Altos XENIX can of worms

[authorplaceholder at gorgo.UUCP.UUCP]

Help!

I'm running XENIX 3.3 on an Altos 2086-series box. We cannot get tar to
restore individual files from the tape. After reading thru the whole tape
(45 minutes), it reports, "1 file(s) not restored" and quits. I get the same
behaviour with all the appropraite combinations of options, and even from
the aom, which usually seems to work on everything else. 

Altos won't talk to us, and the vendor doesn't seem to know anything about
the operating system that runs on the boxes they sell. Does anybody else
have this problem? Is there a simple fix for it?

We're also having intermittent disk problems. We were told by the people who
put out the compiler we're using (CET) that after 8000 disk accesses (after
a reset), 10%-15% of all reads and writes silently fail, leaving files in an
indeterminate state. They claim to have gotten around the problem with SCO,
but not Altos XENIX. The only help they could offer us was a suggestion that
we reset the box every hour >:-(

I've not heard of this before. It seems a bit radical to be a secret. Can
anybody educate me on this?

As if that weren't enuf... There are man pages for errdemon(C), errpt(C),
and errstop(C), utilities which are supposed to track some kinds of os
errors (the manual is not detailed on the specifics). With all the problems
we've been having lately, it looked like it might be a good idea to implement
it, except that thoe utilities weren't supplied with our system.

Are these standard with the system? Does anybody else have them?

I begin to understand why my AT&T friend calls this "Sears Brand UNIX" :-)

TIA,

David Drexler
ihnp4!occrsh!gorgo!ddrex

ps- Are there any other users of CET BASIC on the net?