DECsystem 5400 VS Micro Technology 8mm tape drive

[Daniel OConnell]

We have a DEC5400 running Ultrix 4.1. We have a TK70, 9-track Cipher 990 on
a Dialog Pertec controller, and an 8200 Exebyte on a CMD 220 controller.

Prior to installing Ultrix 4.1 we could read variable record size tapes.
Now, we get truncated record errors on the 9-track and cannot read more
than 2 records from tapes we could read under Ultrix 3.1C. This problem
affects all the tape drives, including the TK70. DEC replaced the TK70
and we still have the same problem. Also, now the cache command (MTCACHE)
no longer works with the Cipher 9-track.

What gives? Has anybody else experienced problems with dd, variable
record length tapes, and Ultrix 4.1? Has the TMSCP driver been
damaged? We removed the Exebyte and CMD controller to mimic our
Ultrix 3.1C configuration and still have the same problems.

When our DEC maintenance person called DEC support they told him
the tapex tape exercise utility is useless...

Dan O'Connell
geomagic at geo1s.mps.ohio-state.edu