From: Schepers, Jan (Jan.Schepers@atosorigin.com)
Date: Wed May 29 2002 - 05:37:57 EDT
List,
I posed this question:
> when trying to write a file system to tape with
>
> # vdump -0f /dev/nrmt0h /file/system
>
> I get the following message of which I cannot find anything
> in the manual
>
> vdump: unable to write to device < /dev/nrmt0h >, [5] I/O error
> vdump: do you want to retry?
>
> o What does it mean ?
> o How can I give a default from within a script ?
> o Anything else ?
Answer 1
--------
To get more details the error log files must be looked at by
means of tools like
- uerf(8)
be sure to use the option "-o full". Thne support of this tool
has stopped around the the time the first 4000/4100 class came out.
- dia
- Compaq Analyze
- DECevent
Which is not installed on the base system. However, the kit is
on one of the Associated Product CDROMs (for modern versions).
Likely suspects (which the error log will probably not distinguish
between) are:
- bad tape (bad spots)
- bad cable
- bad drive
- dirty drive
to distinguish between these suspects, you would have to swap
with working equipment piece-by-piece.
Also, sometimes tapes have 'I/O error' when they are full
(or maybe the tapes just get worse near the end-of-tape).
Zero the tape with the command
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/tape/tape0 bs=64k
where /dev/zero is the input file, bs the block size and the drive the
output file. check dd(1)
--- Solved the incident by changing the (old?) used ---
--- tape by a brand new one. ---
Answer 2
--------
Vdump is meant as an interactive program.
'expect' may be used to intercept prompts and setup a dialog within a
script.
Answer 3
--------
I should have given mode details, like model, OS version etc.
Compiled from various answers. Thanks to:
- Jim Belonis
- Raul Sossa
- Jenny Butler
- Mohamed Ahmed
- Michael Taylor
- Pat O'Brien
- Stan Horwitz
- Jim Smart
- Jose Fabregas
- John Maloney
- Peter Gergen
- Alan
regards,
Yann
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