Devices st(7D)
NAME
st - driver for SCSI tape devices
SYNOPSIS
st@target,lun:l,m,h,c,ubn
DESCRIPTION
The st device driver provides a standard interface to vari-
ous SCSI tape devices. See mtio(7I) for details.
To determine if the st device driver supports your tape dev-
ice, SPARC users should enter the following on a command
line:
% strings /kernel/drv/sparcv9/st grep -i
x86 users can do the following to determine if the st device
driver supports a particular tape device:
% strings /kernel/drv/st grep -i
The driver can be opened with either rewind on close or no
rewind on close options. It can also be opened with the
ONDELAY (see open(2)) option when there is no tape inserted
in the drive. A maximum of four tape formats per device are
supported (see FILES below). The tape format is specified
using the device name. (Tape format is also referred to as
tape density).
Following are a list of SCSI commands that can be executed
while another host reserves the tape drive. The commands
are:
SCMDTESTUNITREADY
SCMDREQUESTSENSE
SCMDREADBLKLIM
SCMDINQUIRY
SCMDRESERVE
SCMDRELEASE
SCMDORLOCK
SCMDREPORTDENSITIES
SCMDLOGSENSEG1
SCMDPERSISTENTRESERVEIN
SCMDPERSISTENTRESERVEOUT
SCMDREPORTLUNS
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Devices st(7D)
In multi-initiator environments, the driver will not reserve
the tape drive if above commands are issued. For other SCSI
commands, the driver reserves the tape drive and releases
the drive at close if it has been reserved. Refer to the
MTIOCRESERVE and MTIOCRELEASE ioctls in mtio(7I) for infor-
mation about how to allow a tape drive to remain reserved
upon close. See the flag options below for information about
disabling this feature.
If a SCSI-3 persistent reservation is done through the
driver, the driver disables all existing SCSI-2 reserva-
tions.
If the tape drive is opened in ONDELAY mode, no reservation
occurs during the open, as per the POSIX standard (see
standards(5)). However, if a command not found in the above
list is used, a reservation will occur to provide
reserve/release functionality before the command is issued.
Persistent Errors and Asynchronous Tape Operation
The st driver now supports persistent errors (see mtio(7I)
and asynchronous tape operations (see mtio(7I), aioread(3C),
and aiowrite(3C)).
Read Operation
If the driver is opened for reading in a different format
than the tape is written in, the driver overrides the user-
selected format. For example, if a 1/4" cartridge tape is
written in QIC-24 format and opened for reading in QIC-150,
the driver detects a read failure on the first read and
automatically switches to QIC-24 to read the data.
Note that if the low density format is used, no indication
is given that the driver has overridden the format you
selected. Other formats issue a warning message to inform
you of an overridden format selection. Some devices automat-
ically perform this function and do not require driver sup-
port (1/2" reel tape drive, for example).
Write Operation
Writing from the beginning of tape is performed in the
user-specified format. The original tape format is used for
appending onto previously written tapes.
Tape Configuration
The st driver has a built-in configuration table for most
Sun-supported tape drives. For those tape drives that are
not in the table, the st driver tries to read the configura-
tion from the tape drive through optional SCSI-3 commands.
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Devices st(7D)
To support the addition of third party tape devices which
are not in the built-in configuration table or not able to
report their configuration, device information can be sup-
plied in st.conf as global properties that apply to each
node, or as properties that are applicable to one node only.
By supplying the information in st.conf, the built-in confi-
guration is overridden and the st driver will not query the
configuration from tape drives. The st driver looks for the
property called tape-config-list. The value of this property
is a list of triplets, where each triplet consists of three
strings.
The formal syntax is:
tape-config-list = [, *];
where
:= , ,
and
= , , ,
, ,
[, *], ;
or
= , , ,
, ,
[, *], ,
, ,
, ,
, ,
;
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Devices st(7D)
A semicolon (;) is used to terminate a prototype devinfo
node specification. Individual elements listed within the
specification should not be separated by a semicolon. (Refer
to driver.conf(4) for more information.)
is the string that is returned by the tape device
on a SCSI inquiry command. This string may contain any char-
acter in the range 0x20-0x7e. Characters such as " " " (dou-
ble quote) or " ' " (single quote), which are not permitted
in property value strings, are represented by their octal
equivalent (for example, 42 and 47). Trailing spaces may
be truncated.
is used to report the device on the console.
