RE: Initialize a tape on 3581 MLB

["Jeff Crosby" <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Last week, I whined that I could not initialize a new tape on 
> a 3581 as an MLB.  What I had been doing was:

<snip#1>

> It was suggested to open a PMR with IBM.  I did.  Here is how 
> to initialize a tape on a 3581 MLB without a barcode reader:

<snip#2> 

What IBM Supportline told me, and I detailed in <snip#2> does not work.
Upon trying it, I was no longer able to use the 3581.  Supportline was on
the phone with me and got hardware on the line.  After rebooting the IOP and
IOA, the hardware guy decided a card was bad and placed a service call.

It arrived this AM along with the CE.  CE called his support which told him
"a tape drive in sequential mode cannot be varied on as an MLB".  It can
only be used as a device, by design.  Why they told be to change it to
sequential mode, no one knows.

After all that, I have successfully initialized 7 tapes in it as an MLB.