Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!houxj!wapd
From: wapd@houxj.UUCP (Bill Dietrich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: cpio for DOS and 3b2 - followup
Message-ID: <334@houxj.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Oct-87 09:37:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxj.334
Posted: Wed Oct 21 09:37:39 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Oct-87 06:13:35 EDT
References: <1647@dasys1.UUCP> <144800003@tiger.UUCP> <1261@uccba.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 27


> Is there any standard for disk or tape cartridge tar (or cpio) format  ?
> I have had no luck getting the 3B2 to read (or write) tape cartridges
> written (or read) by 68000 based unix machines (whether Sys V or
> Sun - BSD). It appears that even at the same density, there is a difference.
> I realize that different tape drives may be aligned differently, is that
> the problem?
> I can't even get dd to work without errors if the disk was formatted on
> a 68000 based Sys V system, for the same alignment reasons?

3B2 expects floppy disks, hard disks and cartridge tapes to contain
certain OS-dependent or driver-dependent stuff that would make direct
transfer of them to/from other systems impossible.  There are various
descriptor sectors and/or defect tables and such on these media that
are 3B2-specific.  Even a DD won't work (on 3B2), because as soon as DD
opens the medium, the driver tries to read these descriptor sectors, and fails.
You will have to write a new driver on one system or the other to get
such a direct transfer to work.  Although I suppose a DD of a 3B2 medium
on the non-3B2 system might work, if you know what to strip off of the
resulting data.

9-track tape should be a different story, although I'm not
sure the 3B2/400 supports it (the 3B2/600 does).  There you should
only have to fight the problem of incompatible versions of CPIO.

					Bill Dietrich
					houxj!wapd