Memo Please follow the steps below to determine what is going wrong: 1. Rewind the tape: Command Descriptor block: 0000: 01 00 00 00 00 00 2. Run a mode select to partition the tape into two equal sized partitions: Command Descriptor block: 0000: 15 11 00 00 5C 00 0000: 00 00 10 08 34 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 11 4E 17 01 0010: 30 01 00 00 27 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3. Run a mode sense to check the partitioning Command Descriptor block: 0000: 1A 00 11 00 FF 00 0000: 5B 73 10 08 34 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 11 4E 17 01 0010: 30 01 00 00 27 0C 27 0C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Below is my interpretation of the data returned by mode select (page 0x11) Mode Sense Header List ---------------------- Medium type: 73 Write protect: 0 Buffered mode: 1 Tape speed: 0 Mode Sense Block Descriptor List -------------------------------- Tape density code: 34 Block size: 512 Page code: 0x11 Page Definition: Medium Partition page (1) Maximum number of additional partitions: 23 Additional partitions defined: 1 Partition size units (in MB): 2 Partition <0> Size: 9996 Partition <1> Size: 9996 ----------------------------------------------------------------- At this point, it would appear that the tape is correctly partitioned ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Use mode sense to check for the active partition: Command Descriptor block: 0000: 1A 00 10 00 FF 00 0000: 1B 73 10 08 34 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 90 0E 00 00 0010: 00 00 00 00 70 00 18 00 00 00 00 00 Active Partition: 0 5. Write data to active partition (0) cd /directory1 tar cvf /dev/rct0 . 6. Verify tape contents: tar tvf /dev/rct0 < The data verified correctly > 7. Use the locate command to move to partition #1 (from partition 0) Command Descriptor block: 0000: 2B 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 8. Use mode sense to check for the active partition: Command Descriptor block: 0000: 1A 00 10 00 FF 00 0000: 1B 73 10 08 34 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 90 0E 00 01 0010: 00 00 00 00 70 00 18 00 00 00 00 00 Active Partition: 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ At this point, it would appear that a write would go to partition #1 I understand that you can also use 'mode select <page 0x10> to change active partitions, but based on the data above, it looked like the change to partition #1 worked ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Write data to active partition (1) cd /directory2 tar cvf /dev/rct0 . 10. Use mode sense to check for the active partition: Command Descriptor block: 0000: 1A 00 10 00 FF 00 0000: 1B 73 10 08 34 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 90 0E 00 00 0010: 00 00 00 00 70 00 18 00 00 00 00 00 Active Partition: 0 ---------------------------------------------------------- This puzzles me. Why did the partition revert back to 0?? ---------------------------------------------------------- 11. Use the locate command to move to partition #1 (from partition 0) Command Descriptor block: 0000: 2B 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 12. Use mode sense to check for the active partition: Command Descriptor block: 0000: 1A 00 10 00 FF 00 Active Partition: 1 13. Verify the contents of the tape tar tvf /dev/rct0 < The data verified correctly as directory2 > 14. Verify the active partition Command Descriptor block: 0000: 1A 00 10 00 FF 00 Active Partition: 0 ---------------------------------------------------------------- This puzzles me again. Why did the partition revert back to 0?? ---------------------------------------------------------------- 15. Verify the data tar cvf /dev/rct0 - The data is the contents of directory2 Summary: - Even though it appears that I can create two partitions (see mode sense 0x11 above), and that I can locate to the correct partition (see mode sense 0x10 above), I can't write data to each partition. - I would suspect that the UNIX driver is forcing partition 0 each time and that I never do write to partition #0?
