Tape Drives

[jbk at mail2.gis.net (jbk)]

Kristian Hermansen wrote:
> On 3/21/07, jbk <jbk at mail2.gis.net> wrote:
>> We still need to look at what happens to tape devices now that
>> IDE subsystem is gone. In theory, they should be picked by st
>> automatically with libata... or do they?
> 
> Is it really ripped out?  Or can you pass argument to kernel to use
> old ATA subsystem?  Personally, I would rather have it ripped out
> completely, but I don't use legacy devices like tape either :-)

jbk wrote:
> Kristian Hermansen wrote:
>> On 3/21/07, jbk <jbk at mail2.gis.net> wrote:
>>> We still need to look at what happens to tape devices now that
>>> IDE subsystem is gone. In theory, they should be picked by st
>>> automatically with libata... or do they?
>>
>> Is it really ripped out?  Or can you pass argument to kernel to use
>> old ATA subsystem?  Personally, I would rather have it ripped out
>> completely, but I don't use legacy devices like tape either :-)
> 
> I don't understand what you mean by ripped out. There is now no device 
> created called ht0 or nht0. So nst0 is all I can address.
> Jim K-R
> 

OK,
Continuing on my earlier thread. This weekend I have been 
trying to pinpoint what the problem is with my tape drive.
Saturday morning I booted into my old Fc5 partition and ran 
by backup script that uses the ide-tape module. It was 
successful and I could read the data by issuing "tar -jtf 
/dev/nht0".
I then booted into Fc6 running the latest kernel 
2.6.20-1.2933. There the device nst0 is now automatically 
created and linked to tape and tape_nst0. Using the mt 
command I can rewind, retension, fsf (1-N), and check status 
with no problem. I can also read the data on the tape with 
the above tar command.
I can not erase or write to the tape with the scuzzy driver.
When I forward space the tape it will move to the next file 
mark but when I check the status it does not know where it 
is by block per this output:

# mt -f /dev/nst0 status
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=2, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 512 bytes. Density code 0x45 (QIC-3095-MC 
(TR-4)).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (81010000):
  EOF ONLINE IM_REP_EN

When I try to write to the tape I get this error:

# less /var/log/messages | grep -i st0
# Below are the error messages when I try to write to the tape
Mar 24 21:15:29 bagend kernel: st0: Current: sense key:
Illegal Request
Mar 24 21:15:29 bagend kernel: Additional sense: Invalid
command operation code

Do I need to tell the st driver explicitly the tape block 
size? Do I use the mt command to do that or is there another 
means? Or am I just the victim of scsi's past inability to 
access tape drives on the same cable as another device as in 
a cd / dvd ?

Is there a way to get more error output from the drive?

Jim K-R



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