I'm using debian sid.
With the bf2.4 kernel I can see at startup that it shows my dat drive on SCSI bus:
WangDAT DDS 3800

With my 2.4 kernel

When i do less /proc/scsi/scsi
It says: Philips cdrx 400... wich is my IDE cd burner.

So, I don't know how tu use a DAT on Linux.
When I try

mt -f /dev/st0 status
it says: no such device

(I created st0 mountpoint before:

mkdir /dev/stape
mknod -m 660 /dev/stape/tape c 9 128
mknod -m 660 /dev/stape/tape-rewind c 9 0

I also loaded the st driver
modprobe st

I'm a newbie under Linux, I really don't know how tu use and configure my tape drive.

I have an HPSurestore DAT drive that shows up under /proc/scsi/scsi as:

Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: C1537A Rev: L812
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 05 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: C1537A Rev: L907
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: SEAGATE Model: ST318436LW Rev: 0010
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00
Vendor: SEAGATE Model: ST318436LW Rev: 0005
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03

Never had a problem using mt to tar files to tape. Runs on 2.4.18 kernel, about Slackware 8.1?