RH 4 Doesn't recognise The Tape Drive

[CLARK John1]

Dear friends,

I have Linux Redhat 4 on my server. my problem is that i can't use my tape drive.
Linux doesn't recognise it.I wonder if It needs a a driver or it needs to change the id of the tape drive?,Or there is a conflict with my scsi card?

Do you have any idea?


Thank's a lot.
Best regards.

[CLARK John1]

I forgot to tell you that i have an internal tape backup 20/40 DDS4.
Do you know a link to download linux drivers for tape drives?

[Ivan Ferreira]

Your scsi board should have a bios utility, enter in this utility to see if you can see the tape drive at "hardware level".

After you verify that the device is recognized at hardware level, verify the dmesg output and cat /proc/scsi/scsi.

The tape device should be /dev/st0

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

did you load the Kernelmodule for SCSI tape-devices? Try the command "modprobe st".

Regards,
Patrick

[Vipulinux]

Hi
what update version of RHAS 4 you are using, using the latest iso's could be helpful

cheers

[Steven E. Protter]

If correctly hooked up, the device should be picked up by RH native. DDS4 is not new technology, and I've seen them picked up by RH EL 3 systems.

I would check the scsi id's and see if there is a conflict. The SCSI card is usually id 0, the drive should be another SCSI ID.

Also note, to maximize throughput on the drive the device should have a scsi card all to itself.

Finally, make sure the scsi card is actually detected properly.

SEP

[CLARK John1]

hi,

Thank's for your replay.
The tape drive is not recognised in the bios.
how can i check that there is not a problem with the scsi card?

Regards.

[Stuart Browne]

Crack the system open, and check the jumpers on the tape.

When you watched the system boot, what ID's did the SCSI bios say were taken?

I'd suggest you choose either id 2 or id 3 for a tape drive (but the only hard-and-fast-rule is that it doesn't conflict with another device).

Whilst in there, verify that the SCSI cable's are plugged in securely on both ends, and ensure the power is securely plugged in.

You've not said what type of system, nor what type of controller it's plugged into. If it's a hot-plug drive in a DL580, none of these instructions will mean anything however.