Followup to EXABYTE/SunOS 4.0.3

[David M. Anthony]

Recently I posted this question to the net:

#   Could someone please confirm or deny the fact that Exabyte 8mm tape
#   backup systems *do not* work properly under SunOS 4.0.3.  I'm in the
#   position of having to buy a plug-and-play setup from Delta Microsystems
#   for ~$6000 CDN but would much rather buy an Exabyte for ~$3500 CDN and
#   use Sun's driver.  Any suggestions welcome. 

The overwhelming response was that Exabytes *do* work under SunOS 4.0.3
but not in all cases. Some of the responses were,

o Does not work with Sun SCSI-2 (sc) driver under 4.0 or 4.0.1, but 4.0.3
  may have fixed the problem.

o Write errors may occur with Sun's SCSI-3 (si) driver. Sun may have a
  patch available for these problems.

o Runs fine on Sun 3/50 or 3/60 running 4.0.3 with Sun's drivers.

o Packaged drive and driver from Delta Microsystems, Contemporary
  Cybernetics and Boxhill Systems works with no problems.

o Third party drivers such as those provided by Delta Microsystems and
  Apunix (San Deigo) allow greater flexibility using the tar/dump utilities.

o Does not work with 4.0.3c (SS1's) SCSI driver but Sun has a patch that
  fixes the problem.

The bottom line for me is that I think I will avoid Sun's drivers and
either go with Delta Microsystem's package or buy an Exabyte and look
around for a driver (Apunix received favourable reviews).

Thanks to all who responded so quickly to my query and in particular, I
would like to thank,

    debrunne at uirvld.csl.uiuc.edu        (Chris Debrunner)
    dmc%cam.sri.com at Warbucks.AI.SRI.COM (David Carter)
    kjv at tampella.fi                     (V{{r{nen Kari)
    milt%xlab at uunet.uu.net              (Milt Ratcliff)
    glen at rockvax.rockefeller.edu        (Glen L. Gunsalus)
    raob at mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU            (Richard Oxbrow)
    pgf at space.mit.edu                   (Peter G. Ford)
    david at elroy.jpl.nasa.gov            (David Robinson)
    tonyr at tekadg.adg.tek.com            (Tony Rick)
    ekrell at ulysses.att.com              (Eduardo Krell)

David M. Anthony
anthony at nereid.sal.ists.ca
Space Astrophysics Laboratory
Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science