tar under SCO Xenix

[Dave Hammond]

In article <3195 at wasatch.utah.edu> Robert R. Kessler writes:
>We are running on a PS/2 Model 80, using SCO Xenix 2.2.x.  We have an
>Arnet Smartport from which we run a half a dozen terminals.  The problem
>is that when someone does a tar (to our Mountain tape drive), all of
>the devices connected to the Arnet board hang up.  So, we have to have
>everyone log out, do the tar, then everyone logs back in.  SCO claims
>that tar uses so much of the system resources that the Arnet board
>gets lost.

We have several machines running SCO 2.2 and 2.3, all configured with an
Arnet Smartport and a Mountain internal tape drive.  All are AT-bus
machines (286 ATs, 286 Compaqs and 386 clones).  Tar has always been
used to backup these machines (often while users are logged in) with no
such effect.  Therefore, unless the PS/2 (or the MCA) is a special case,
IMO the SCO response is an unlikely possibility.

The Arnet uses no hardware interrupts in smart mode, so an interrupt
conflict is unlikely.  I would check for a conflict between the Arnet
and Mountain controller memory addresses.  You might even check
conflicts between the disk-cache memory address (if any) and the other 2
controllers.

--
Dave Hammond
daveh at marob.masa.com