kherron@s.ms.uky.edu (Kenneth Herron) (02/02/91)
This has happened too many times to be a coincidence. I provide technical support for several sites running AT&T Sysv/386 3.2.1. All of the machines (6386 WGS's) are configured with AT&T 60-meg tape drives. Any attempt to reload a large portion of the file system from a cpio tape invariably results in a screwed-up file system; the most visible symptom being 25 random files in /usr/bin being linked together. It's not always the same files, and it's not always the same file being linked to, but it's always 25 links. There are other problems; rather than chase them all down we invariably end up rebuilding the system from scratch. This scuttled plans to do quick system installations via a floppy-based unix that can read the tape drive; I have the floppy but can't build a reliable file system except from the foundation set. I've also had this happen when reading a tape "on top" of an installed system. Has anyone else seen this? Any suggestions for getting around it? -- Kenneth Herron kherron@ms.uky.edu University of Kentucky (606) 257-2975 Department of Mathematics "Never trust gimmicky gadgets" -- the Doctor