reading 8mm tapes on an RS 6000

[Doug Stailey]

In article <28773 at netnews.upenn.edu> keener at upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Paul T. Keener) writes:
>I have an sl format 8mm tape that was written on a VAX running VMS that I
>want to be able to read on a rs 6000.  I have successfully read the tape
>on a SUN.  For those who don't know, sl format tapes look like
>
>        file #          contains
>          1             Header
>          2             Data
>          3             Trailer
>          4             Header
>          5             Data
>          6             Trailer
>                .
>                .
>                .
>
>On this particular tape, the first data file is a zero length file.  I was
>able to read the first four files on the SUN using
>        dd if=/dev/rst1 of=file
>and the fifth file using
>        dd if=/dev/rst1 of=file ibs=16384
>
>On the rs 6000, I could not read the first four files at all (IO read error),
>and using 
>        dd if=/dev/rmt0 of=file ibs=16384
>was able to get the device driver to read the tape, but it come back with
>a zero length file.
>
>Does anybody know how I might be able to read this tape?  Thank you.

1.  using smit (or chdev maybe) make sure that your tape drive is set
to use variable length blocks (buffer set to zero).

2.  try using the dd options "conv=unblock,sync" along with your other
options.

3.  try using one of the other tape drive special files like
/dev/rmt0.4
-- 
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