[CALUG] can anybody out there read a 4 mm tape?

[Bernard Karmilowicz]

Hi Wendel:

> I have about 10 megabytes that was tar'ed to a 4mm tape that I need to retrieve. Written on an SGI computer /dev/rmt/tps0d4ns and also have /dev/rmt/tps0d4
> The SGI computer still works, but I confess I can't remember how to get unix and linux to talk over a cross over cable to use ftp.

General steps:

1. Connect the SGI and Linux boxes via a Cat5e crossover-cable run between each box's Ethernet ports.

2. Configure the physical (Ethernet) and logical (IP) interfaces of the Linux box by issuing the following shell command as root on the Linux box

     ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 192.168.0.0

3. Configure the physical (Ethernet) and logical (IP) interfaces of the SGI box. Read the manpage for the SGI driver to determine the shell command to issue as root which provides the same configuration on a SGI box as the following command when executed on a Linux box

     ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 192.168.0.0

4. Either

     a. Configure the SGI box to accept remote-shell (rsh) commands issued from 192.168.1.1. Read the SGI manpage for rlogin for configuration instructions.

or

     b. Configure the SGI box to accept secure-shell commands issued from 192.168.1.1. Read the SGI manpage for sshd for configuration instructions.

5. Pull the files off the tape and over the network from the SGI box to the Linux box, by issuing the following shell command as root on the Linux box (the command should be executed when the working-directory on the Linux box is the directory where the recovered files are destined)

     if rsh then
         rsh -n 192.168.1.2 "dd if=/dev/rmt/tps0d4" | cpio -icBdum

     if ssh then
         ssh 192.168.1.2 "dd if=/dev/rmt/tps0d4" | cpio -icBdum

The above presumes the files were written to the tape as the output of the following command issued on the SGI box

         find . -depth -print | cpio -ocBdum > /dev/rmt/tps0d4

Tailor the rsh/ssh command accordingly if the presumption is erroneous. References to "other" below mean whatever command other than cpio was used to archive the files to tape.


If cpio/other over Linux complains of format problems, then it will be easier to simply extend the rsh/ssh command to perform the extraction on the SGI box using SGI's cpio/other, and afterward ftp/sftp the extracted files from the SGI box to the Linux box. Example commands using cpio follow:

     if rsh then
         rsh -n 192.168.1.2 "cd /home/wendel/files_extracted_from_tape ; dd if=/dev/rmt/tps0d4 | cpio -icBdum"

     if ssh then
         ssh 192.168.1.2 "cd /home/wendel/files_extracted_from_tape ; dd if=/dev/rmt/tps0d4 | cpio -icBdum"

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