ITEM: D6547L

Error message when using dd to copy files to a tape

Question:

Customer is trying to create a bootable tape from a standard SPO that
contains less images. Error message on dd command when copying files
back to tape:  dd: 0511-053 the write failed: a system call received a
parameter that is not valid.

Using the command:
   for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6; do dd if=/tmp/file$i of=/dev/rmt0.1
conv=sync; done

Response:

Files /tmp/file1 and /tmp/file2 were 0 bytes. This probably causes a
filemark to be written followed immediately by another filemark. 2
filemarks indicate end of data and an error is expected from the write
system call when trying to write past the end of a doubld filemark.
Customer put data in the files so they are not 0 bytes.  Although this
is a requirement, it did not fix the problem.

The problem was that the tape drive was set to 1024 byte blocks. The
dd command uses 512 bytes by default. The block size you specify in
the dd command mut be equal to or a multiple of the physical block
size of the tape drive. Since he is creating a SPO tape (requiring
512-byte blocks), we changed the tape drive to 512 and his script then
ran successfully.




Support Line: Error message when using dd to copy files to a tape ITEM: D6547L

Dated: September 1993 Category: N/A

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