Tape drive out to lunch

[eichelbe at nadc.ARPA]

	---
	Has anyone on a VAX 11/780 under 4.1 BSD or 4.2 BSD UNIX ever had
a problem where the system all of a sudden acted like your tape drive no
longer existed?  I was running a tape job and everything was going along
fine.  Then all of a sudden, my job bombed.  The tape was not rewound.
Any "mt" commands met with:
	/dev/rmt12: No such device or address

It did not matter if I directed the "mt" commands at another /dev/rmtxx file,
either.  I got the same thing, but for that device file.

If I try to copy to the tape drive (cp .login /dev/rmt8) I get:
	cp: cannot create /dev/rmt8 

The files in /dev look fine.  I am the system administrator/manager, so no
one is playing with things unless there is a security hole.

I am under 4.1 BSD on a VAX 11/780.  Any ideas?

Thanks.
	Jon Eichelberger
	eichelbe at NADC
P.S. The last time this happened a reboot fixed it.  One day both the line
     printer and the tape drive went out to lunch the same way.  A reboot
     fixed that, too.