> 
> hard error bn341
> tape transfer error, unit 0, grp 0x0, event 0153
> hard error bn0: OFFLINE
> 
[...]
> 
> There's no why I can't just dd the entire distribution to tape. The .tar
> files total to about 71 megs, and the TK50 has a 90 or so meg capacity.
> I know either I set up my system wrong, or I'm messing something else
> up. Any help is much appreciated!
>
I have had exactly the same problem. It seems that all files take
more space than 90MB when using blocksize=512, so I solved it
by creating distribution tapes with only the first two files
(the boot/miniroot files) having bs=512, the rest bs=64. 
Then it worked :-)

-- Ragge