[CLUE-Tech] How to make Linux recognize IDE tape drive?

[David Anselmi]

David Guntner wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm hoping that someone here can help me with this.
> 
> I'm running Mandrake Linux 9.0 (kernel 2.4.19), and have installed an old 
> Seagate TR-4 IDE tape drive in the slave position (CD-ROM is in the master 
> position on the cable) on the second IDE controller.
> 
> Mandrake has a hardware detector utility, which tells me that it see the 
> tape drive on /dev/hdd.  Unfortunately, doing a "ls -la /dev/hdd" results 
> in a "file not found" error....

I can't tell you how to use the drive, since I've never done an IDE 
tape.  I don't see any good howtos, so maybe it is pretty easy.

The IDE driver supports ATAPI tape drives, so you shouldn't have any 
hoops to jump through there.

If /dev/hdd is missing you can make it yourself:

mknod hdd b 22 64

(read the man or info page, too).  The kernel docs say you can do 
MAKEDEV.ide to get all the right devices built (that's just a script so 
I'm not sure how mandrake does it).

I'm surprised that mandrake doesn't have it already, maybe something 
else is going on (like devfs?)

You can also check your boot messages (dmesg) to see what the kernel 
says about that device.  If it doesn't say anything you are likely 
missing a driver.

The kernel docs also say that ht0 is the first IDE tape, so perhaps you 
don't need hdd.

Dave