ITEM: I3534L

How can read a tape made on an AS/400 machine?


Question:

I have a 6150 1/4" tape made from a AS/400 machine.  I used a 120 MB
format for this 150 MB tape.  How can I read this onto my RS/6000?  I
have tried dd if=/dev/rmt0.5, but this failed with a

 dd tape read failed.

How can I read this AS/400 tape?

Response:

First, I had you change your block size to 0.  I also verified that
your QIC-1000 1.2 1/4 inch tape drive Density Setting \#2 was set to 15
for 120 MB density setting.  To verify this, type smit tape,
Change/Show Characteristics of a Tape Drive, choose rmt0, and look at 
Density Setting \#2 to make sure it is 15 for 120 MB format and Block 
Size is set to 0.

Next, type the following commands:

 tctl -f/dev/rmt0 rewind
 dd if=/dev/rmt0.5 of=\ ibs=760 cbs=80 fskip=1 conv=ascii

The tctl command will rewind the tape drive.
You said that you used a block size of 760 on the AS/400, so that is
why we are going to use an (i)nput (b)lock (s)size of 760.  cbs will
convert the block size to 80 characters at a time with a carriage
return after 80 characters so you can read the file.  You need the
fskip=1 to skip over the image label created by the AS/400 at the
front of the tape to get to your data.  The conv=ascii will convert
the AS/400 EBCDIC format to ASCII.  The AS/400 writes data in a EBCDIC
format, and the RS/6000 uses ASCII.

You tried the above commands, and it worked!


Support Line: How can read a tape made on an AS/400 machine? ITEM: I3534L
Dated: April 1994 Category: N/A
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