Gateway newsgroup problem (redux - long)

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Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 22:06:13 -0300
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

Hello,

Sorry for such a long post at such a busy time. I think this issue is
important but my timing is bad. It just worked out that way I'm afraid.

For the last week I have been monitoring the linux.debian.user gateway
for apparently well intended posts which never make it to the list. I
have been replying to them privately with a short personal preamble
followed by a work-in-progress and too lengthy pre-canned message
(included below).

Today I found a mis-posted message with the From: header so thoroughly
munged that I can't reply to it (I think the munging is in German but
whatever language it is, I can't separate out Patrick's real address
confidently). Patrick's message is also included below.

In all cases the mis-postings I have screened for are original posts,
not replies. They are asking for help and appear to be legitimate. One
such message *per day* going astray is unacceptable I think.

I notice in the following forwarded message: munged From: field, no
X-Original-Message-ID:, no X-Original-Date:, no debian-user Unsubscribe
footer. All of these are signs that the message has been posted somehow
to Usenet but not gated to the list.

Worth mentioning is that last September or so, when this issue was last
given a good flogging here, Marco d'Ítri said that cases of mis-posted
messages to the gateway service he maintains are all but eliminated. I
concur. None of the recent mis-postings I have observed have anything
to do with bofh.it (or gmane, or google groups). I infer that the
Usenet backbone carries the linux.* hierarchies and it is up to ISP's or
users to sort out how to register with bidirectional services for them.

Questions, comments, ideas?

Tony Rowe

---------------- begin forwarded mis-posted message ------------------

Path: News.Dal.Ca!news.wind.surfnet.nl!surfnet.nl!solnet.ch!solnet.ch!newsspool.solnet.ch!not-for-mail
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 18:42:12 +0200
From: Patrick <luginbuehlATnurfuerspamDOTde>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de-AT; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050513 Debian/1.7.8-1
X-Accept-Language: de, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: linux.debian.user
Subject: ATAPI tape/Streamer problem (Seagate stt20000A / Hornet)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <42a87167$0$148$fb624d75@newsspool.solnet.ch>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.41.70.233
X-Trace: 1118335335 newsspool.solnet.ch 148 212.41.70.233
Xref: News.Dal.Ca linux.debian.user:255994
Content-Length: 1699
Lines: 54

Dear Debian friends

I can't manage to get my friend's streamer working with Debian Sarge
(Kernel 2.6.8). The stremer is a Seagate stt20000A (ATAPI)

While booting the device gets recognized. Log:
ide-tape: hdd <-> ht0: Seagate STT20000A rev 8.39
ide-tape: hdd <-> ht0: 600KBps, 6*54kB buffer, 5832kB pipeline, 184ms
DSC, DMA

My first try (without any tape) works as expected:
mt -f /dev/ht0 status
mt: /dev/ht0: No medium found

Log:
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 1b, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 2, asc = 3a, ascq = 0
ide-tape: ht0: drive not ready

Second try (with tape inserted) leads to a problem:
mt -f /dev/ht0 status
mt: /dev/ht0: Input/output error

Log:
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 0, key = 3, asc = 30, ascq = 0
ide-tape: ht0: drive not ready

Slightly desesperate third try with ide-scsi:

rmmod ide-tape
modprobe ide-scsi

This seems to work. Log:
SCSI subsystem initialized
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
   Vendor: Seagate Model: STT20000A Rev: 8.39
   Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
st: Version 20040403, fixed bufsize 32768, s/g segs 256
Attached scsi tape st0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
st0: try direct i/o: yes (alignment 512 B), max page reachable by HBA 98284

But if I try to use the new device I end up with the same problem:
mt -f /dev/st0 status
mt: /dev/st0: Input/output error

I'm running out of ideas what to try next. My own DAT-tapes (with SCSI)
always worked right out of the box, but this ATAPI-thing...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thank you
Patrick

-------------- end forwarded mis-posted message -----------------------

-------------- begin pre-canned reply (not sent) ----------------------

You are reading (and trying to post to) a 'mail-to-news gateway'
"newsgroup" of the debian-user mailing-list. You need to register with a
real gateway service for linux.* hierarchies if you want to post to the
mailing-list via linux.debian.user.

While mail-to-news gateways appear to be normal newsgroups, they are
actually mailing-lists which have been "gated" to Usenet. Your posts to
the gateway "newsgroup" may never reach the broader audience on the
mailing-list unless you use a bidirectional NNTP gateway service and
jump through the right hoops to get your article "gated" from the
newsgroup to the list. It appears that your post has failed to reach the
"real" list for some reason.

As confusing as this may seem, it is the way gateway newsgroups are
intended to function; they can be bidirectional, but only if you use a
real gateway service correctly, so that your post goes to the list
first. It will then be gated back to the newsgroup automatically.

Perhaps the easiest thing to do is *post to the list directly by email.*
You can post to the mailing-list without being subscribed. Re-send your
message to

debian-user@lists.debian.org

If you do this, you should probably subscribe to the list for at least
the life of your thread anyway, in case you want to post a follow-up. A
simple subscription form is located here

http://lists.debian.org/debian-user

If you would rather post to the list via linux.debian.user with your
newsreader, you may have to use a different NNTP server than the one you
(or your ISP) are using. Try google groups and click on "join"

http://groups-beta.google.com

Many people have reported success by using gmane, a web-based,
bidirectional mail to news gateway. Details can be found here

http://gmane.org

*All bidirectional news gateways will require that you use a valid email
address and that you complete a one-time authorisation procedure per
group.*

I think an occasional posting to debian-user and/or to the
linux.debian.user gateways explaining all this should be automated and I
have argued thus in the past, but my efforts to motivate such an
automated posting have been fruitless so far. Perhaps it is more
complicated to cover all the gateways with one automated post than I
imagine?

Anyway, I hope this helps get you on the right track. I can't help you
with the specific issue you are asking about but someone on the "real"
debian-user mailing-list probably can.

Tony Rowe

----------------------- end pre-canned message ------------------------

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