Jon - 
Perhaps I'm have a blonde moment over this whole configuration issue.
Please excuse my ignorance... and I do appreciate your help. Below see
my comments embedded in your last email..


On Wed, 2003-02-12 at 15:16, Jon LaBadie wrote:
> Is there a "groups" command on your system.
> Or maybe the "id" command will show it.

Both 'groups' and ID work on my system (Mandrake 9)
>It might be useful to check what are the groups amanda belongs to when logged 
>in and
>when running from cron.
>A little script like this could be make (I'm calling it "ckit")
> 
>    exec 1> /tmp/ckit-$$ 2>&1
> 
>    groups     # or id or what ever
>    mtx -f <your tape device> status     # or info or inquiry or what ever
> 

'amanda' does not belong to any secondary groups. I now have set the
changer device group to 'disk' (the amanda group) and verified that
group has rw permissions.

lr-xr-xr-x    1 root     root           36 Feb 10 13:45 /dev/sg2 ->
scsi/host0/bus0/target5/lun1/generic

crw-rw----    1 root     disk      21,   2 Dec 31  1969
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target5/lun1/generic

I created the script and ran at the command line as 'amanda' as well as
from amanda's cron. The output looks like this: (I called both groups
and id in the script) The output was identical from either a shell or
cron.

script output:

disk
uid=502(amanda) gid=6(disk) groups=6(disk)
  Storage Changer /dev/sg2:1 Drives, 6 Slots ( 0 Import/Export )
Data Transfer Element 0:Full (Storage Element 2 Loaded)
      Storage Element 1:Full 
      Storage Element 2:Empty
      Storage Element 3:Full 
      Storage Element 4:Full 
      Storage Element 5:Full 
      Storage Element 6:Full 


> If that works, try a "cd amanda_config_dir ; chg-zd-mtx <some command>"
> in the cron script.

OK - I tried this manually.. my configs are in
/usr/local/etc/amanda/daily-net. So I went there and ran:

/usr/local/libexec/chg-zd-mtx -info. The result was not good. It returns

"<none> could not determine current slot"

The contents of the debug file for the above test is:
======================================================
chg-zd-mtx: debug 1 pid 3361 ruid 0 euid 0: start at Thu Feb 13 09:34:17
2003
09:34:17 Arg info:
         $# = 1
         $0 = "/usr/local/libexec/chg-zd-mtx"
         $1 = "-info"
09:34:17 Running: /sbin/mtx status
09:34:17 Exit code: 0
         Stdout:
  Storage Changer /dev/sg2:1 Drives, 6 Slots ( 0 Import/Export )
Data Transfer Element 0:Full (Storage Element 2 Loaded)
      Storage Element 1:Full 
      Storage Element 2:Empty
      Storage Element 3:Full 
      Storage Element 4:Full 
      Storage Element 5:Full 
      Storage Element 6:Full 
09:34:17 Config info:
         firstslot = "1"
         lastslot = "6"
         cleanslot = "6"
         cleancycle = "120"
         offline_before_unload = "0"
         unloadpause = "0"
         autoclean = "0"
         autocleancount = "99"
         havereader = "0"
         driveslot = "1"
         poll_drive_ready = "3"
         max_drive_wait = "120"
09:34:17 Exit (2) -> <none> could not determine current slot
chg-zd-mtx: pid 3484 finish time Thu Feb 13 09:34:17 2003
==========================================================

I don't know if this helps in determining where my stuff is SB (Sh**'s
broke)

The user config portion of ../daily-net/mtx-changer:

### USER CONFIGURATION
# Name of the tape drive (takes place of "tapedev" option in
amanda.conf)
#  and default driver number in library (usu 0) that DRIVE_NAME points
to
DRIVE_NAME="/dev/nst1"
DRIVE_NUM=0

# Location of "STC" command and control device
MTX_CMD="/sbin/mtx";
MTX_CONTROL="/dev/sg2";

# Whether tape drive must eject tape before changer retrieves
#  (ie, EXB-2x0). Usually okay if set while not necessary, bad if
#  required but not set.
DRIVE_MUST_EJECT=1

# How long to check drive readiness (in seconds) after mounting (or
#  ejecting) a volume (on some libraries, the motion or eject command
may
#  complete before the drive has the volume fully mounted and online,
#  or ready for retrieval, resulting in "Drive not ready"/"Media not
#  ready" errors). Do an "mt status" command every 5 seconds upto this
#  time.
DRIVE_READY_TIME_MAX=120

#  tape "mt" command location...
MT_CMD="/bin/mt"     # called via "MT_CMD -f DRIVE_NAME rewind" &
                         #   "MT_CMD -f DRIVE_NAME offline" to eject
                         # and "MT_CMD -f DRIVE_NAME status" to get
ready info

++++

and one again my mtx-changer.conf is:

firstslot=1     #### 1st tape slot
lastslot=6      #### Last tape slot
cleanslot=6     #### Slot with cleaner tape

# Do you want to clean the drive after a certain number of accesses?
# NOTE - This is unreliable, since 'accesses' aren't 'uses', and we
# have no reliable way to count this. A single amcheck could
# generate as many accesses as slots you have, plus 1.
# ALSO NOTE - many modern tape loaders handle this automatically.

AUTOCLEAN=0     #### Set to '1' or greater to enable

autocleancount=99       #### Number of access before a clean.

havereader=0    #### If you have a barcode reader, set to 1.

offlinestatus=1 #### Set to 0 if 'mt status' gives an
                #### "offline" when drive is offline.
                #### Set to 1 or greater if 'mt status'
                #### doesn't give and offline, rather an
                #### "ONLINE" when drive is online.

OFFLINE_BEFORE_UNLOAD=0 #### Does your tape driver require a
                        #### 'mt offline' before mtx unload?


+++

Thanks again to everyone for their continued help

-- Still scratching my head.