[comp.unix.sysv386] Cartridge tape drive hangs in open

Bron@cup.portal.com (George Bron Faison) (12/02/90)

Niklas:

Don't know if this will help or not but you sounded desparate :-{  so I
thought I'd pass it along for what it's worth (reference an Archive SCSI tape
hangiing on open).

I've seen similar problems with Archive drives both SCSI and non-SCSI
under ISC 386/ix 2.x.x and we found a kludgy solution, that was to always
call the Archive "ctape" utility with a rewind call.  Apparently this resets
the board or something, at any rate, since we started doing this we've never
had another cartridge tape hang.  Just do a "ctape rewind" in your shell
script or system(...) if C program and maybe it will help.

I send this idea along for what it's worth and hope that it helps.  This
does seem to be a common problem for Archive cartridge tape drives...maybe
they should fix it, eh?

Bron @ cup.portal.com

jdeitch@jadpc.cts.com (Jim Deitch) (12/05/90)

In article <36447@cup.portal.com> Bron@cup.portal.com (George Bron Faison) writes:
>Niklas:
>
>Don't know if this will help or not but you sounded desparate :-{  so I
>thought I'd pass it along for what it's worth (reference an Archive SCSI tape
>hangiing on open).

Not SCSI, but using the SC499R controller here.  I think it is QIC-02.

>
>I've seen similar problems with Archive drives both SCSI and non-SCSI
>under ISC 386/ix 2.x.x and we found a kludgy solution, that was to always
>call the Archive "ctape" utility with a rewind call.  Apparently this resets
>the board or something, at any rate, since we started doing this we've never
>had another cartridge tape hang.  Just do a "ctape rewind" in your shell
>script or system(...) if C program and maybe it will help.
>
>I send this idea along for what it's worth and hope that it helps.  This
>does seem to be a common problem for Archive cartridge tape drives...maybe
>they should fix it, eh?
>
>Bron @ cup.portal.com

I tried this idea tonight and found that it SORTENS the number of
times that I can use the device before a hang occurs.  I just wish
that SOMEONE, ANYONE, even a janitor or one of the cockroaches would
return my call.  I hate waiting for 15 minutes then leaving a message
then not getting a call back.

Oh well.

Jim
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