This string may have zero length, in which case the
will be used to report the device.
is the name of the property which con-
tains all the tape configuration values (such as ,
, etc.) corresponding for the tape drive for the
specified .
is a version number and should be 1 or 2. In the
future, higher version numbers may be used to allow for
changes in the syntax of the value
list.
is a type field. Valid types are defined in
/usr/include/sys/mtio.h. For third party tape configuration,
the following generic types are recommended:
MTISQIC 0x32
MTISREL 0x33
MTISDAT 0x34
MTIS8M 0x35
MTISOTHER 0x36
MTISTAND25G 0x37
MTISDLT 0x38
MTISTK9840 0x39
MTISBMDLT1 0x3A
MTLTO 0x3B
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Devices st(7D)
is the preferred block size of the tape device. The
value should be 0 for variable block size devices.
is a bit pattern representing the devices, as
defined in /usr/include/sys/scsi/targets/stdef.h. Valid
flags for tape configuration are shown in the following
table. Note that this table does not list flags that are
non-configurable in st.conf (including STKNOWSMEDIA which
uses the media type reported from the mode select data to
select the correct density code).
STVARIABLE 0x0001
STQIC 0x0002
STREL 0x0004
STBSF 0x0008
STBSR 0x0010
STLONGERASE 0x0020
STAUTODENOVERIDE 0x0040
STNOBUF 0x0080
STKNOWSEOD 0x0200
STUNLOADABLE 0x0400
STSOFTEROREPORTING 0x0800
STLONGTIMEOUTS 0x1000
STNORECSIZELIMIT 0x8000
STMODESELCOMP 0x10000
STNORESERVERELEASE 0x20000
STREADIGNOREILI 0x40000
STREADIGNOREOFS 0x80000
STSHORTFILEMARKS 0x100000
STEJECTAPEONCHANGERFAILURE 0x200000
STRETRYONRECOVEREDEFEREDEROR 0x400000
STWORMABLE 0x1000000
STVARIABLE
The flag indicates the tape device supports variable
length record sizes.
STQIC
The flag indicates a Quarter Inch Cartridge (QIC) tape
device.
STREL
The flag indicates a 1/2-inch reel tape device.
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Devices st(7D)
STBSF
If flag is set, the device supports backspace over EOF
marks (bsf - see mt(1)).
STBSR
If flag is set, the tape device supports the backspace
record operation (bsr - see mt(1)). If the device does
not support bsr, the st driver emulates the action by
rewinding the tape and using the forward space record
(fsf) operation to forward the tape to the correct file.
The driver then uses forward space record (fsr - see
mt(1)) to forward the tape to the correct record.
STLONGERASE
The flag indicates the tape device needs a longer time
than normal to erase.
STAUTODENOVERIDE
The auto-density override flag. The device is capable of
determining the tape density automatically without issu-
ing a "mode-select"/"mode-sense command."
STNOBUF
The flag disables the device's ability to perform buf-
fered writes. A buffered write occurs when the device
acknowledges the completion of a write request after the
data has been written to the device's buffer, but before
all of the data has been written to the tape.
STKNOWSEOD
If flag is set, the device can determine when EOD (End
of Data) has been reached. When this flag is set, the st
driver uses fast file skipping. Otherwise, file skipping
happens one file at a time.
STUNLOADABLE
The flag indicates the device will not complain if the
st driver is unloaded and loaded again (see modload(1M)
and modunload(1M)). That is, the driver will return the
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Devices st(7D)
correct inquiry string.
STSOFTEROREPORTING
The flag indicates the tape device will perform a
"request sense" or "log sense" command when the device
is closed. Currently, only Exabyte and DAT drives sup-
port this feature.
STLONGTIMEOUTS
The flag indicates the tape device requires timeouts
that are five times longer than usual for normal opera-
tion.
STNORECSIZELIMIT
The flag applies to variable-length tape devices. If
this flag is set, the record size is not limited to a 64
Kbyte record size. The record size is only limited by
the smaller of either the record size supported by the
device or the maximum DMA transfer size of the system.
