Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 10:41:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com> To: The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> Cc: freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: chio inserted tape, but gives error? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.10007051025580.85994-100000@semuta.feral.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007051420020.33627-100000@thelab.hub.org>
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> > I don't have physical access to these machines, as they are half-a-country > away ... dmesg shows it as: > > sa0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 4 lun 0 > sa0: <ARCHIVE 4586XX 28887-XXX 0420> Removable Sequential Access SCSI-2 device Yeah- a python.... > sa0: 5.000MB/s transfers (5.000MHz, offset 15) > > if that means anything? > > I have no probs telling the client its h/w related and letting them deal > with it ... would you suggest it was the tape drive or the changer > itself? I don't even know if one can be replaced without replaing the > other, but figured I'd ask before I go to the client ... Well, these drives *do* bung up substantially on occasion. It varies a lot. Some folks have had a perfect time with them. I had, up until the last year or so at NASA Ames, where the two of them I had started to get *stuck* on tapes- so much so that you had to powercycle the drive. There are a few things to note here: 1. As you probably know, the DAT standards pooched it and various levels of media are *not* interchangeable. So, if you put a DDS2 tape into a DDS capable drive, it can't read it. If you put a DDS3 tape into a DDS2 drive, etc... What *may* be happening here is that the drive is totally hung up trying to find BOT on media it can't read. I don't know for sure about this. A test for this is to have your client pop the magazine out and feed in a single tape by hand (this *can* be done, albeit it does require a bit of manual dexterity). 2. Usually, when the drive has fouled up for whatever reason, it'll flash a code on the front panel. Since you can't see the drive, ask your clients, etc... 3. Has this changer been known to work before? It may be bad. They do go bad, and while they're certainly cheap enough, well, they're cheap....:-;.... So to answer your questions above- it might be the changer- it might be the tape side of it- it might be pilot error with the wrong tapes. Hard to say. They *are* a single unit- 5.25" form factor with a four slot magazine. That's my best guess. I don't believe a 100 second timeout on a command is too short for loading a tape into a changer (at least in *this* case- maybe for one of the big Metrum changers that used a VHS tape that then would have to rewind first.......but that's a horse of a different choler indeed....) -matt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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