Seagate STT3401A on FC2

[Bob McClure Jr]

On Sat, Nov 20, 2004 at 12:20:51PM -0500, Ken Carr wrote:
> We're running FC2 (recently upgraded from FC1) on a Dell Power Edge
> 400SC. We have just started trying to use the tape drive. The hardware
> browser identifies the drive as Seagate STT3401A, /dev/hdd
> 
> With a tape installed, we get the following:
> [root at flclxserver root]# mt -f /dev/hdd rewind
> /dev/hdd: Input/output error
> 
> What things should we check before suspecting bad hardware?
> 
> Thanks for any help you can provide.
> 
> Ken Carr

You may need to use a more tape-like device name.  I have a Seagate
STT8000A on /dev/hdd and I call it /dev/nht0.  Check this:

  cat /proc/ide/ide1/hdd/name

It may say something like "ht0".  Normally, the non-rewinding version
is used, /dev/nht0.

If it doesn't respond to that try

  modprobe ide-tape

then try again.

Here's an interesting thing about my tape.  After a reboot, an attempt
to back up to it results in a failure like "device busy" or some
such, but the next and all following work fine.  When I upgraded to
FC2, I think that problem went away.  I don't recall.  I don't reboot
that much. :-)

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure at earthlink.net  http://www.bobcatos.com
Grace happens.