Hey there... I'm newbie...

I am having difficulties with a tape drive (Sony SDT-11000). The OS does not see the new hardware at start up and any attempt to work with the drive always fails as the system is convinced that there is no /dev/st0.

What can i do?? Please, any help will be welcome...

OS:Mandrake 10.0
Kernel: 2.6.3-7mdksecure

Make sure the tape drive module st is loading.

Is this a SCSI tape drive?

First, thanks for help!

Yes, is a SCSI tape drive... But, how can i do this ??

Post the output of the console command lsmod.
Post the output of the console command lspci.

This will show what modules are loading and the type of SCSI controller in your PC.

You can try this command:
modprobe st

here´s go (lsmod):

Module Size Used by
st 39512 0
nls_cp437 6560 1
nls_iso8859-1 4896 1
smbfs 66520 2
sg 39772 0
scsi_mod 117616 2 st,sg
hid 55136 0
snd-mixer-oss 19008 0
snd 54884 1 snd-mixer-oss
floppy 61332 0
md5 4864 1
ipv6 251616 14
i810_audio 34420 1
ac97_codec 18828 1 i810_audio
soundcore 10208 3 snd,i810_audio
af_packet 22824 0
iptable_filter 3616 0
iptable_mangle 3616 0
iptable_nat 24996 0
ip_conntrack 33612 1 iptable_nat
ip_tables 18720 3 iptable_filter,iptable_mangle,iptable_nat
8139too 25760 0
mii 6080 1 8139too
intel-agp 18364 1
agpgart 32460 1 intel-agp
ide-cd 41764 0
cdrom 38336 1 ide-cd
dm-mod 40928 0
uhci-hcd 31856 0
usbcore 102908 4 hid,uhci-hcd
rtc 13704 0
ext3 114216 1
jbd 61976 1 ext3

the command lspci not exist...

when i try to execute modprobe st, nothing happens...

thanks !!

lspci should be in the /sbin directory. Do you know the make and model of the SCSI controller?

It is typical for linux not to return any status messages if the command completes successfully. You can see from the output you posted that st is loading.

i search and the real name for lspci in mandrake is lspcidrake:

> lspcidrake
intel-agp : Intel Corporation|82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge [BRIDGE_HOST]
unknown : Intel Corporation|82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge [BRIDGE_PCI]
i810_rng : Intel Corporation|82820 815e (Camino 2) Chipset PCI [BRIDGE_PCI]
i810-tco : Intel Corporation|82820 815e (Camino 2) Chipset ISA Bridge (ICH2) [BRIDGE_ISA]
unknown : Intel Corporation|82820 815e (Camino 2) Chipset IDE U100 [STORAGE_IDE]
usb-uhci : Intel Corporation|82820 815e (Camino 2) Chipset USB (Hub A) [SERIAL_USB]
unknown : Intel Corporation|82820 815e (Camino 2) Chipset SMBus [SERIAL_SMBUS]
usb-uhci : Intel Corporation|82820 815e (Camino 2) Chipset USB (Hub B) [SERIAL_USB]
i810_audio : Intel Corporation|ICH2 810 Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller [MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO]
unknown : Silicon Integrated System|SiS325 2D/3D Accelerator [DISPLAY_VGA]
aic7xxx : Adaptec|7892A [STORAGE_SCSI]
8139too : Realtek|RTL-8139 [NETWORK_ETHERNET]
unknown : Linux 2.6.3-7mdksecure uhci_hcd|UHCI Host Controller [Hub]
unknown : unknown (0424/0140/ffff/ffff) [Hub]
unknown : Linux 2.6.3-7mdksecure uhci_hcd|UHCI Host Controller [Hub]

...and now??

aic7xxx : Adaptec|7892A [STORAGE_SCSI]

Try:
modprobe aic7xxx

gotcha!! thanks a lot, pal!!

Few more questions:

- how verify if the backup is working ??
- what is the best software (free) for backup ?? (i hear something about AMANDA, but i can´t installing in madrake).