Hi all
I have a tape drive HP Colorado 5GB
I connected it to my linux system having Fedora core 3. boot loader lilo
each time i do a reboot i have to run the command
only then the entry in /dev/sto appears and i am able to access the tape drive
I tried adding the command to rc.local but still no effect
Question 1
********
How do i load this module ide-scsi during boot up? (i dont have a modules.conf in my machine)
Anyway after running that command i am able to use "mt" commands to access the device..
I am able to copy data into the device using the "cpio" command..
but I am not able to copy data into the device using the "tar" command
It gives me input / output error.
I know that cpio and tar uses different formatting. tar used 10240 bytes as block size (default) is what i read from man page.
The block size of the tape drive
when no tape is present is 0 bytes
when tape is present is 512 bytes
So i thought of changing the block size of the tape drive to 0 ( variable block size) using the
Code:
mt setblk 0
or
mt -f /dev/st0 setblk 0
but this command was giving me the same error
/dev/st0 : Input/Output error
I tried writing a program thereby calling ioctl 's to set the block size but i am getting the same error..
Code:
struct mtop magtape_ops;
struct mtget magtape_get;
int fd;
/* Open the tape drive, read-only mode */
fd = open (tape_drive, O_RDONLY);
if (fd < 0) {
perror ("open");
fprintf (stderr, "unable to open tape drive [%s] for reading\n",
tape_drive);
fprintf (stderr, "did you mistype the tape drive name?\n");
return(-1);
}
/* Get information about the tape drive */
memset ((struct mtop *) &magtape_ops, 0, sizeof(struct mtop));
magtape_ops.mt_op = MTNOP;
magtape_ops.mt_count = 1;
if (ioctl (fd, MTIOCTOP, &magtape_ops) < 0) {
perror ("ioctl MTIOCTOP:MTNOP");
fprintf (stderr, "unable to issue a NOOP command to the tape drive");
fprintf (stderr, " to clear its command buffer.\n");
return(-1);
}
memset ((struct mtget *) &magtape_get, 0, sizeof(struct mtget));
if (ioctl (fd, MTIOCGET, &magtape_get) < 0) {
perror ("ioctl MTIOCGET");
fprintf (stderr, "unable to get tape drive status.\n");
return(-1);
}
/* is there a tape in the drive? */
if (GMT_DR_OPEN(magtape_get.mt_gstat)) {
fprintf (stderr, "error: the tape drive appears to be open\n");
fprintf (stderr, " and/or a tape is not inserted. Please insert\n");
fprintf (stderr, " a tape and close the tape drive door.\n");
return(-1);
}
/* is the tape write protected? */
if (!GMT_WR_PROT(magtape_get.mt_gstat)) {
fprintf (stderr, "error: tape loaded in drive appears to be NOT\n");
fprintf (stderr, " write-protected. Please unload the tape, enable\n");
fprintf (stderr, " write protection, and reload the tape.\n");
return(-1);
}
/* is the tape drive online? */
if (!GMT_ONLINE(magtape_get.mt_gstat)) {
fprintf (stderr, "error: tape drive is not on-line. Please place\n");
fprintf (stderr, " the tape drive on-line and rerun this program.\n");
return(-1);
}
/* rewind the tape drive */
memset ((struct mtop *) &magtape_ops, 0, sizeof(struct mtop));
magtape_ops.mt_op = MTREW;
magtape_ops.mt_count = 1;
if (ioctl (fd, MTIOCTOP, &magtape_ops) < 0) {
perror ("ioctl MTIOCTOP:MTREW");
fprintf (stderr, "unable to issue a MTREW command to the tape drive");
fprintf (stderr, " to rewind the tape.\n");
return(-1);
}
memset ((struct mtop *) &magtape_ops, 0, sizeof(struct mtop));
magtape_ops.mt_op = MTSETBLK;
magtape_ops.mt_count = 0;
if (ioctl (fd, MTIOCTOP, &magtape_ops) < 0)
{
perror ("ioctl MTIOCTOP:MTSETBLK");
fprintf (stderr, "unable to issue a MTSETBLK command to the tape drive");
fprintf (stderr, " to set the blocksize to variable.\n");
return(-1);
}
I am sure that the tape is loaded as i am able to retrieveother data like whether the tape is write protected or not , cpio command works for data backup
Question 2
********
How do i get to set the tape to variable block size?
Since if i am able to set the tape to variable block size i guess everything should work just fine..
Anyone any ideas????? I am not sure this is the correct forum but since it invovled tape drives i put it here
