bin/106973: 'tar' cannot read own tape, but 'pax' can

[mjacob at freebsd.org]

I'm on vacation at present, but trying to follow this. This particular 
tape drive is unfamiliar to me. I would assume that it must be some kind 
of fixed blocksize device.

Despite what you said, could you please try:

mt -f /dev/sa0 seteotmodel 1
cd /usr/include
tar cvfb /dev/sa0 1 . || tar tvfb /dev/sa0 1
mt -f /dev/sa0 rewind
tar cvfb /dev/sa0 2 . || tar tvfb /dev/sa0 2

> mjacob at freebsd.org wrote:
>>
>> Try using tar with a specified blocksize that's equal to the underlying
>> h/w blocksize on the tape.
>
> The tape's blocksize is 10 KB, which is tar's default anyway. I tried
> various other blocksizes nevertheless, to no avail; except an error in
> dmesg ("(sa0:ahc0:0:4:0): 10240-byte tape record bigger than supplied
> buffer") for small blocksizes.
>
> Greetings,
> 	Bernd
>