premature end of tape detected by dump some number of blocks into
   the dump.

Here's dmesg info for the SCSI probe phase:

bt0: Bt946C/ 0-PCI/EISA/VLB(32bit) bus
bt0: reading board settings, busmastering, int=15
bt0: version 4.22, sync, parity, 32 mbxs, 32 ccbs
bt0: targ 0 sync rate= 5.00MB/s(200ns), offset=15
bt0: targ 5 async
bt0: Enabling Round robin scheme
bt0 at 0x334 irq 15 on isa
(bt0:0:0): "CIPHER ST150S2/90 2.2Q" type 1 removable SCSI 2
st0(bt0:0:0): Sequential-Access density code 0x0,  drive empty
(bt0:5:0): "WANGTEK 6130-HS 4B18" type 1 removable SCSI 2
st1(bt0:5:0): Sequential-Access density code 0x13,  drive empty

Is the WangTek 6130 another so-called rogue?  If so, what should I do
about it?  If not, what should I do about it?

Note that dumps to the Cipher ST150S2/90 work fine.  And, after some
contrived combinations of power cylcing, booting, and mt commands, I
can, once in a blue moon, do a dump to the DAT drive.

Signed,
Panicky.

-- 
Sean Kelly
NOAA Forecast Systems Lab, Boulder Colorado USA

To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no
choreography, and the dancers hit each other.  -- Jack Handey



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