🚀 go-pugleaf

I've just upgraded from 1.3.62 to 1.3.75, and at the same time (foolishly, I
suppose) also upgraded a piece of hardware - from an Archive Viper 2525S to an
Archive Anaconda 2750.  I have for SCSI controllers two seperate BusLogic
BT-946C controllers, with the tape on one, and the drive being backed up on the
other.  Before upgrading the kernel, I did make one successful backup with the
Anaconda drive.

The problem is this: since upgrading to 1.3.75, I haven't been able to make a
single successful backup with either AFIO or TAR.

When writing, the drive seems to go okay for several hundred megabytes and then
suddenly "offlines", transparently, to the program writing to it; TAR and AFIO
continue to plod merrily along "writing" files, and the BT946C controller
continues to flash it's LED, though the drive is not spinning and it's activity
LED is not on.  Once the drive offlines like this, it's off until the tape is
ejected and re-inserted.  Sometimes it won't eject (even with the writing
process killed), and I then am forced to halt and reset.  When writing with
tar, the same thing occurs, only instead of continuing to write when the drive
goes offline, it asks for the next volume to be inserted.

When reading, the drive reads okay for several hundred megabytes, and then
suddenly begins to have "read errors", which last for 20 or 30 files, and then
(in the case of tar) the process aborts due to I/O errors, or (in the case of
afio) the process continues to attempt to read from the drive, though the drive
is obviously offline and not spinning, with messages like:

101M + 0k: I/O Error
101M + 1k: I/O Error
101M + 2k: I/O Error

And so forth, and so on, ad infinitum.  The drive never seems to offline in the
same place twice.  Once or twice with tar, it has given up on the first file.
Did BusLogic.c or st.c change between 1.3.62 and 1.3.75?

Has anyone had similar problems with this tape drive?  I bought it new.  Is
this drive a known problem?  Could my cabling be at fault?  This drive is very
fast - it backs up at around 40-50MB/min (honest, when it's working...) - is it
time for active termination?


Thanks for any help anyone can give!

-- 
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| It's time for FORBES and the FLAT TAX...  SMASH the IRS...  For GOOD! |
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| Aron Hsiao, Partner             Unification Technologies (Since 1989) |
| Fax: (801) 973-2614                   Email: Aron.Hsiao@m.cc.utah.edu |
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