Re: how does one use mt, to put a tape drive online?

[naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber)]

Andrew Falanga <afalanga@syracusenetworks.com> wrote:

> Like the heading reads, I want to know how I can use mt to put the unit
> back online.

I think the general answer is: you don't (need to).

> However, I'm not sure what to do now.  You see, I inserted another tape
> (the tape that was in there belongs to a client) and issued mt status.
> All I got was input/output error.  Is there a command I need to give
> that's part of the mt options?

I don't know the Exabyte drives, but I don't think so.  In particular
there is no mt subcommand for this purpose.  "mt status" won't fail
if the drive is ready to read/write data.  To me this sounds more
like a basic problem with operating the drive, i.e. no inserting
the tape cartridge properly, failing to close the drive door, or
some such.  (I don't know whether anything like this is possible
with an Exabyte.)

-- 
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de