"Petr Kubecka" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I wrote a 6 page bash script that backs up RH7.2 configuration and > selected workstation's data to hard disk and then weekly to HP > DAT24i DDS-3 tape. Everything works like a dream but one small > thing- I can not figure out how to tell when the drive heads need > cleaning. This happens after 24 hours of use and is indicated by an > amber flashing light on the drive panel.
I've been using a Sony SDT-9000; some time ago there was a special linux "driver" available on their web site including a utility which could tell all sorts of drive states (soft error count, ...). Can't remember whether it showed clean req as well, but would have made sense. What I'm trying to get at is that the info (if it is available at all) would be stashed in one of the SCSI mode pages of the device. A tool like scu (http://www.bit-net.com/~rmiller/kits/linux/intel-scu.tar.gz, docs at http://www.bit-net.com/~rmiller/kits/scu/scu.html) can be used to display them: ./scu -f /dev/nst0 show pages > /tmp/foo Just diff'ing the output of that command run with/without the drive requesting cleaning might show whether sth triggers in the drive (would probably be in one of the "undocumented" mode pages, which are shown as hex value tables by scu). Apart from the cleaning req. the drive state should be the same (empty should work best, thus no tape parameters are loaded - the tapes keep count how often they are inserted for example; that was one thing the sony driver could show). The "flag" in the mode page might well be sth "weird" like a usage time counter in minutes spread over 2-4 bytes. So long, Joe -- "I use emacs, which might be thought of as a thermonuclear word processor." -- Neal Stephenson, "In the beginning... was the command line" _______________________________________________ Redhat-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
