On Wednesday 18 January 2006 22:45, Eric Schnoebelen wrote:
>Gene Heskett writes:
>- On Wednesday 18 January 2006 13:47, Ian Turner wrote:
>- >Is anyone out there using chg-scsi instead of chg-mtx or
> chg-zd-mtx? - > If so, can you tell me why?
>
> Well, I'm probably using it because I helped do the
>initial development a long, long time ago.
>
> That said, for the 2.4 tree, I've been maintaining a
>couple of local patches that allow chg-scsi to work better in my
>environment, as well as catch a number of the more obvious
>defects in the released code.
>
> I've submitted the patches before, but it seems they've
>never been integrated. :(
>
> Here are the notes I have at the top of the sources:
>
>
># Commentary:
># The vast majority of the changes in this patch are to add
> support/fix # for the Exabyte EXB-8505 and EXB-8900 8MM tape
> drives, when attached # to NetBSD, and within an EXB-4[48]0 robot.
># A smaller number of the changes are add support for the EXB-4[48]0
># SCSI robots.
># Additional changes to support the HP/Compaq SureStore C5151-2000
># DLT robot.
># A number of segmentation violations were also removed.
># SCSI_LoadUnload was recoded to use a private structure, to make
># sure the correct bitfields were set.
># Finally, a new function was added to set/clear the
># Prevent/Allow Medium Removal flag.
># The remainder of the changes are to improve the debug-ability of
># the program, and the quality of the debug log
>#
>--- changer-src/scsi-changer-driver.c.orig Tue Feb 27 17:10:39
> 2001 +++ changer-src/scsi-changer-driver.c
>
># Commentary:
># Re-ordered the opening of the `scsitapedev' control device. It is
># opened before the `dev' device. The failure to open `dev' was
> made # non-fatal, as chg-scsi doesn't realy use `dev' for
> anything. # The reasoning for the reordering is that on NetBSD,
> /dev/nrstX # returns ENODEV on a tape device when the device does
> not have # the medium ready. /dev/enrstX has no such
> restrictions, and makes # an excellent `scsitapedev'
>#
>--- changer-src/chg-scsi.c.orig Tue Oct 24 18:49:39 2000
>+++ changer-src/chg-scsi.c Sat Feb 17 22:32:27 2001
>
>
>- I did use it for a while, but like you, I had problems, primarily
>- control, as in it did not seem to ever issue a rewind, [...]
>
>- As for buffer issues, I didn't see anything in about 4-5 years that
>- would make me think there was a problem in that area. Long enough
> to - wear out 5 of those Seagate 4586n DDS2 changers.
>
> Thats interesting, as I wore out at least two of those
>changers using chg-scsi on NetBSD and FreeBSD hosts. Rewind
>worked just fine for me.. (note, the last one of those went out
>of service for me in 2001, although they're still sitting in the
>garage awaiting a good use..)
After stumbling over them in this crowded room for about 2 years, I
binned them just 2 weeks ago. I gave the rack of tapes, rack and all
to a friend who has an audiodat machine or 2, and I still have one 4
slot magazine laying here. I rather looked at the pile going out as
the end of an era, one not conducive to lowered aspirin usage. Of
course now the sawbones insists I take a baby asperin a day as part &
parcel of heart health, to go along with the 10mg of lisonapril. At
71, I passed a stress test a month or so back with no problems. And in
the summer I expect to toss a few more bags of sackrete around as I'm
not done laying sidewalks in the back yard yet. I need to get a
mud-proof trail to the workshop laid come warmer weather.
Curiously, when we stuck one of those data tapes in his machine and hit
record, it was apparently just as happy with the much longer data tape
I'd bought off ebay for < $2.50 each, in place of the obviously shorter
ampex audiodat tapes he was paying about a tenner each for. That put a
grin on his face as there was about 50 of them.
> Hmm, looking at the first of the patches above, I see
>that I did have to change a call to GenericRewind to the device
>specify rewind in Tape_Ready(). And I also see changes to
>GenericRewind();
Then obviously these patches DO need to be integrated. They would have
saved me innumerable headaches & missed backups over the years. Fully
25% of the wear and tear on both the tapes and the drives could be laid
directly at the feet of the no rewind problem. I also posted about it
several times, mostly without even an empty room echo. :)
>--
>Eric Schnoebelen eric AT cirr DOT com http://www.cirr.com
> "But there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft."
> -- Bill Gates
--
Cheers, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's
stupid bounce rules. I do use spamassassin too. :-)
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message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
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