ajb@cornea.mitre.org (Alan J. Broder) (05/30/89)
Dear fellow sun-spotters, Several weeks ago, I sent out the following message to sun-spots: > We have an Exabyte tape drive attached to a Sun-3/180 running 4.0.1 > using the scsi-3 interface. We are having big problems. We backed up > a whole disk two separate ways. First using tar, we did: > tar cvbf 126 /dev/rst9 . > then we did a dump of the same disk to ensure that we could > recover our files. > > If you do a > tar tvbf 126 /dev/rst9 > tar proceeds to list all the files on the tape correctly. However, > if you do a > tar xvbf 126 /dev/rst9 > to restore all the files, tar makes it part of the way through > and then just stops. At this point, tar can't be killed, even by > root doing a "kill -9". The only way to ever use the tape > drive again is to reboot the system. We discovered the exact > same thing ocurring with the "dump" tape. > etc. Well, I received several responses which are digested below. I have subsequently received several requests from sun-spotters to post the results, so here goes... As a result of the sun-spots responses I called sun and got the patches which so far seem to have fixed the problem (these patches are for Sun Bug Report ID 1012501). Thanks to all for the help ! Alan J Broder ajb@cornea.mitre.org * ---------------- * * From: Randy Bruymbaugh (rando@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov) * * We also have a 3/280 with an Exabyte using the supplied SCSI * driver. We have been doing mainly dumps. I use a blocking * factor of 1024 (instead of 126), not for any reason except that * when I tried different numbers, 1024 seemed to work. We can dump * once, but then dump hangs and can't be killed even by root * with kill -9. * * So... we called sun and they sent us a SCSI patch tape which * fixed the hang problem. Unfortunalely, now we can't use the * Exabyte at all without getting DMA errors. I have a call in to Sun * now for this problem. * * Most people will probably tell you to get the Sun 4.0.1 SCSI patch * and it will fix your problems. I would say that this is not * really true with the Exabyte. I'll let you know what Sun says * (when they call back). * * ---------------- * * From: Bob Harris (harris@basil-rathbone.mit.edu) +1 617 253 0725 * * We saw a similar problem right after we upgraded to 4.0.1. (Our * dumps to the Exabyte would hang mid-way through.) The problem * is with the scsi patched in 4.0.1. Use /etc/remove_fiz scsi * to back out the scsi "fixes" and run with the 4.0 version of * the scsi drivers. * * ---------------- * * From: Steve Hayman <sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> * * I called Sun today about another SCSI problem and they told me that * they have a new SCSI patch ready that fixes some problems with * scsi devices causing programs to hang. They recommend de-installing * the 4.0.1 SCSI patch and getting the new scsi patch tape. * * ---------------- * * From: deltam!flyer!mark@uunet.UU.NET (mark galbraith) * * Do you have SMD disks or SCSI disks? * * If you only have SMD disks, you have run into a known bug in the * SCSI driver. Contact Sun for the fix. * * If you have SCSI disks, then your problem might be new; but not * enough information was provided to analyze this over the net. * Post more information to the net, and someone will probably be * able to help (unless it is a hardware problem). * * ________________ * * From: Markus Diezi <diezi%ana.unibe.ch@RELAY.CS.NET> * * We do have similar problems to read/write our 60MB tape cardridge * which is connected by a Emulex-controller (SCSI). We could nor read * sometimes the original distribution from sun. After istalling the * patch 4.0.2-SCSI, the problem was solved. Do you tried this already ? * * ---------------- * * From: earle@Sun.COM (Greg Earle) * * Known problem with a 4.0.1 machine having no SCSI disks but having * a SCSI 1/4" tape drive. If you are on Software Support, call the 800 * number and ask for the 4.0 SCSI patch tape to cure the tape drive hang problem. * * ---------------- * * From: earle@Sun.COM (Greg Earle) * * >My machine has an Exabyte SCSI drive, SCSI-3 interface, no other * >SCSI devices. And only SMD disks. Does that fit the profile of * >the known bug? * * Other than the SCSI-3 host adapter (I don't think it is dependant on the * type of adapter board used), this exactly fits the profile of the known * bug. It happens on systems with SMD disks, a 1/4" SCSI tape drive but no * SCSI disks. Which is what you have. * * On the other hand, I have 2 SMD disks, a 1/4" SCSI tape drive *and* 1 * 327 Mbyte SCSI disk; I have *not* installed the patches and have not been * bitten by the bug. I have seen at least 3 customers at JPL get bitten by * it, though. * * ---------------- * * From: lxs@philabs.Philips.Com (Ludhi Sidikpramana) * * I have similar problems that you encountered, instead of problem * reading the tape I had a problem dumping it ( SUN 4/280 ) but I have * the exact problem on our VAX. * * SUN: * I called PerfectByte and they sent a scsi patch and since then * the backup went fine except that when you try to use "mt -f /dev/nrst1 * status" it give you * * ... * file no=0 * * The tape advanced alright, it just give the wrong info. Any hints ???