Unable to read/write to a tape with tar in Red Hat AS4

[Posey, Jake E]

I'm getting the following error when trying to read a tape.  I check the
status of the drive.

 

[root at darc200 ~]# mt -f /dev/nst0 status

SCSI 2 tape drive:

File number=0, block number=-1, partition=0.

Tape block size 32768 bytes. Density code 0x26 (DDS-4 or QIC-4GB).

Soft error count since last status=0

General status bits on (1010000):

 ONLINE IM_REP_EN

[root at darc200 ~]#

 

Then I attempt to read the tape and get the following errors:

 

[root at darc200 ~]# tar -b32768 -tvf /dev/nst0

tar: This does not look like a tar archive

tar: Skipping to next header

tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers

 

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Input/output error

tar: Too many errors, quitting

tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

[root at darc200 ~]#

 

When I don't specify the block size it just hangs.

 

[root at darc200 ~]# tar tvf /dev/nst0

 

 

When attempting to write to the tape using tar -cvf temp.tar /dev/nst0
it fails also.

 

The tape is a HP StorageWorks Dat 40  scsi tape and usb tape devices.
The OS is Red Hat AS 4.0 with kernel 2.6.9-5.EL i686 GNU/Linux.  I have
the same problem with both tape devices.  

 

I can take the tape and put it in a dat drive on a hp and read it just
fine.

 

Jake E. Posey

Boeing Commerical Airplanes

Lab Test Systems Support

Email: jake.e.posey at boeing.com <mailto:jake.e.posey at boeing.com> 

Phone: (206) 544-1778