Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!ginosko!uunet!mcsun!unido!wrkof!dksoft!dirk
From: dirk@dksoft.UUCP (Dirk Koeppen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: SCSI Tapes on 386/ix (aha1540)
Keywords: SCSI 386IX TAPE
Message-ID: <305@dksoft.UUCP>
Date: 6 Sep 89 10:40:50 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: dksoft , EDV-Beratung , D-6050 Offenbach
Lines: 23

I just tried to connect a SCSI tape to 386/ix rel. 2.0.2 with their
included tape driver but it does not recognize the tape drive.

I use the aha1540 as the second controller and therefore use maj/min 41/72.
ISC says that you can use any SCSI ID with the tape but on my system the
tape will only be recognized if I use SCSI IDs > 3 and very strange there
must be a disk connected onto the SCSI otherwhise nothing will be accepted.

When using a Tandberg TD 3660 streamer which is fairly compatible to
the Wangtek drives and also fixed-block (512 Bytes) the system boots, scans
the SCSI for devices, rewinds the tape and then the system hangs. 

Using a GIGATAPE (one of these 1,2G DAT-drives) gives better results. The
systems boots as expected. But when I try to read/write the tape I get
the message 'Variable-sized records on dumb DMA tape!' and the system 
dumps. I used this TC_GETPARMS ioctl call for the gentape device and it
gives me a variable-block sized tape which is ok but it also tells that
the blocksize is set to 1 byte. 

Does anybody have better experience with the 386/ix tape driver ?

thanx,
dirk@incom.de