Problem detecting HP Tape Drive

Hello

I do have problem using Linux with an external HP tape drive. The
server platform is also an HP Server; the server is an HP ML350 G4,
and the Tape drive is a HP Storage Works Ultrium 448 - 1U Rack-
mountable.

HP Ultrium documentation says two drivers should be automatically up,
sym53c8xx for LSI SCSI interface "st" for tape and /proc/scsi/scsi
should contain information about tape drive, e.g. SCSI ID. However
none of them happened in my case! (document: "UP LTO Ultrium 2-3 -
Unix Config Guide")

The SCSI adapter is an LSI53C1030. The system has another the same
adapter which is used for hard disk drives.

The interesting part is, the hard disk are detected and even OS boots
from them, but I can't make the tape drive work. Moreover, in system
boot up, LSI SCSI BIOS displays information saying there is a tape
drive connected!

Any one has same experience, suggestion, comments or clues?

I've place a zip file here: http://msarmadi.googlepages.com/report_files.zip
which contains:

- dmesg
- lshal
- lsmod
- lspci -vv
- cat /proc/scsi/scsi > proc.scsi.scsi
- cat /proc/modules > proc.modules
- uname -a > uname

Also, below there are detailed information about devices and OS
config/
log files.

===== System info:
Operating System: Redhat Enterprise Linux AS 5
Sever System: HP ML530 G4
SCSI Adapter: LSI 1030
Tape Drive: HP Storage Works Ultrium 448 - 1U Rack-mountable
SCSI Cable: P/N 313375002 Rev R (coming with tape drive)

*Note that, no other SCSI devices are connected to the cable.

===== Here is some parts of boot up messages on the screen of HP ML350
G4 ====
System BIOS D17 (14/04/2005)

....

MPTBIOS-5.05.18

....

Slot 3 HP Smart Array 6400 Controller (192MB, v.2.26) 1 Logic Drive
Detected
1794-Slot 3 Drive Arraye - Array Accelerator Battery Charge low
Array Accelerator Posted-Write Cache is temporarilty Disabled
Array Accelerator batteries hace failed to charge and should be
replaced

Slot 3 HP Smart Array 6400 EM Controller (192MB, v.2.26) 1 Logic Drive
Detected
Tape or CD-ROM Drive(s) Detected:
SCSI Port 2: SCSI ID 1
1785-Slot 3 Drive Arraye Not Configured
No Drives Detected
....

[Followed by GRUB and Linux boot up]
=========================

--
Mehdi Sarmadi

On Jan 4, 12:31*pm, Arne Hoffmann <a...@fish.in-berlin.de> wrote:
> msarmadi wrote:
> > I do have problem using Linux with an external HP tape drive. The
> > server platform is also an HP Server; the server is an HP ML350 G4,
> > and the Tape drive is a HP Storage Works Ultrium 448 - 1U Rack-
> > mountable.
>
> > HP Ultrium documentation says two drivers should be automatically up,
> > sym53c8xx for LSI SCSI interface "st" for tape and /proc/scsi/scsi
> > should contain information about tape drive, e.g. SCSI ID. However
> > none of them happened in my case! (document: "UP LTO Ultrium 2-3 -
> > Unix Config Guide")
>
> Well, that 'HP CISS Driver' is claiming your SCSI HBA.
>
> > The SCSI adapter is an LSI53C1030. The system has another the same
> > adapter which is used for hard disk drives.
>
> > The interesting part is, the hard disk are detected and even OS boots
> > from them, but I can't make the tape drive work. Moreover, in system
> > boot up, LSI SCSI BIOS displays information saying there is a tape
> > drive connected!
>
> > Any one has same experience, suggestion, comments or clues?
>
> Try 'modprobe st' and have a look at dmesg. If that works, try telling
> your system to load that module at boot time (in /etc/modules or
> something).

I tried that already, not working

On Jan 7, 11:27*pm, Arne Hoffmann <a...@fish.in-berlin.de> wrote:
> msarmadi wrote:
> >> > The SCSI adapter is an LSI53C1030. The system has another the same
> >> > adapter which is used for hard disk drives.
>
> >> > The interesting part is, the hard disk are detected and even OS boots
> >> > from them, but I can't make the tape drive work. Moreover, in system
> >> > boot up, LSI SCSI BIOS displays information saying there is a tape
> >> > drive connected!
>
> >> > Any one has same experience, suggestion, comments or clues?
>
> >> Try 'modprobe st' and have a look at dmesg. If that works, try telling
> >> your system to load that module at boot time (in /etc/modules or
> >> something).
>
> > I tried that already, not working
>
> Why not? What ist the output of modprobe? What does dmesg say?