(Refer to Large Record Sizes and WARNINGS.) The maximum
block size that will not be broken into smaller blocks
can be determined from the mtbf returned from the
MTIOCGET ioctl(). This number is the lesser of the upper
block limit returned by the drive from READ BLOCK LIMITS
command and the dma-max property set by the Host Bus
Adapter (HBA) to which the drive is attached.
STMODESELCOMP
If the STMODESELCOMP flag is set, the driver deter-
mines which of the two mode pages the device supports
for selecting or deselecting compression. It first tries
the Data Compression mode page (0x0F); if this fails, it
tries the Device Configuration mode page (0x10). Some
devices, however, may need a specific density code for
selecting or deselecting compression. Please refer to
the device specific SCSI manual. When the flag is set,
compression is enabled only if the "c" or "u" device is
used. Note that when the lower 2 densities of a drive
are identically configured and the upper 2 densities are
identically configured, but the lower and upper differ
from each other and STMODESELCOMP is set, the "m"
node sets compression on for the lower density code (for
example, 0x42) and the "c" and "u" nodes set compression
on for the higher density (for example, 0x43). For any
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Devices st(7D)
other device densities, compression is disabled.
STNORESERVERELEASE
The STNORESERVERELEASE flag disables the use of
reserve on open and release on close. If an attempt to
use a ioctl of MTRESERVE or MTRELEASE on a drive with
this flag set, it will return an error of ENOTY (inap-
propriate ioctl for device).
STREADIGNOREILI
The STREADIGNOREILI flag is applicable only to vari-
able block devices which support the SILI bit option.
The STREADIGNOREILI flag indicates that SILI (supress
incorrect length indicator) bit will be set during
reads. When this flag is set, short reads (requested
read size is less than the record size on the tape) will
be successful and the number of bytes transferred will
be equal to the record size on the tape. The tape will
be positioned at the start of the next record skipping
over the extra data (the remaining data has been has
been lost). Long reads (requested read size is more than
the record size on the tape) will see a large perfor-
mance gain when this flag is set, due to overhead reduc-
tion. When this flag is not set, short reads will return
an error of ENOMEM.
STREADIGNOREOFS
The STREADIGNOREOFS flag is applicable only to 1/2"
Reel Tape drives and when performing consecutive reads
only. It should not be used for any other tape command.
Usually End-of-recorded-media (EOM) is indicated by two
EOF marks on 1/2" tape and application cannot read past
EOM. When this flag is set, two EOF marks no longer
indicate EOM allowing applications to read past two EOF
marks. In this case it is the responsibility of the
application to detect end-of-recorded-media (EOM). When
this flag is set, tape operations (like MTEOM) which
positions the tape at end-of-recorded-media will fail
since detection of end-of-recorded-media (EOM) is to be
handled by the application. This flag should be used
when backup applications have embedded double filemarks
between files.
STSHORTFILEMARKS
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Devices st(7D)
The STSHORTFILEMARKS flag is applicable only to EXA-
BYTE 8mm tape drives which supports short filemarks.
When this flag is set, short filemarks is used for writ-
ing filemarks. Short filemarks could lead to tape incom-
patible with some otherwise compatible device. By
default long filemarks will be used for writing file-
marks.
STEJECTAPEONCHANGERFAILURE
If STEJECTAPEONCHANGERFAILURE flag is set, the
tape is ejected automatically if the tape cartridge is
trapped in the medium due to positioning problems of the
medium changer.
The following ASC/ASCQ keys are defined to the reasons
for causing tape ejection if
STEJECTAPEONCHANGERFAILURE option is set to
0x200000:
Sense ASC/ASCQ Description
Key
4 15/01 Mechanical Failure
4 44/00 Internal Target Failure
2 53/00 Media Load or Eject Failed
4 53/00 Media Load or Eject Failed
4 53/01 Unload Tape Failure
STRETRYONRECOVEREDEFEREDEROR
If STRETRYONRECOVEREDEFEREDEROR flag is set, the
st driver will retry the last write if this cmd caused a
check condition with error code 0x71 and sense code
0x01. Some tape drives, notably the IBM 3090, require
this option.
