On 8/25/05, jesus garcia <jesus@garrityprinting.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I just installed NetBSD 2.2 on a server that provides basic file
> services for macintoshes....love netBSD, love it too much,
> everythign is perfect on it but have one problem..sorry for this but is
> the first netBSD server I setup with this tape drive.
>=20
> my problem:
> --------------------
> 1)mt /dev/st0 erase
> hangs on erase and returns an I/O error
>=20
> 2) don't think i get reliable backups using mt
>=20
> setup:
> -------------------
> Seagate DDS-4 4mm SCSI Tape drive on Adaptec 2940UW..no SCSI problems,
> card is fine, tape drive is fine
>=20
> temporary solution:
> -------------------
>=20
> wrote a script to do backups using tar (good backups here), but can't
> seem to find a way to erase using tar on netbsd, so i think i need mt
>=20
>=20
> --------------------------------
> Is there anything specific I need to do to the DDS-4 to make it
> available for erases in 'mt'?, is there anything on 'mt' i need to do?
> need some guidance on how to properly set this up for netBSD backups

Why do you have to erase the tapes?

As soon as you write to the front of the tape, when the write is
finished an end of data mark is left and the tape is effectively
erased from there on.

The other thing is if erase doesn't work, I might be worried about
regular function as well. Did you test your backups to see if they
really restore?

Andy