I can't remember much, only 1 like with sth like this: "st is loaded
and has a certain offset" that's all, nothing about a tape or sth
which it detects.
If it is really important I can tell you the exact message.

In <50bc3c7e-9531-4a1a-a6cd-> msarmadi <> writes:

>On Jan 7, 11:27=A0pm, Arne Hoffmann <a...@fish.in-berlin.de> wrote:
>> msarmadi wrote:
>> >> > The SCSI adapter is an LSI53C1030. The system has another the same
>> >> > adapter which is used for hard disk drives.
>>
>> >> > The interesting part is, the hard disk are detected and even OS boot=
>s
>> >> > from them, but I can't make the tape drive work. Moreover, in system
>> >> > boot up, LSI SCSI BIOS displays information saying there is a tape
>> >> > drive connected!
>>
>> >> > Any one has same experience, suggestion, comments or clues?
>>
>> >> Try 'modprobe st' and have a look at dmesg. If that works, try telling
>> >> your system to load that module at boot time (in /etc/modules or
>> >> something).
>>
>> > I tried that already, not working
>>
>> Why not? What ist the output of modprobe? What does dmesg say?

>I can't remember much, only 1 like with sth like this: "st is loaded
>and has a certain offset" that's all, nothing about a tape or sth
>which it detects.
>If it is really important I can tell you the exact message.

More interesting would be the logging output from dmesg or /var/log/messages
or wherever RedHat logs kernel messages nowadays.

And you should be more elaborate about the "not working" part. A SCSI tape
drive can only work after the st-driver has been loaded (or the driver is
compiled into the kernel).

HTH,
Uli
--
Dipl. Inf. Ulrich Teichert|e-mail: | Listening to:
Stormweg 24 |Pale Bride (The Von Bondies), The Assault (Digital
24539 Neumuenster, Germany|Leather), Sacred Decay (The Estranged)

Thank you everyone

Thanks to Arne the answer was "engage scsi", now everything goes fine.

Cheers

On Jan 11, 10:06*pm, Arne Hoffmann <a...@fish.in-berlin.de> wrote:
> msarmadi wrote:
> >> >> > The SCSI adapter is an LSI53C1030. The system has another the same
> >> >> > adapter which is used for hard disk drives.
> >> >> > The interesting part is, the hard disk are detected and even OS boots
> >> >> > from them, but I can't make the tape drive work. Moreover, in system
> >> >> > boot up, LSI SCSI BIOS displays information saying there is a tape
> >> >> > drive connected!
> >> >> > Any one has same experience, suggestion, comments or clues?
> >> >> Try 'modprobe st' and have a look at dmesg. If that works, try telling
> >> >> your system to load that module at boot time (in /etc/modules or
> >> >> something).
> >> > I tried that already, not working
> >> Why not? What ist the output of modprobe? What does dmesg say?
>
> > I can't remember much, only 1 like with sth like this: "st is loaded
> > and has a certain offset" that's all, nothing about a tape or sth
> > which it detects.
> > If it is really important I can tell you the exact message.
>
> It seems, that you need to tell this HP CISS Driver explicitly that you
> want to use a tape drive. Have a look at the kernel docs in
> .../Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt
>
> ,----[ /usr/src/linux-2.6.28/Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt ]
> | SCSI tape drive and medium changer support
> | ------------------------------------------
> |
> | SCSI sequential access devices and medium changer devices are supportedand
> | appropriate device nodes are automatically created. *(e.g.
> | /dev/st0, /dev/st1, etc. *See the "st" man page for more details.)
> | You must enable "SCSI tape drive support for Smart Array 5xxx" and
> | "SCSI support" in your kernel configuration to be able to use SCSI
> | tape drives with your Smart Array 5xxx controller.
> |
> | Additionally, note that the driver will not engage the SCSI core at init
> | time. *The driver must be directed to dynamically engage the SCSI core via
> | the /proc filesystem entry which the "block" side of the driver createsas
> | /proc/driver/cciss/cciss* at runtime. *This is because at driver inittime,
> | the SCSI core may not yet be initialized (because the driver is a block
> | driver) and attempting to register it with the SCSI core in such a case
> | would cause a hang. *This is best done via an initialization script
> | (typically in /etc/init.d, but could vary depending on distribution).
> | For example:
> |
> | * * for x in /proc/driver/cciss/cciss[0-9]*
> | * * do
> | * * * * echo "engage scsi" > $x
> | * * done
> |
> | Once the SCSI core is engaged by the driver, it cannot be disengaged
> | (except by unloading the driver, if it happens to be linked as a module..)
> |
> | Note also that if no sequential access devices or medium changers are
> | detected, the SCSI core will not be engaged by the action of the above
> | script.
> `----