Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ziploc!stan
From: stan@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Stan Osborne)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Help with Next and Exabyte
Summary: EXABYTE works for those who are patient experimenters.
Keywords: SCSI, tape, Exabyte, backup
Message-ID: <121@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 14 Nov 89 08:55:04 GMT
References: <6440@portia.Stanford.EDU> <756@wet.UUCP>
Reply-To: stan@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Stan Osborne)
Followup-To: comp.sys.next
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 44

In article <756@wet.UUCP> stan@cs.sfsu.edu I wrote:

  >In <6440@portia.Stanford.EDU> dave@jessica.Stanford.EDU (David Finkelstein)
  >says:
  >  >Has anybody had any success in attaching an Exabyte to the Next?
  >
  >No! Though it appears NeXT knows how to do it.

First many thanks to Bill Barker at University of Washington
[<bill@biostr.biostr.washington.edu> (206) 543-7315], who seems
to have found what I was doing wrong (and most likely everyone else).

  "Did you let the Exabyte do its POST before booting the NeXT?  (Both Exabyte
  lights are on when its POSTing, both go out when its finished; if a tape
  is in the drive, the green light should come on shortly after it finishes
  POSTing.)"

Now we all know how to use an Exabyte tape system.

I never tried rebooting the NeXT after the Exabyte was through POSTing. 
I was shutting down the NeXT, connecting the Exabyte, powering on the
Exabyte, then the NeXT.  The NeXT would auto-boot long before the 
Exabyte had finished POSTing.

The procedure to follow is to turn on the Exabyte, wait 2 minutes
or so for it to finish POSTing, then power on the NeXT system.

This procedure does not work when there is a power failure.  In
that case the NeXT system must be rebooted before using the Exabyte. 
(Or the power system needs to sequence the power on.  Most people
don't have this kind of exotic power control for the components of 
a workstation.) 

You know when the Exabyte has been seen by the NeXT software if the
device "st0" or "st1" is seen during the boot process.   Once the
system is up access is via the "xt" device (see man "st"). 

Clearly a sentence or two is needed in the release notes or other
documentation before a Businessland Customer will be able to add
and use an Exabyte tape system. 

-- 
Stan Osborne, Computer Science Department, San Francisco State University
Internet: stan@cs.sfsu.edu    Usenet: cshub!stan    Voice: (415) 338-2168