Date: Thu, 24 Aug 1995 13:38:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Julian Elischer <julian@ref.tfs.com> To: D.A.Clear@ukc.ac.uk (David Clear) Cc: freebsd@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Can FreeBSD read DAT tapes written from Solaris? Message-ID: <199508242038.NAA03271@ref.tfs.com> In-Reply-To: <199508241630.JAA27696@freefall.FreeBSD.org> from "David Clear" at Aug 24, 95 05:29:39 pm
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> > Hi, > > I've written a DAT tape on a Solaris 2.3 machine using the > device /dev/rmt/0lbn which 'mt status' calls a: > "Archive Python 4mm Helical Scan tape drive". > > According to the manual page, the 'l' in '0lbn' means 'Standard format' > ie no compression - I figured this was the safest bet. > > My question: Will a FreeBSD machine with a DAT drive be able to read > this tape? Does it have to be a special DAT drive? I've just tried it > in a BSDI machine we have here and it failed with 'Short read'. It should be able to read the tape you may however have to adjust the blocklength for the device (using mt -f /dev/rst0 blocksize xxxxx) or maybe even set it to variable mode (xxxxx = 0) if yo do, then your READ must be the same size as the writes on the writer.. or larger.. you can experiment using dd dd if=/dev/rst0 of=/tmp/xxx bs=64k count=1 will read a single block from tape, and you can then look at /tmp/xxx to see how large a tape block is on the tape. alternatively, you should be able to do a small read, and the error message should make it clear what the record size should have been set to.. (that's if it's variable mode) If the tape is in fixed mode, you may be able to see using mt status butif not, just keep adjusting the recordsize using 'mt' through all the likely sizes.. 512, 1024, 2048 4096.... > > It's critical I get this right as I'm leaving here in a week and > I have a couple of 100Mb of personal files I've accumulated over 8 > years to save until I get enough money together to get a PC. > > Respond via email please. > > Cheers, > Dave. >
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