Tape drive difficulty -- /dev/nst0: No such device!
 

I'm running SuSe Linux 8.2, kernel 2.4.20. I'm trying to write some data to an external tape drive. Trying to set up the tape drive via the command "mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind" command before running BRU.

Now, this has worked before, flawlessy. Won't work now, and I can't figure out how to make it work. I think the problem came from when I temporarily disconnected the tape drive a month or so ago. But anyway, the computer won't recognize the existence of /dev/nst0. What can I do to fix it?

Not recognize? Does /dev/nst0 exist? What about /dev/st0?
Look at the output of dmesg for error messages relating to the tape drive.

/dev/tape: No such device
 

Still NO SUCH DEVICE:

I have an aic7xxx Drive (Adaptec 7850)

dmesg outputs that:
======
scsi0 : Adaptec AIC7xxx ..... blah
....
aic7850: Single Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 3/253 SCBs

-------------------


lsmod output
====
aic7xxx 104640 0 (unused)
st 27028 0 (unused)
scsi mod 51548 2 [aic7xxx st]

-------------------

and ls -l /dev/nst0 shows
========
crw-rw---- 1 root tape 9,128 /dev/nst0
-------------------------------------------------------------

Does SCSI Id=7 and the output from ls - l /dev/nst0 have to match??? ie (7,128)
=========
crw-rw---- 1 root tape 7,128 /dev/nst0
-------------------------------------------------------------



TIA

----
kimc

thump, thump thump.... (Wonder if the keyboard will give way before my head)