Cannot open /dev/rmt/0m device

[Jerry Sommerville_2]

I am running HP-UX 11.11 on a A500 with a SE SCSI tape drive attached. ioscan shows the device clained. I removed the tape drive and then later reinstalled it. I removed the special files with rmsf command then ioscan'ed again and insf -e the special files. Still cannot open tape device. I have removed and recreated the device several times. Any suggestions?

[David Child_1]

Jerry,

Just checking, but after the recreation does it still show claimed? Do you have a good tape in the drive? How are you trying to "open" it (e.g. tar, mt, etc.)?

Thanks,
David

[Jerry Sommerville_2]

I ran ioscan and the device shows claimed. I have a brand new tape in the drive. I tried using tar, fbackup and cpio on the device and I always get the same error message, cannot open device /dev/rmt/0m. I have tried remiving the special files and reinstalling again. I have tried several of the device files assigned to that tape device. All report the same error message, cannot open . I am stumped. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

[erics_1]

Jerry,

Does this drive work on a different system?
Do you have a different drive you can try on this system?

Can you supply an ll of /dev/rmt?

Thanks,
Eric

[Naveej.K.A · Accepted solution]

Jerry,

check the output of mt -t /dev/rmt/0mn status
check this after you put the tape in the tape drive.

If it throws error, you have a defective tape drive. You may have to log a call with the HP response center.

Regards,
Naveej

[Jerry Sommerville_2]

I made a tape archive using ignite on this system. Moved the tape drive to another A500 and made a archive of that system, then moved the tape drive back to this A500. Poof! No longer working. Below is the ioscan:

root@corp189 / >ioscan -fnC tape
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=====================================================================
tape 0 0/0/1/0.2.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP C5683A
/dev/rmt/0m /dev/rmt/c0t2d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/0mb /dev/rmt/c0t2d0BESTnb
/dev/rmt/0mn /dev/rmt/c0t2d0DDS
/dev/rmt/0mnb /dev/rmt/c0t2d0DDSb
/dev/rmt/c0t2d0BEST /dev/rmt/c0t2d0DDSn
/dev/rmt/c0t2d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c0t2d0DDSnb
root@corp189 / >

Here is the listing of the device files:

root@corp189 / >ll /dev/rmt
total 0
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x002000 May 12 08:45 0m
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x002080 May 12 08:45 0mb
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x002040 May 12 08:45 0mn
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x0020c0 May 12 08:45 0mnb
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x002000 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0BEST
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x002080 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0BESTb
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x002040 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0BESTn
crw-rw-rw- 2 bin bin 205 0x0020c0 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0BESTnb
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 205 0x002001 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0DDS
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 205 0x002081 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0DDSb
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 205 0x002041 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0DDSn
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 205 0x0020c1 May 12 08:45 c0t2d0DDSnb
crw-r--r-- 1 bin bin 205 0xfffffe May 12 08:45 stape_config
root@corp189 / >

[Andrew Rutter]

hi,

what are the device files shown with an
#ioscan -funC tape

is dev/rmt/0m there?

also what does this show
# ls -l /dev/rmt/0m


andy

[Jerry Sommerville_2]

Well, sometimes it pays to look a little closer. Someone mixed up my tapes in the DDS2 box. Here is it output from the mt command Naveej.

root@corp189 / >mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn status
Drive: HP C5683A
Format: DDS-1 format
Status: [45111300] BOT write-protected online compression immediate-report-mode
File: 0
Block: 0

When I changed to a DDS2 tape, I got:

root@corp189 / >mt -f /dev/rmt/0mn status
Drive: HP C5683A
Format: DDS-2 format
Status: [41112400] BOT online compression immediate-report-mode
File: 0
Block: 0
root@corp189 / >

Now the tar command works. I feel a little Duhhh....

Thanks everyone.

[Jerry Sommerville_2]

Thanks Naveej. Your mt command helped resolve the issue.