Recently stumbled onto a problem using dd and LTO3 tape drive:

root@ubuntu:/# dd bs=10k conv=noerror count=1 if=/dev/st0 of=/mnt/fl/tape1
dd: reading `/dev/st0': Input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.436819 seconds, 0.0 kB/s
dd: warning: working around lseek kernel bug for file (/dev/st0)
of mt_type=0x72 -- see <sys/mtio.h> for the list of types
dd: cannot work around kernel bug after all
dd: `/dev/st0': cannot seek
dd: reading `/dev/st0': Input/output error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.890012 seconds, 0.0 kB/s

Using UBUNTU kernel 2.6.15-23-386
I can change bs= to ibs= & ibs=, change the count number, etc with no change. I get similar errors with Fedora.

Anybody come across this "lseek kernel bug" or know a work around that works?

Thanks,
John