STWORMABLE
When STWORMABLE is set, st attempts to detect the pres-
ence of WORM media in the device.
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Devices st(7D)
is the number of densities specified.
Each tape drive can support up to four densities. The value
entered should therefore be between 1 and 4; if less than 4,
the remaining densities will be assigned a value of 0x0.
is a single-byte hexadecimal number. It can either
be found in the device specification manual or be obtained
from the device vendor.
has a value between 0 and ( - 1).
Time in seconds that the drive should
be able to perform any SCSI command that doesn't require
tape to be moved. This includes mode sense, mode select,
reserve, release, read block limits, and test unit ready.
Time in seconds to perform data transfer I/O
to or from tape including worst case error recovery.
Time in seconds to rewind from anywhere on
tape to BOT including worst case recovery forcing buffered
write data to tape.
Time in seconds to space to any file, block
or end of data on tape. Including worst case when any form
of cataloging is invalid.
Time in seconds to load tape and be ready to
transfer first block. This should include worst case
recovery reading tape catalog or drive specific operations
done at load.
Time in seconds to unload tape. Should
include worst case time to write to catalog, unthread, and
tape cartridge unloading. Also should include worst case
time for any drive specific operations that are preformed at
unload. Should not include rewind time as the driver rewinds
tape before issuing the unload.
Time in seconds to preform a full (BOT to
EOT) erase of longest medium with worst case error recovery.
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Devices st(7D)
Device Statistics Support
Each device maintains I/O statistics both for the device and
for each partition allocated on that device. For each
device/partition, the driver accumulates reads, writes,
bytes read, and bytes written. The driver also takes hi-
resolution time stamps at queue entry and exit points, which
facilitates monitoring the residence time and cumulative
residence-length product for each queue.
Each device also has error statistics associated with it.
These must include counters for hard errors, soft errors and
transport errors. Other data may be implemented as required.
IOCTLS
The behavior of SCSI tape positioning ioctls is the same
across all devices which support them. (Refer to mtio(7I).)
However, not all devices support all ioctls. The driver
returns an ENOTY error on unsupported ioctls.
The retension ioctl only applies to 1/4" cartridge tape dev-
ices. It is used to restore tape tension, thus improving the
tape's soft error rate after extensive start-stop operations
or long-term storage.
In order to increase performance of variable-length tape
devices (particularly when they are used to read/write small
record sizes), two operations in the MTIOCTOP ioctl, MTSRSZ
and MTGRSZ, can be used to set and get fixed record lengths.
The ioctl also works with fixed-length tape drives which
allow multiple record sizes. The min/max limits of record
size allowed on a driver are found by using a SCSI-2 READ
BLOCK LIMITS command to the device. If this command fails,
the default min/max record sizes allowed are 1 byte and 63k
bytes. An application that needs to use a different record
size opens the device, sets the size with the MTSRSZ ioctl,
and then continues with I/O. The scope of the change in
record size remains until the device is closed. The next
open to the device resets the record size to the default
record size (retrieved from st.conf).
Note that the error status is reset by the MTIOCGET get
status ioctl call or by the next read, write, or other ioctl
operation. If no error has occurred (sense key is 0), the
current file and record position is returned.
ERORS
EACES The driver is opened for write access and the tape
is write-protected or the tape unit is reserved by
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Devices st(7D)
another host.
EBUSY The tape drive is in use by another process. Only
one process can use the tape drive at a time. The
driver will allow a grace period for the other
process to finish before reporting this error.
EINVAL The number of bytes read or written is not a mul-
tiple of the physical record size (fixed-length
tape devices only).
EIO During opening, the tape device is not ready
because either no tape is in the drive, or the
drive is not on-line. Once open, this error is
returned if the requested I/O transfer could not
be completed.
ENOTY This indicates that the tape device does not sup-
port the requested ioctl function.
ENXIO During opening, the tape device does not exist.
