> mt -f /dev/nst0 erase > > no response. wait a bit. ps tells me it's dead. > > kill 22107 > kill -9 22107 > kill -KILL 22107 > > nothing. happens sometimes. I don't know exactly what the problem is; but I've seen tape drives (and CD-ROM drives) hang processes like this. I suspect it's something to do with taking too long to reply to a request. going to runlevel 1 (single-user) *may* fix the problem. it may fix this instance of the problem; and then the device may not work at all, until you reboot. Or it may work fine. electronic devices with moving parts suck. Carl Soderstrom -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700