[comp.sys.sgi] Ansitape angst

karron@MCIRPS2.MED.NYU.EDU (10/14/90)

How do i get ansitape to recognize an alternate tape device ?
It does not make sense for it to default to the qic device.

Here is what I get:
mcirps2:/usr/people/karron/D.Image/D.mri:356ansitape -c -f/dev/mt/xmnrtape *
ansitape ioctl: Resource temporarily unavailable
ansitape write: I/O error
-f/dev/mt/xmnrtape: character device - skipped
ansitape write: I/O error
ansitape write: I/O error
ansitape write: I/O error
ansitape ioctl: Resource temporarily unavailable
ansitape write: I/O error
tape: I/O error
 hard write error:  write aborted
ansitape ioctl: Resource temporarily unavailable
Exit 1
mcirps2:/usr/people/karron/D.Image/D.mri:357ansitape -c -f /dev/mt/xmnrtape *
ansitape ioctl: Resource temporarily unavailable
ansitape write: I/O error
-f: character device - skipped
/dev/mt/xmnrtape: character device - skipped
ansitape write: I/O error
ansitape write: I/O error
ansitape write: I/O error
ansitape ioctl: Resource temporarily unavailable
ansitape write: I/O error
tape: I/O error
 hard write error:  write aborted
ansitape ioctl: Resource temporarily unavailable
Exit 1


What gives ?
bru, tar, dd, cpio all work just fine.
I am using a cypher tape drive and a xylogic 772 controller. The
xmnrtape is a hard link to xmt0d0nr.1600.

dan.
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Dan Karron@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU (02/19/91)

I am reading some ansi tapes on a cypher 9 track tape. Performance
is terrible. The tape drive saws back and forth, moving only an inch
or so each cycle. How can I improve performance ? I tried using
bstream, but ansitape won't read from standard input. How can
I determine the proper blocking factor to use to match tape blocks
with host blocking buffers ?


This is agony! It is taking hours to read each tape!

Help !

dan.
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NOTE PHONE NUMBER CHANGE: The Med Ctr has changed from 340 to 263 exchange.

olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) (02/20/91)

In <9102190812.AA12122@karron.med.nyu.edu> Dan Karron@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU writes:


| I am reading some ansi tapes on a cypher 9 track tape. Performance
| is terrible. The tape drive saws back and forth, moving only an inch
| or so each cycle. How can I improve performance ? I tried using
| bstream, but ansitape won't read from standard input. How can
| I determine the proper blocking factor to use to match tape blocks
| with host blocking buffers ?
| 
| 
| This is agony! It is taking hours to read each tape!

Note that the default blocksize is only 2k.  You might try using a larger
block size, if that is appropriate.
--

	Dave Olson

Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.