How to troubleshoot tape library issues on Mac OS X (4044476)

Often, troubleshooting hardware/library issues on Mac OS X can be difficult due to a lack of native tools for diagnosing problems. However, if you know where to start looking for problems, it will help you narrow down the root cause.

Often, troubleshooting hardware/library issues on Mac OS X can be difficult due to a lack of native tools for diagnosing problems. However, if you know where to start looking for problems, it will help you narrow down the root cause

Almost everything that you need to troubleshoot a hardware problem can be found by doing the following:

1. Run 'system_profiler' . Although you can get a graphical display from the "About this Mac" context screen, that information is normally generated at boot. Running 'system_profiler' will regenerate all of that data and list it out in the terminal in an easy to read format. You should be able to see all of your devices. If you run it and there are devices that are not listed or missing, then you know that the OS is having trouble communicating with it.

2. Run 'dmesg' . This will display the contents of the kernel buffer which will report any problems that the kernel had while attempting to communicate with a device.

3. Look at the '/var/log/system.log' file. This is the OS system log and has a wealth of information, logged chronologically.

4. Finally, Mac OS X logs most problems in the following locations:

/Library/Logs/CrashReporter

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

Providing these items to your Quest Technical Support Engineer and/or your hardware vendor can help expediate the resolution of your case.