Jon,

I followed your advice on mtx and think I may have 
found the problem.

Check out these results - first an inquiry:
[root@blossom root]# mtx -f /dev/sg0 inquiry
Product Type: Tape Drive
Vendor ID: 'SEAGATE '
Product ID: 'DAT    06241-XXX'
Revision: '8110'
Attached Changer: No

then a status:
[root@blossom root]# mtx -f /dev/sg0 status 
mtx: Request Sense: Long Report=yes
mtx: Request Sense: Valid Residual=no
mtx: Request Sense: Error Code=70 (Current)
mtx: Request Sense: Sense Key=Illegal Request
mtx: Request Sense: FileMark=no
mtx: Request Sense: EOM=no
mtx: Request Sense: ILI=no
mtx: Request Sense: Additional Sense Code = 20
mtx: Request Sense: Additional Sense Qualifier = 00
mtx: Request Sense: BPV=no
mtx: Request Sense: Error in CDB=no
mtx: Request Sense: SKSV=no
READ ELEMENT STATUS Command Failed

Error code 70?

any ideas?  am I batty?  Sorry to bug you so much...

-John


--- Jon LaBadie <jon AT jgcomp DOT com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 04:45:50PM -0800, John
> Cunningham wrote:
> > Jon,
> > 
> > Thanks for the help.  Sorry if you got a partial 
> > message before this - yahoo's mail client
> > occaisionally does things on it's own.
> > 
> > I'll definitly check out the mtx stuff tonight.  I
> did
> > install Amanda from source (I really don't like
> > RPMS - they always seem to be behind) version
> 2.4.3b -
> > I think I got it within the last month.
> 
> The "b"s are the beta pre-releases, 4 of them I
> think.
> Actually the one without the "b" is the real release
> and is probably newer and more up to date.
> 
> > As for the cleaning tape - the manual with my
> drive 
> > (you can tell how new I am to tapes if I'm
> RTFM-ing)
> > said the drive likes a clean about once a week if
> you 
> > run daily backups.  Being that I don't know a
> thing 
> > about it I figured I'd do 5 tapes on a 7 day 
> > rotation (the week schedule more for sanity), use
> one 
> > cleaning tape in the cartridge, then just have to
> swap
> > cartridges once a week on my way out.
> 
> Yeah, I do 6 per week.  Done at about 2AM, so the
> "Fri"
> backup actually happens on Sat.  Then I skip a day
> and
> the 2AM Monday covers the 2 day weekend.  Since this
> is
> at home, it means I have all of Sat and Sunday til
> 2AM
> Monday to remember to change magazines.  And if I
> forget
> they just collect in the holding disk.
> 
> > I plan to have most of this done tonight, if it
> takes
> > until dawn (which it may :) - thanks again for the
> > help.  This is why I love open source.
> 
> Its good software and a good group.
> 
> -- 
> Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
>  JG Computing
>  4455 Province Line Road        (609) 252-0159
>  Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)


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