How do you test a SCSI Tape Drive

Wynand1 · 12-05-2005, 09:48 AM

Hi,

I've got a SCSI Exabyte VXA1 tape drive and would like to know how I can test it to see if it is working. (I'm using Fedora Core 4.) How can I see if FC4 detected the tape drive correctly and what do I do if it's not detected.

BTW In Hardware Browser In FC4 I can only see my SCSI Card when clicking on SCSI. Also , my Computer takes a very long time to boot when I've got the SCSI card in ( Stop at Red Hat Nash Version for a long time). If the SCSI card is out it starts up fast.

Please help.

fouldsy · 12-05-2005, 10:03 AM

"cat /proc/scsi/scsi" should show your device, or view the ouptput of "dmesg". Once you've figured out the device name (probably /dev/st0 or /dev/nst0), you'd use the mt command as:

Code:

mt -f /dev/nst0 status

which will show you the info on your drive.

Wynand1 · 12-06-2005, 12:19 AM

"cat /proc/scsi/scsi" does not list any devices. Also , when booting the computer it stops at this line for more than 10 minutes "Red Hat nash version 4.2.15 starting" . If I remove my SCSI card it passes this line quickly.

Emmanuel_uk · 12-06-2005, 01:51 AM

crude reading test possibly with
dd if=/dev/nst0 of=/dev/null BS=
set bs to the block size

fouldsy · 12-06-2005, 02:29 AM

Maybe look at the SCSI card if it takes so long to boot - it might be it's not correctly handling the card, and so any connected devices would fail. What make + model of SCSI card is it?

Wynand1 · 12-06-2005, 08:20 AM

I've got an Adaptec 2940U/UW , but have tested it with an other Adaptec card (not sure of the model but it says AIC-7856T on the Chip)and the results where the same.

Wynand1 · 12-08-2005, 02:49 AM

So.... Does no one know what to do here ?