lbd@alux4.att.com (10/08/90)
We have a 4/490 running 4.1, on which we run incremental and full dumps. The dumps all seem to run just fine, but we get repeated warnings: Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: st1: warning, the tape may be wearing out or Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: the head may need cleaning. Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: st1: write retries= 1135 (60.3%), file= 0, block= 1880 The number of retries is usually in the same range, but the percentage of retries varies, from 6% to 80%. I realize that this is a warning, so it's not hurting my dumps, but it is a pita, and my messages files fill up awfully fast. I talked to Mike Couch at Perfect Byte, and he said he's seen this problem at 4.0.3, but never 4.1. We have a 3/280 running 4.0.3 and a 4/280 running 4.1, and neither of them has this problem. Could it have something to do with 4.1 PSRA? I thought the PSRA just contained support for the IPI drives. Could that have something to do with the SCSI driver? We've replaced most of the hardware (drive, scsi board) and tried different options to dump, but the warnings persist. We've cleaned the drive repeatedly and tried a known good drive, but is still persists. I've talked to our Sun PAL contact, and he hadn't seen it before. Our hardware guy is stumped. Mike suggested there might be a patch from Sun, or perhaps an adb patch someone on the net has come up with. Can someone remove this annoyance?? Thanks for your response. I'll summarize to the net, if necessary. Leslie Dreyer Bell Labs, Allentown, PA lbd@alux4.att.com
katz@rpal.com (11/01/90)
In article <1990Oct7.214035.20639@rice.edu> lbd@alux4.att.com writes: > We have a 4/490 running 4.1, on which we run incremental and full dumps. > The dumps all seem to run just fine, but we get repeated warnings: > > Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: st1: warning, the tape may be wearing out or > Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: the head may need cleaning. > Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: st1: write retries= 1135 (60.3%), file= 0, block= 1880 > > The number of retries is usually in the same range, but the percentage of > retries varies, from 6% to 80%. I realize that this is a warning, so it's > not hurting my dumps, but it is a pita, and my messages files fill up > awfully fast. You have found a bug in OS4.1. There is a patch available. The following is from the README of the patch tape: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patch-ID# 100134-01 Keywords: video tape 8mm tape Synopsis: 4.1 st: warning tape may be wearing.... on Exabytes Date: 18/July/90 SunOS release: 4.1_PSR_A Topic: BugId's fixed with this patch: 1042822 Architectures for which this patch is available: sun4_490 Problem Description: Premature "st?: warning tape may be wearing out or...." caused by high soft error rate at the beginning of new 8mm video tape. Exabyte's Exatape does not seem to have this problem. Morry Katz Rockwell Science Center administrator@rpal.com (machine administration issues) katz@rpal.com (other)
csb@gdwb.oz.au (Craig Bishop) (11/21/90)
katz@rpal.com writes: >In article <1990Oct7.214035.20639@rice.edu> lbd@alux4.att.com writes: >> We have a 4/490 running 4.1, on which we run incremental and full dumps. >> The dumps all seem to run just fine, but we get repeated warnings: >> >> Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: st1: warning, the tape may be wearing out or >> Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: the head may need cleaning. >> Aug 28 13:35:49 latin1 vmunix: st1: write retries= 1135 (60.3%), file= 0, block= 1880 >> >> The number of retries is usually in the same range, but the percentage of >> retries varies, from 6% to 80%. I realize that this is a warning, so it's >> not hurting my dumps, but it is a pita, and my messages files fill up >> awfully fast. >You have found a bug in OS4.1. There is a patch available. The following >is from the README of the patch tape: >Premature "st?: warning tape may be wearing out or...." caused by high >soft error rate at the beginning of new 8mm video tape. Exabyte's Exatape >does not seem to have this problem. We found this not to be entirely true. The error would occur not only at the start of a tape but all the way through as well. Sun is looking into a problem with the manipulation of Exabyte tape units since the introduction of SunOS 4.1 which seems to result in the tape being positioned badly. It is interesting to note that the tape is positioned in different places depending on whether it has just been placed in the drive or it has just been rewound. We noticed this because PC-Lifeline will full over (since SunOS 4.1) in different places depending on which of the above has happened.