ENOMEM This indicates that the record size on the tape
drive is more than the requested size during read
operation.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Global tape-config list property
The following is an example of a global tape-config-list
property:
tape-config-list =
"Magic DAT", "Magic 4mm Helical Scan", "magic-data",
"Major Appliance", "Major Appliance Tape", "major-tape";
magic-data = 1,0x34,1024,0x1639,4,0,0x8c,0x8c,0x8c,3;
major-tape = 2,0x3c,0,0x18619,4,0x0,0x0,0x0,0x0,
3,0,0,30,120,0,0,36000;
name="st" class="scsi"
target=0 lun=0;
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Devices st(7D)
name="st" class="scsi"
target=1 lun=0;
name="st" class="scsi"
target=2 lun=0;
.
.
.
name="st" class="scsi"
target=6 lun=0;
Example 2 Tape-config-list property applicable to target 2
only
The following is an example of a tape-config-list property
applicable to target 2 only:
name="st" class="scsi"
target=0 lun=0;
name="st" class="scsi"
target=1 lun=0;
name="st" class="scsi"
target=2 lun=0
tape-config-list =
"Magic DAT", "Magic 4mm Helical Scan", "magic-data"
magic-data = 1,0x34,1024,0x1639,4,0,0x8c,0x8c,0x8c,3;
name="st" class="scsi"
target=3 lun=0;
.
.
.
name="st" class="scsi"
target=6 lun=0;
Large Record Sizes
To support applications such as seismic programs that
require large record sizes, the flag STNORECSIZELIMIT
must be set in drive option in the configuration entry. A
SCSI tape drive that needs to transfer large records should
OR this flag with other flags in the 'options' field in
st.conf. (Refer to Tape Configuration.) By default, this
flag is set for the built-in config entries of Archive DAT
and Exabyte drives.
If this flag is set, the st driver issues a SCSI-2 READ
BLOCK LIMITS command to the device to determine the maximum
record size allowed by it. If the command fails, st contin-
ues to use the maximum record sizes mentioned in the
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Devices st(7D)
mtio(7I) man page.
If the command succeeds, st restricts the maximum transfer
size of a variable-length device to the minimum of that
record size and the maximum DMA size that the host adapter
can handle. Fixed-length devices are bound by the maximum
DMA size allocated by the machine. Note that tapes created
with a large record size may not be readable by earlier
releases or on other platforms.
(Refer to the WARNINGS section for more information.)
EOT Handling
The Emulex drives have only a physical end of tape (PEOT);
thus it is not possible to write past EOT. All other drives
have a logical end of tape (LEOT) before PEOT to guarantee
flushing the data onto the tape. The amount of storage
between LEOT and PEOT varies from less than 1 Mbyte to about
20 Mbyte, depending on the tape drive.
If EOT is encountered while writing an Emulex, no error is
reported but the number of bytes transferred is 0 and no
further writing is allowed. On all other drives, the first
write that encounters EOT will return a short count or 0. If
a short count is returned, then the next write will return
0. After a zero count is returned, the next write returns a
full count or short count. A following write returns 0
again. It is important that the number and size of trailer
records be kept as small as possible to prevent data loss.
Therefore, writing after EOT is not recommended.
Reading past EOT is transparent to the user. Reading is
stopped only by reading EOF's. For 1/2" reel devices, it is
possible to read off the end of the reel if one reads past
the two file marks which mark the end of recorded media.
FILES
/kernel/drv/st.conf
driver configuration file
/usr/include/sys/mtio.h
structures and definitions for mag tape io control com-
mands
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Devices st(7D)
/usr/include/sys/scsi/targets/stdef.h
definitions for SCSI tape drives
/dev/rmt/[0- 127][l,m,h,u,c][b][n]
where l,m,h,u,c specifies the density (low, medium,
high, ultra/compressed), b the optional BSD behavior
(see mtio(7I)), and n the optional no rewind behavior.
For example, /dev/rmt/0lbn specifies unit 0, low den-
sity, BSD behavior, and no rewind.
