wonky 8mm tape drive

[Chapter11]

I just had to replace an 8mm 20G mammoth drive in an RS/6000. I'm running Networker 6.0.3 on AIX 4.3.3.

The tape drive when tested and used by itself is happy. I can do anything with it - write to it, read from it, rewind it, fsf it, unload it. It works perfectly from OS-level control. (and yes I did clean it before doing anything with it).

Networker doesn't like the drive. I've deleted the device definition from Networker and re-added it. I can mount, umount, even *label* a tape, it's fine. When I try to write to it though, it fails immediately.

[tt] Mon 11:54:37 /dev/rmt0.1 labeled 8mm 20GB tape test00
Mon 11:57:16 /dev/rmt0.1 Mount operation in progress
Mon 11:57:16 /dev/rmt0.1 mounted 8mm 20GB tape test00
Mon 11:57:16 media event cleared: Waiting for 1 writable volumes to backup pool 'uglymess' tape(s) or disk(s) on icebox
Mon 11:57:16 media warning: /dev/rmt0.1 writing: continuation, Invalid argument, at file 2 record 0
Mon 11:57:16 media emergency: continuation, Invalid argument, at file 2 record 0
Mon 11:57:16 media emergency: Invalid argument
Mon 11:57:16 write completion notice: Writing to volume test00 complete[/tt]

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[schu]

I had a similar problem,
I contacted Legato and they said it may be a firmware
problem. They gave me a link and I installed the firmware.

After that it semmed okay.
here is the link

Please visit the following URL to download a new firmware version for
Exabyte Mammoth tape drive

http://www.exabyte.com/support/online/downloads/downloads.cfm?did=106