I have a DDS-2 DAT tape created on a Solaris V2.6.x box using a Sun DAT =
drive using Sun's tar. I am using:

HP 24x6 drive using Tar under V1.3.3/i386

The tape was created using all the Sun defaults I believe but I do not =
know for sure.

1) I think the blocking factor for Sun/Solaris tar is 20 by default
2) The normal /dev/rmt/xxxx tape device was probably used (ie. not the =
Berkley compatible mode etc.)(Probably 0hn I think ?).
3) Do I have to do anything special on a tar archive coming from =
Solaris, SPARC platform (byte order) etc. to read this tape on my =
machine ?
4) I have tried a cleaning tape on the drive
5) The drive is used for our backups every night without issue, those =
tapes are readable.
5) Here are the messages generates by the HP drive when I read the tape =
with:

chio move slot 5 drive 0
mt rewind
tar -xvf /dev/nrst0

Mar  9 08:28:59 ncti103 /netbsd: st0(aic0:5:0):  Check Condition on =
opcode 0x8
Mar  9 08:28:59 ncti103 /netbsd:     SENSE KEY:  Media Error
Mar  9 08:28:59 ncti103 /netbsd:    INFO FIELD:  10240
Mar  9 08:28:59 ncti103 /netbsd:      ASC/ASCQ:  Unrecovered Read Error
Mar  9 08:28:59 ncti103 /netbsd:
Mar  9 08:41:21 ncti103 /netbsd: st0(aic0:5:0):  Check Condition on =
opcode 0x8
Mar  9 08:41:21 ncti103 /netbsd:     SENSE KEY:  Media Error
Mar  9 08:41:21 ncti103 /netbsd:    INFO FIELD:  10240
Mar  9 08:41:21 ncti103 /netbsd:      ASC/ASCQ:  Positioning Error
Mar  9 08:41:21 ncti103 /netbsd:
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd: st0(aic0:5:0):  Check Condition on =
opcode 0x8
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:     SENSE KEY:  Media Error
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:    INFO FIELD:  10240
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:      ASC/ASCQ:  Unrecovered Read Error
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd: st0(aic0:5:0):  Check Condition on =
opcode 0x8
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:     SENSE KEY:  Media Error
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:    INFO FIELD:  10240
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd:      ASC/ASCQ:  Unrecovered Read Error
Mar  9 08:45:11 ncti103 /netbsd: