The tape drive is a Dell PowerVault 100T DDS4 on Adaptec AIC-7890 controller. The box is a Dell PowerEdge 1300. All hardware has been verified ok by Dell tech support. The drive is located at scsi id 6 with default switch & jumper settings. The box is at kernel 2.2.16-3smp, and all released updates have been applied. Support for aic7xxx is included in the kernel, as is Enable TCQ by default. Max TCQ per device is at 24, however I have tried 8 & 16 with no result. The delay on scsi bus is at 15. Also included is SCSI debuging host adapter. I am able to write to a DDS-4 tape with tar. Prior to including scsi debuging host adapter I was not. The only mt commands that the drive has responded to are status, tell and rewoffl. # mt -t /dev/nst0 status SCSI 2 tape drive: File number=0, block number=0, partition=0. Tape block size 512 bytes. Density code 0x26 (unknown to this mt). Soft error count since last status=0 General status bits on (41010000): BOT ONLINE IM_REP_EN An attempt to erase a tape will lock the drive and result in: Jul 20 10:28:48 poweredge kernel: st0: Error with sense data: [valid=0] Info fld=0x0, Current st09:00: sense key Medium Error Jul 20 10:28:48 poweredge kernel: Additional sense indicates Sequential positioning error Any attempt to access the drive results in an I/O error, the only way to get the drive back at that point is to power off. The first indication of a problem with is at boot time, the following is a snip from dmesg: Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1) <Adaptec AIC-7890/1 Ultra2 SCSI host adapter> found at PCI 2/11/0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1) Wide Channel, SCSI ID=7, 32/255 SCBs Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1) Downloading sequencer code... 392 instructions downloaded Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: scsi1 : Adaptec AHA274x/284x/294x (EISA/VLB/PCI-Fast SCSI) 5.1.30/3.2.4 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: <Adaptec AIC-7890/1 Ultra2 SCSI host adapter> Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: scsi : 2 hosts. Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) invalid cur_addr:0x793404e during WIDE_RESIDUE Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) sg_address[-1]:0x0 sg_length[-1]:0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) sg_address:0x0 sg_length:0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) cur_address:0x793404e resid_dcnt:0x0000d1 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) Synchronous at 40.0 Mbyte/sec, offset 32. Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) invalid cur_addr:0x793404e during WIDE_RESIDUE Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) sg_address[-1]:0x0 sg_length[-1]:0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) sg_address:0x0 sg_length:0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) cur_address:0x793404e resid_dcnt:0x0000d1 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) invalid cur_addr:0x7fa7e1e during WIDE_RESIDUE Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) sg_address[-1]:0x0 sg_length[-1]:0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) sg_address:0x0 sg_length:0 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: (scsi1:0:6:0) cur_address:0x7fa7e1e resid_dcnt:0x0000d2 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: Vendor: ARCHIVE Model: Python 06408-XXX Rev: 8071 Jul 20 07:58:52 poweredge kernel: Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03
I am having the same problem, however the hardware is a bit different. We are running a Gateway 7210 server, AIC-7896N controller, and a Seagate Scorpion 40 (STD2401LW) DDS-4 TBU. The behavior is very similar in that I too can write but any attemp to restore or list from the archive is fatal. The system was a fresh install of RH6.2 retail.
This appears to be a kernel driver issue.
This is not a kernel (or Linux) issue. It is an incompatibility between the Adaptec aic789x chipsets and tape drives. More detailed information can be located in bugzilla bug 75916 or at http://www.linuxtapecert.org. Tim