How to get the tape working - 20/40 dat

[Brice_3]

Redhat use kudzu to detect hardware. So, you can use command:

kudzu -p

to rescan the hardware to see if you can find the tape drive, it also shows you the module loaded for that device.

if st module is not loaded for the tape drive, you can use either insmod or modeprobe -a to insert st module.

[Martin P.J. Zinser]

Hello Moke,

after the insmod st you should now have activated the scsi tape support on your system.
Also the cdrecord command I suggested was
"cdrecord -scanbus" to actually see what is on the SCSI bus. (Actually cdrecord suggested as much in the error you posted ;-)

Greetings, Martin

[Gwendeline]

This time when i did a insmod st
result :

/lib/modules/2.4.22-1.2115.nptl/kernel/driver/scsi/st.o

Does this mean that I have the tape drive?

Then how do I do a backup ? in Fedora ?

[Brice_3]

To verify the tape drive status, you can use command:
#mt -f /dev/st0 status

You can use mt command to rewind, forward, erase tape, etc. See mt man page. Probably you also want to use:

#mt -f /dev/st0 datacompression 1
(enable hardware compression)
#mt -f /dev/st0 setblk 10240
(set block size 10K, since most of backup commands use default block size 10K)

Then you can use tar, cpio or dd to backup. Notice the difference between st* and nst*, when you use st* (such as st0, st1, etc), it will rewind the tape automaticly while nst* devices does not.

[Gwendeline]

nothing happen . after I issue these command . it is as if the tape drive is not there .

#mt -f /dev/st0 datacompression 1
(enable hardware compression)
#mt -f /dev/st0 setblk 10240
(set block size 10K, since most of backup commands use default block size 10K)

Sorry for late reply .

[Stuart Browne]

You stated that the BIOS didn't see any devices attached to the SCSI chain.

It appears to be a cabling issue. The system can't find the device, not just the Operating System (Linux).

Verify that the SCSI Tape drive is correctly plugged in, and ensure that when the system boots up (before the OS) that the tape drive is recognised.

Once this occurs, then everything else should fall into place.

[Gwendeline]

I have check the cable. But still the same . Do I need to install the drive for this Dat 20/40 for Fedore Core 1 ?

[Stuart Browne]

Once again, if it's not showing up in the BOOT process, then the entire system can't see it, and no driver will help you.

There *IS NO DRIVER* required beyond what you've already got (the 'st' module).

Until the SCSI BIOS at boot can see the tape drive attached to one of it's bus', then there's nothing in Linux you can do to rectify the problem.

If you've already gone through and checked the cabling, you should easily be able to tell us the following details:

What SCSI controller is the Tape drive connected to?

Which SCCI Bus is the tape drive connected too?

What is the SCSI ID of the tape drive?

Does the tape drive have power?

[Gwendeline]

- There is power on the tape drive.

Ad for the othere information I will need to check .But how do i ?

- How to determine which SCSI BUS ?

- How can I get the SCSI ID ?

[Stuart Browne · Accepted solution]

When you boot the system up, in the POST section, it will initilize all of the SCSI controllers you have in the system.

As each one does this, it will come up and say what devices are connected to what bus' at what ID's.

This should provide you with all the answers you need.

If it doesn't show up, then you still have a cabling issue.