tar archive problem

[Ravi Katti]

Hello,

I have 2 systems one motorola m68020 based proprietory unix and the
other pentium based linux. Both have qic 150 drive. I took backup on
tapes on motorola based system using tar. Now when I try to restore
the same on pentium based linux I get "this doesnt look tar archive",
"skipping to next header" etc errors. Could please someone guide me if
I am missinhg somehting here?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TIA
Ravi

[Dave Hinz]

On 16 Jul 2004 08:58:48 -0700, Ravi Katti <ravi@greyvector.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have 2 systems one motorola m68020 based proprietory unix and the
> other pentium based linux. Both have qic 150 drive. I took backup on
> tapes on motorola based system using tar. Now when I try to restore
> the same on pentium based linux I get "this doesnt look tar archive",
> "skipping to next header" etc errors. Could please someone guide me if
> I am missinhg somehting here?

From the dim recesses of my memory, something about byte order comes to
mind. Does the tar on the new system have an option listed in
the man page for reversing byte order? Can anyone else suggest what
I'm thinking of here? I remember needing to do this going from
SunOS 4.x to, say, SGI with a tarfile tape.

Dave Hinz

[Juha Laiho]

Dave Hinz <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> said:

>On 16 Jul 2004 08:58:48 -0700, Ravi Katti <ravi@greyvector.com> wrote:

>> Hello,
>>
>> I have 2 systems one motorola m68020 based proprietory unix and the
>> other pentium based linux. Both have qic 150 drive. I took backup on
>> tapes on motorola based system using tar. Now when I try to restore
>> the same on pentium based linux I get "this doesnt look tar archive",
>> "skipping to next header" etc errors. Could please someone guide me if
>> I am missinhg somehting here?

>
>From the dim recesses of my memory, something about byte order comes to
>mind. Does the tar on the new system have an option listed in
>the man page for reversing byte order? Can anyone else suggest what
>I'm thinking of here? I remember needing to do this going from
>SunOS 4.x to, say, SGI with a tarfile tape.

There might also be issues with tape block sizes.
--
Wolf a.k.a. Juha Laiho Espoo, Finland
(GC 3.0) GIT d- s+: a C++ ULSH++++$ P++@ L+++ E- W+$@ N++ !K w !O !M V
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"...cancel my subscription to the resurrection!" (Jim Morrison)

[Ravi Katti]

Juha Laiho <Juha.Laiho@iki.fi> wrote in message news:<cd95s4$6a2$3@ichaos.ichaos-int>...

> Dave Hinz <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> said:

> >On 16 Jul 2004 08:58:48 -0700, Ravi Katti <ravi@greyvector.com> wrote:

> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> I have 2 systems one motorola m68020 based proprietory unix and the
> >> other pentium based linux. Both have qic 150 drive. I took backup on
> >> tapes on motorola based system using tar. Now when I try to restore
> >> the same on pentium based linux I get "this doesnt look tar archive",
> >> "skipping to next header" etc errors. Could please someone guide me if
> >> I am missinhg somehting here?

> >
> >From the dim recesses of my memory, something about byte order comes to
> >mind. Does the tar on the new system have an option listed in
> >the man page for reversing byte order? Can anyone else suggest what
> >I'm thinking of here? I remember needing to do this going from
> >SunOS 4.x to, say, SGI with a tarfile tape.

>
> There might also be issues with tape block sizes.

Well the tape block size is okay. Looks like it has got something to
do with byte order as said earlier. I also used "star" utility which
is supposed to automatically detect archive type, byte order etc but
it doesnt do anything. the default tar utility does read the tape and
extract files but with errors. I am really stuck cos the motorola
system doesnt have nic so the only option is to somehow read those
tapes in order to transfer data.
The other option I can think of is to setup the qic drive on sun
system. Extract the archive from the tape. Then dump these files over
the network onto linux system.

TIA

[phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu]

Ravi Katti <ravi@greyvector.com> wrote:

> Juha Laiho <Juha.Laiho@iki.fi> wrote in message news:<cd95s4$6a2$3@ichaos.ichaos-int>...

>> Dave Hinz <DaveHinz@spamcop.net> said:

>> >On 16 Jul 2004 08:58:48 -0700, Ravi Katti <ravi@greyvector.com> wrote:
>> >> Hello,
>> >>
>> >> I have 2 systems one motorola m68020 based proprietory unix and the
>> >> other pentium based linux. Both have qic 150 drive. I took backup on
>> >> tapes on motorola based system using tar. Now when I try to restore
>> >> the same on pentium based linux I get "this doesnt look tar archive",
>> >> "skipping to next header" etc errors. Could please someone guide me if
>> >> I am missinhg somehting here?
>> >
>> >From the dim recesses of my memory, something about byte order comes to
>> >mind. Does the tar on the new system have an option listed in
>> >the man page for reversing byte order? Can anyone else suggest what
>> >I'm thinking of here? I remember needing to do this going from
>> >SunOS 4.x to, say, SGI with a tarfile tape.

>>
>> There might also be issues with tape block sizes.

> Well the tape block size is okay. Looks like it has got something to
> do with byte order as said earlier. I also used "star" utility which
> is supposed to automatically detect archive type, byte order etc but
> it doesnt do anything. the default tar utility does read the tape and
> extract files but with errors. I am really stuck cos the motorola
> system doesnt have nic so the only option is to somehow read those
> tapes in order to transfer data.
> The other option I can think of is to setup the qic drive on sun
> system. Extract the archive from the tape. Then dump these files over
> the network onto linux system.

> TIA

Do you have a compiler ( and this possibility to build pax or
maybe gnu tar ) Both of these has a good portability record.

Mounting the disc on a sun might be hazardous, not all filesystems
are alike.

Last resourt could be kermit or an uucp link, with some
scripting it would be possible to transfer all files.

--
Peter Håkanson
IPSec Sverige ( At Gothenburg Riverside )
Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out,
remove "icke-reklam" if you feel for mailing me. Thanx.

[Joe Chung]

[email]ravi@greyvector.com[/email] (Ravi Katti) writes:

[SNIP]

> Well the tape block size is okay. Looks like it has got something to
> do with byte order as said earlier. I also used "star" utility which
> is supposed to automatically detect archive type, byte order etc but
> it doesnt do anything. the default tar utility does read the tape and
> extract files but with errors. I am really stuck cos the motorola
> system doesnt have nic so the only option is to somehow read those
> tapes in order to transfer data.
> The other option I can think of is to setup the qic drive on sun
> system. Extract the archive from the tape. Then dump these files over
> the network onto linux system.
>
> TIA

If it's byte order, then try this on your linux side (assuming
/dev/st0 is the device of your tape drive) :

dd if=/dev/st0 conv=swab | tar tvf -

or

cpio -i -t -b -H tar < /dev/st0

If that lists your tar file correctly, then you can extract it.

-jc
--
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(char-to-string 46) "yahoo"
(char-to-string 64) "joechung")))