[daip] Tapes

[Patrick P. Murphy]

On Thu, 01 Jun 2000 15:40:54 -0700 (MST), "Eric A. Richards"
   <Eric.Richards at asu.edu> said: 

> I am currently running 15APR99 version of AIPS on a Linux box.

Just something to put in the back of your mind: we have 15OCT99 (for now)
and of course 31DEC99, AIPS for the Ages (Aged?).  

> I am trying to retroactively install a tape drive, specifically an
> EXABYTE drive.

What sort?  

There is an issue with Exabytes on Linux systems: AIPS does not have
enough information to set the density so you have to do this by hand for
writing different densities (e.g. 8200 or 8500 mode) on one of these, eg.:

        AIPS                      Unix
        > intape 1; mount         
                                  $ mt -f /dev/nst0 setdensity 0x15
        > go fittp

to get a dual density Exabyte 8500 or 8505 to write at high density.  You
can see all density codes via "mt -f /dev/nst0 densities".

The reason AIPS doesn't know what to do is mainly that there's currently
no easy way to get information on the type of tape drive.  I've had
correspondence with the guy who wrote the SCSI driver and there's hope,
but nothing yet.

> How do I get AIPS to recognize the machine.

      $ cd $AIPS_ROOT/DA00
      $ emacs TPDEVS.LIST

(or vi or pico or whatever).  Put in a line like this:

MICROJANSKY   /dev/nst0         My new snazzy Exabyte drive

and you should be set.  Your next AIPS session will pick it up.

				- Pat