For the archives, turns out the problem was not with "-p" in
'amrestore -p /dev/nsa0 freebee aacd0s1f | restore -ivf -' but rather with
the hostname and diskname being specified.  Turns out that if I specified
any of them the error would occur (even though I've verified that they were
all syntactically correct).  I found this out by simply trying:

'amrestore -p /dev/nsa0 | restore -ivf -'

And it worked--sort of.  I was dropped into interactive mode of restore.
However, I noticed that it was for the /var volume which corresponded to
disk aacd0s1e, which was the first on the tape, which corresponds to what I
think is called "fileno 0" in amanda.  I knew that "fileno" started with 0
and not 1, so I guessed that aacd0s1f was fileno #2, and I tried this
command:

'amrestore -f 2 -p /dev/nsa0 | restore -ivf -'

Lo and behold I was put in interactive restore mode of dump with the /usr
partition available to restore.  Just what I wanted!  I was able to "add"
and "extract" the files I needed to restore from this point.

I don't know why specifying the hostname and diskname causes errors, but it
does--for me at least.  Specifying the fileno instead gets the job done.

Thanks to everyone who responded!

--Sean Noonan


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-amanda-users AT amanda DOT org [mailto:owner-amanda-users AT 
> amanda DOT org]
> On Behalf Of Sean Noonan
> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 10:23 AM
> To: amanda-users AT amanda DOT org
> Cc: 'Paul Haldane'; 'Joshua Baker-LePain'
> Subject: RE: Need help restoring: -p doesn't seem to work
> 
> 
> > >> What does "mt stat" say before you run amrestore?  Is the tape
> > positioned
> >                   ^^^^
> > >
> > > "mt start" gives an error.  "start" doesn't seem to be a valid command
> > for
> >        ^^^^^
> >
> > Erm, start != stat.
> >
> > --
> > Joshua Baker-LePain
> > Department of Biomedical Engineering
> > Duke University
> 
> Doh!  Long night, high resolution, small typeface.  Sorry about that!
> 
> Here's what I get:
> 
> freebee# mt -f /dev/nsa0 stat
> Mode      Density              Blocksize      bpi      Compression
> Current:  0x42                 variable       0        disabled
> ---------available modes---------
> 0:        0x42                 variable       0        0x1
> 1:        0x42                 variable       0        0x1
> 2:        0x42                 variable       0        0x1
> 3:        0x42                 variable       0        0x1
> ---------------------------------
> Current Driver State: at rest.
> ---------------------------------
> File Number: 0  Record Number: 0        Residual Count 0
> freebee#
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> --Sean Noonan
>