SCO Xenix tar reading SUN tapes

[Ronald S H Khoo]

[Xenix tape freaks: there's a question for you at the bottom of this article!]

In article <1220 at sixhub.UUCP> davidsen at sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:

>  To read them you will probably need a Sun to convert them to standard
> format. Sun has two formats, /dev/rst0 which is probably what you have,
> and /dev/rst8 which is QIC-24. QIC-24 is what the rest of the world
> uses, has a higher density and transfer rate, and should be the default
> for everything (but isn't).

According to the Xenix manual, both QIC-11 and QIC-24 exist, but
QIC-11 doesn't seem to exist on one of my machines. (??)  It would appear
therefore that the best way to go about this is to

	tar cf /dev/rst8 on sun, tar xf /dev/rct0 on Xenix (QIC-24)

and if that fails

	tar cf /dev/rst0 on sun, tar xf /dev/rct2 on Xenix (QIC-11)

Odd, eh?  I can't find any mention in TFM *why* the driver for
my wangtek drive can't do QIC-11 but the one for the archive can.

Both do QIC-24 though, and since that's "standard" (hah!) now, I suppose
it doesn't matter.

Now a question for anyone who knows about Xenix tapes:

On my archive (viper 60e with SC402 card) the driver seems to need to be
prodded a little after changing tapes which rather confuses restor.  The
wangtek doesn't have this problem.  Anyone know how to get around this ?
(I'm using the standard SCO driver and OS 2.3.1 on the machine with the
wangtek, and 2.3.2 on the other)

[ ronald inserts tape, shuts drive door, brrrrrzzzzt! ]

$ tape status
     status : no-cartridge
soft errors : 0
hard errors : 0
  underruns : 0

[ don't touch a thing, just do tape status again ]

$ tape status
     status :
soft errors : 0
hard errors : 0
  underruns : 0

[ oh really ? ]
Anyone know how to get around this ?  (other than going to another
multiscreen and doing : < /dev/rct0 I mean) 

-- 
Eunet: Ronald.Khoo at robobar.Co.Uk  Phone: +44 81 991 1142  Fax: +44 81 998 8343
Paper: Robobar Ltd. 22 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx., UB6 7JD ENGLAND.