For 1/2" reel tape devices (HP-88780), the densities
are:
l 800 BPI density
m 1600 BPI density
h 6250 BPI density
c data compression
(not supported on all modules)
For 8mm tape devices (Exabyte 8200/8500/8505):
l Standard 2 Gbyte format
m 5 Gbyte format (8500, 8505 only)
h,c 5 Gbyte compressed format (8505 only)
For 4mm DAT tape devices (Archive Python):
l Standard format
m,h,c data compression
For all QIC (other than QIC-24) tape devices:
l,m,h,c density of the tape cartridge type
(not all devices can read and
write all formats)
For QIC-24 tape devices (Emulex MT-02):
l QIC-11 Format
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Devices st(7D)
m,h,c QIC-24 Format
SEE ALSO
mt(1), modload(1M), modunload(1M), open(2), read(2),
write(2), aioread(3C), aiowrite(3C), kstat(3KSTAT),
driver.conf(4), scsi(4), standards(5), esp(7D), isp(7D),
mtio(7I), ioctl(9E)
DIAGNOSTICS
The st driver diagnostics may be printed to the console or
messages file.
Each diagnostic is dependent on the value of the system
variable sterrorlevel. sterrorlevel may be set in the
/etc/system file. The default setting for sterrorlevel is
4 (SCSIERETRYABLE) which is suitable for most configura-
tions since only actual fault diagnostics are printed. Set-
tings range from values 0 (SCSIERAL) which is most ver-
bose, to 6 (SCSIERNONE) which is least verbose. See
stdef.h for the full list of error-levels. SCSIERAL
level the amount of diagnostic information is likely to be
excessive and unnecessary.
The st driver diagnostics are described below:
Error for Command: Error Level:
Requested Block: Error Block:
Vendor: : Serial Number:
Sense Key: ASC: 0x (scsiascascqname()>), ASCQ:
0x, FRU: 0x
where may be any one of the following: "All,"
"Unknown," "Informational," "Recovered," "Retryable,"
"Fatal"
The command indicated by failed. Requested
Block represents the block where the transfer started. Error
Block represents the block that caused the error. Sense Key,
ASC, ASCQ and FRU information is returned by the target in
response to a request sense command. See SCSI protocol docu-
mentation for description of Sense Key, ASC, ASCQ, FRU.
The st driver attempts to validate entries in the st.conf
file. Each field in the entry is checked for upper and lower
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Devices st(7D)
limits and invalid bits set. The fields are named as follows
in config string order:
conf version
drive type
block size
options
number of densities
density code
default density
non motion timeout
I/O timeout
space timeout
load timeout
unload timeout
erase timeout
The st.conf diagnostics are described below:
where is the name of the config string. Where
is the field containing invalid entries and
where describes the nature of the
invalid entry.
Write/read: not modulo block size
The request size for fixed record size devices must be a
multiple of the specified block size.
Recovery by resets failed
After a transport error, the driver attempted to recover by
issuing a device reset and then a bus reset if device reset
failed. These recoveries failed.
Periodic head cleaning required
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Devices st(7D)
The driver reported that periodic head cleaning is now
required. This diagnostic is generated either due to a
threshold number of retries, or due to the device communi-
cating to the driver that head cleaning is required.
Soft error rate (%) during writing/reading was too high
The soft error rate has exceeded the threshold specified by
the vendor.
SCSI transport failed: reason 'xxxx': {retryinggiving up}
The Host Bus Adapter (HBA) has failed to transport a command
to the target for the reason stated. The driver will either
retry the command or, ultimately, give up.
Tape not inserted in drive
A media access command was attempted while there was no tape
inserted into the specified drive. In this case, the drive
returns sense key of DRIVE NOT READY.
Transport rejected
The Host Bus Adapter (HBA) driver is not accepting commands
after failing to successfully transport a scsi packet to the
target. The actual status received by the st driver from the
underlying HBA driver was either TRANFATALEROR or
TRANBADPKT.
Retrying command
The st driver failed to complete a command. However the com-
mand is retryable and will be retried.
Giving up
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Devices st(7D)
The st driver has exhausted retries or otherwise is unable
to retry the command and so is giving up.
No target struct for st%d
The st driver failed to obtain state information because the
requested state structure was not allocated. The specified
device was probably not attached.
File mark detected
The operation detected an end of file mark. (File marks sig-
nify the end of a file on the tape media).
End-of-media detected
The operation reached the end of the tape media.
Exabyte soft error reporting failed. DAT soft error reporting failed
The st driver was unable to determine if the soft error
threshold had been exceeded because it did not successfully
read the data it requires or did not obtain enough data.
