Hello Joshua,
Thanks for your reply. After talking with Overland tech support I have
reached at least one conclusion. The drive and the tape is AIT-1. AIT-2
is being reported by mt -f /dev/nst0 status. An AIT-1 drive cannot write
to an AIT-2 tape per Overland Storage. 5 of the box of 10 that I got
reported AIT-2 even though they are supposed to be AIT-1 tapes. My guess
is that they are defective. The other 5, I was able to write to without
a problem, finally.

The tapes I originally tried to write to were all bad which is why I
assumed that something else was wrong. 





On Wed, 2004-02-04 at 09:31, Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 at 11:10am, Kent L. Nasveschuk wrote
> > 
> > I have a RedHat 8.0 system running on an HP DL380 that has updated
> > drivers for the raid and hot plug system. I have an Overland
> > LoaderXpress autoloader, 20 tape magazine with a single Sony sdx-400c
> > internal tape drive (AIT-2).
> 
> I have a very similar unit -- actually, the loader is identical, but I've 
> got AIT3 drives.
> 
> > When I try to tar a directory to the drive
> > 
> > tar -cvf /dev/nst0 ./directory
> > 
> > I get an error read-only file system.The tab on the tape is shut.
> > 
> > Everything seems to be working as far as the autoloader and tape drive,
> > but the tapes indicate write protect is on when it is not.
> > 
> > See attached output from mt and mtx commands:
> *snip*
> > [root@whs1 root]# mt -f /dev/nst0 status
> > SCSI 2 tape drive:
> > File number=0, block number=-1, partition=0.
> > Tape block size 512 bytes. Density code 0x31 (AIT-2).
> > Soft error count since last status=0
> > General status bits on (5010000):
> >  WR_PROT ONLINE IM_REP_EN
> 
> The block number seems a bit odd.  What happens if you do 'mt rewind' 
> and then 'mt status'?  Also, out of curiousity, what does 'tapeinfo -f 
> /dev/sg0' say?
> 
> > [root@whs1 hugo]# tar -cvf /dev/nst0 ./database
> > tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot open: Read-only file system
> > tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
> 
> Dig through the menus on the front panel of the loader.  In my manual, I 
> see at least one option (under the "Escape" menu) where you can check the 
> drive status to see if the library thinks the drive is write protected.  
> Also, what does 'ls -l /dev/nst0*' say?  Anything odd in the systems logs 
> regarding the st module?
> 
> As an aside, your kernel version looks like a rather old one -- there have 
> been a lot of errate since that kernel.  Upgrading it wouldn't be a bad 
> idea.
-- 
Kent L. Nasveschuk <kent AT wareham.k12.ma DOT us>