Tape cartridge hung, SCO Unix 3.2

[Tore Solvar Karlsen]

> >We are having a problem where a
> >   tar cv dirname
> >commands "seems" to start working, but then freezes up.
> >The tape /dev/rct0 starts to whir, and tar prints out the first
> >6 or 7 files being added to the archive, but then the tape and
> >the tar output just come to a halt.
> >[System is Compaq 386/33 running SCO Unix 3.2]
> 
> I, also, have seen this problem.  The only fix I could come up with
> was to shut down and power-off the Compaq.
> -- 
> Chip Salzenberg at ComDev/TCT     <chip at tct.uucp>, <uunet!ateng!tct!chip>

The problem may come from  lack of memory. Running a tapedrive consumes 
lots of memory. I'm not an expert on this, but I seem to remember that 
to use a QIC-150 tapedrive I had to install more than 4Mb of RAM.

Perhaps someone can explain the connection between tapedrives and need of RAM.

--


Tore Solvar
email: tore at ifi.uio.no