Tape cartridge hung

[Kevin Gribble]

In article <1990Aug2.074751.4386 at oct1.UUCP> mason at oct1.UUCP (David Mason) writes:
>In article <1990Jul30.210437.17290 at eci386.uucp> clewis at eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
>writes:
%>Is that a tape drive?  Early Wangtek 60Mb streamers had some sort of
%>bug in the controller that caused them to hang when used with UNIX
%>or Xenix.  Wangtek was shipping 150's for a while for no extra charge.
%
%Please, tell me more.  We have installed a large number of the Wangtek
%60 Mb tape drives over the last few years, and every now and then one
%hangs.  The tape stops, the light on the cartridge drive stays on and
%the associated cpio process hangs.  Only a reboot clears it.
%
%We usually find that by replacing the controller (Wangtek Assy 30850)
%the problem is fixed.  Our supplier hates honouring his warranty, because
%it "works fine when I try it".  Of course, he tests it under Dos.
%
%Does anyone know if this problem has definitely been fixed in later
%revisions?  The controllers are marked with revision letters, so something
%must have changed.
%
%Thanks.
%--------------------
%David               |      mason at oct1 (David M Mason)
%                    |      olsa99!oct1!mason at ddsw1.mcs.com

The reason for having to reboot your system hanging is that if try and
kill the process it causes a 'defunk' process, apparently you can kill
process like 'tar' or 'cpio'.

I must admit I have had some customers with the same problem. I have seen
on the BBS that SCO are now working on a fix for Wangtek. It did not say
for which tape drive (60 MB or 150 MB), but was due for release soon.

Kevin Gribble
kevin at utekza.UUCP