Re: [SLUG] mt for backup to DAT tape

[Jobst Schmalenbach <jobst@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 07:31:20PM +1000, Ben Donohue (donohueb@xxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> Thanks Mick,
> that worked. mt installed now.
> 
> now i'm trying to figure out what device it is...
> I have two DAT drives connected via SCSI.
> the command
> |mt -f /dev/st0 status
> says no such file or directory.

Depending on the version of OS (later Fedora only install the devices 
that are actaully in the system) I would:

 ls -al /dev/nst*
 ls -al /dev/st*

to see WHICH devices are available and then decide what you need to do,
e.g.

 mt -f /dev/nst0 status

which should yield something like (if there is NO TAPE in the drive)

  SCSI 2 tape drive:
  File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
  Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
  Soft error count since last status=0
  General status bits on (50000):
  DR_OPEN IM_REP_EN

There are two types of tapes nstX and stX where X is the number of the tape device.
Both indicate tape driver, and point to the same device.
The major difference is after performing a task, /dev/st0 will rewind to the begining of the tape, but /dev/nst0 won't.


If you do not see any of those devices (assuming you have
a SCSI adapter) I would do a

 ls -al /proc/scsi

to see what ADAPTORS your system can see. If you do not
see any like for example in my case

  dr-xr-xr-x   4 root root 0 2008-09-17 09:14 .
  dr-xr-xr-x 161 root root 0 2008-04-08 18:07 ..
  dr-xr-xr-x   2 root root 0 2008-09-17 09:25 aic7xxx
  -r--r--r--   1 root root 0 2008-09-17 09:25 device_info
  -r--r--r--   1 root root 0 2008-09-17 09:25 scsi
  dr-xr-xr-x   2 root root 0 2008-09-17 09:25 sg

then you have a driver problem AND/OR your system cannot
see the adaptor. If you can see something I would

  ls -la aic7xxx/

or whatever your driver of your adaptor is named to
see whether the drives are recognised.


Jobst



> 
> Are these devices supposed to be detected on startup?
> Or do I make the directories and then they will be detected, or 
> different devices not st0 or st1?
> I'm currently looking for info on this but any pointers greatly appreciated.
> 
> Ben
> 
> 
> 
> |
> Mick Pollard wrote:
> >On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:28:36 +1000
> >Daryl Thompson <daryl.francis.thompson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >  
> >>Hi Ben
> >>
> >>you should be able to install the mt with
> >>
> >>yum install mt
> >>    
> >make that
> >yum install mt-st
> >It is in the base repo of CentOS 5.2
> >  
> >>note this will need to be run as root
> >>
> >>    
> >
> >  
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