tape drive problem

[Vu Pham]

Vu Pham wrote:
> My tape drive suddenly reports the following error when I write to it.
> 
> tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: Read-only file system
> 
> What can cause this ? I used a tape cleaner tape to clean it but it does 
> not fix. And the "dirty" LED is not on.
> 
> It is a DLT1 tape drive.
> 

More :

[root at pepper3 log]# mt -f /dev/st0 status
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x1a (DLT 20GB).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (45010000):
  BOT WR_PROT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

It says "WR_PROT". That's why tar cannot write to it. But why ? Hardware 
problem ?

Vu