I drafted up this question but found the solution myself.... I thought I'd
post my own summary to the problem.
Answer: even though the scsi chain hasn't been changed in the last 2
years, all of a sudden we've been getting write errors when trying to
backup to tape... "query(): fopen(): No such device or address". Because
hardware didn't change, I tried to rule that out.
Turns out, removing one device from the scsi chain solved the write errors!
--Dan
>I'm trying to backup data on a Sony AIT (Sidewinder 50) tape drive.
>I try doing a dump and constantly get errors writing:
>
> >dump: Volume 1, tape # 0001, begins with blocks from i-node 2
> >dump: 0.95% done -- finished in 00:03
> >dump: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
> >dump: Check if tape is write protected.
> >dump: Write error -- wanted to write: 10240, only wrote: -1
> >slave_work(): write(): I/O error
> >dump: Write error - /dev/nrmt2h, volume 1, 67 feet -- cannot recover
> >dump: Cannot fopen /dev/tty for reading
> >query(): fopen(): No such device or address
> >dump: SIGTERM received
> >dump: The ENTIRE dump is aborted
>
>I've tried several different tapes, including new ones. Sony says the
>drive has auto cleaning, but I still tried an AIT cleaning tape. I was
>having this problem before and the problem went away, with the same tapes
>it was saying there was a write error.
>
>Perhaps it is a hardware problem... but I was hoping not.
>Any possibility that the scsi chain may be too long?
>I never had problems before with anything on the chain... but I just
>removed one device to make it shorter and it seems to be going further.
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Dan Kirkpatrick dkirk_at_phy.syr.edu
Computer Systems Manager
Department of Physics
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
http://www.phy.syr.edu/~dkirk Fax: (315) 443-9103
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Received on Mon Jan 22 2001 - 14:56:33 NZDT