3 Jul
2005
3 Jul
'05
4:20 p.m.
Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
The dd command I used is simple:
dd if=/dev/st0 of=tape.img
I've since learned that I want to use the /dev/nrst0 device handle so that
the tape does not rewind after every file operation. That's handy, but
doesn't solve the problem.
That also only reads 1 record from the tape. I've had good luck with
Michael Sokolov's tape utilities (mktape?), and not-wonderful luck in
general extracting non-Unix tapes in Linux. NetBSD or FreeBSD tend to
be a little less idiosyncratic about the tape devices themselves.
You may also, depending on your SCSI adapter and the tape drive, need
to tell the drive either the block size explicitly (each time it
changes) or set it to variable. If I'm having trouble reading a stacked
tape (multiple files), that's usually the problem. And in Linux, YMMV
with the variable setting.
I tell ya, I can understand that complicated shit will
take time, but when
something that should be easy gives me more grief than the most difficult
things I've ever worked on, it makes you wonder.
I think the "should be easy" part was the crucial mistake. ;)
Doc