This data is retrieved using the log sense command.
Log sense parameter code does not make sense
The log sense command retrieves hardware statistics that are
stored on the drive (for example, soft error counts and
retries.) If the data retrieved from the drive is invalid,
this message is printed and the data is not used.
Restoring tape position at fileno=%x, blkno=%lx....
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Devices st(7D)
The st driver is positioning to the specified file and
block. This occurs on an open.
Failed to restore the last position:
In this state, tape will be loaded at BOT during next open
The st driver could not position to the specified location
and will revert to the beginning of the tape when the next
open is attempted.
Device does not support compression
The compression facility of the device was requested. How-
ever the device does not have a hardware compression capa-
bility.
DAT soft error reset failed
After DAT soft error reporting, the counters within the dev-
ice that accumulate this sense data need to be re-set. This
operation failed.
Errors after pkt alloc (bflags=0x%x, berror=0x%x)
Memory allocation for a scsi packet failed.
Incorrect length indicator set
The drive reported the length of data requested in a READ
operation, was incorrect. Incorrect Length Indicator (ILI)
is a very commonly used facility in SCSI tape protocol and
should not be seen as an error per-se. Applications typi-
cally probe a new tape with a read of any length, using the
returned length to the read system call for future reads.
Along with this operation, an underlying ILI error is
received. ILI errors are therefore informational only and
are masked at the default sterrorlevel.
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Devices st(7D)
Data property (%s) has no value
Data property (%s) incomplete
Version # for data property (%s) greater than 1
These diagnostics indicate problems in retrieving the values
of the various property settings. The st driver is in the
process of setting the property/parameter values for the
tape drive using information from either the built-in table
within the driver or from uncommented entries in the st.conf
file. The effect on the system may be that the tape drive
may be set with default or generic driver settings which may
not be appropriate for the actual type of tape drive being
used.
stattach-RESUME: tape failure tape position will be lost
On a resume after a power management suspend, the previously
known tape position is no longer valid. This can occur if
the tape was changed while the system was in power manage-
ment suspend. The operation will not be retried.
Write Data Buffering has been deprecated. Your applications should
continue to work normally. However, they should be ported to use
Asynchronous I/O.
Indicates that buffering has been removed from Solaris.
Cannot detach: fileno=%x, blkno=%lx
The st driver cannot unload because the tape is not posi-
tioned at BOT (beginning of tape). May indicate hardware
problems with the tape drive.
Variable record length I/O
Fixed record length (%d byte blocks) I/O
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Devices st(7D)
Tape-drives can use either Fixed or Variable record length.
If the drive uses Fixed length records, then the built in
property table or the st.conf file will contain a non-zero
record-length property. Most DAT, Exabyte and DLT drives
support Variable record lengths. Many QIC format tape drives
have historically been of Fixed record length.
Command will be retried
unncmds: %d can't retry cmd
These diagnostics are only seen with tape drives with the
STRETRYONRECOVEREDEFEREDEROR bit set. See stdef.h
for explanation of the specific usage of this setting.
WARNINGS
Effective with Solaris 2.4, the STNORECSIZELIMIT flag is
set for the built-in config entries of the Archive DAT and
Exabyte drivers by default. (Refer to Large Record Sizes.)
Tapes written with large block sizes prior to Solaris 2.4
may cause some applications to fail if the number of bytes
returned by a read request is less than the requested block
size (for example, asking for 128 Kbytes and receiving less
than 64 Kbytes).
The STNORECSIZELIMIT flag can be disabled in the config
entry for the device as a work-around. (Refer to Tape Confi-
guration.) This action disables the ability to read and
write with large block sizes and allows the reading of tapes
written prior to Solaris 2.4 with large block sizes.
(Refer to mtio(7I) for a description of maximum record
sizes.)
BUGS
Tape devices that do not return a BUSY status during tape
loading prevent user commands from being held until the dev-
ice is ready. The user must delay issuing any tape opera-
tions until the tape device is ready. This is not a problem
for tape devices supplied by Sun Microsystems.
Tape devices that do not report a blank check error at the
end of recorded media may cause file positioning operations
to fail. Some tape drives, for example, mistakenly report
media error instead of blank check error.
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