From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4.2) Gecko/20040308 Description of problem: kernel:2.6.9-5 Platform: All with IDE interface Platform tested: PE600SC BIOS: =A09 Tape drive: Travan40 (Seagate STT3401A) OS detects the Tape drive which can be verified by viewing the hwbrowser or /etc/sysconfig/hwconf. But none of the device files : /devhdb /dev/ht0 /dev/nht0 are created. mt -f /dev/hdb gives the following : /dev/hdb: No such file or directory Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-2.6.9-1.906 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install RHEL 4 pre-RC2 (2.6.9-5) with Travan40 Tape drive 2. View the hwbrowser, /etc/sysconfig/hwconf 3. Check the o/p of: a) ls /dev/hdb b) mt -f /dev/hdb status Actual Results: ide tape drives are not made available for use. Expected Results: Autodetection and loading of the ide-scsi or (preferably) ide-tape driver so that the tape drive is ready for use. Additional info:
*** Bug 146186 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Created attachment 110321 [details] This patch fixes st0: Error with sense data: Current st0: sense key Illegal Request" errors This patch fixes "st0: Error with sense data: Current st0: sense key Illegal Request" errors" seen on the ide tape drives on RHEL4.
Please include this patch for U1.
whats the relevance of this patch to this bug ? I don't see how fixing those errors has anything to do with the lack of device nodes. if they are unrelated, can you create a seperate bug please ? as for the lack of device node - does anything show up in sysfs ? if not, that would be why udev didnt create anything.
Darn. I wanted to piggyback that bugfix onto this issue. Oh well, I opened up a seperate bug 147496 to address the errors seen when accessing the drive.
Comment on attachment 110321 [details] This patch fixes st0: Error with sense data: Current st0: sense key Illegal Request" errors Obsoleting this patch as this patch is not relevant to this (original)issue. This patch has been appended to the correct Bugzilla (#147496)
Since the "sense data errors" issue has been opened seperately, I am trying to think aloud on what needs to be done to close this issue ? The problem in a summary is this: 1) Dell still needs to supports IDE Tape Drives with RHEL 4. 2) CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDETAPE is not set in RHEL 4 kernel, hence no ide-tape module. 3) The workaround is to force load the deprecated "ide-scsi" driver when a need to use IDE tape drivers. 4) This is not working either since a simple tar operation using the "ide- scsi" driver is causing a kernel panic. See bugzilla 149979 for details. Therefore one of the two have to happen in order to close this issue: 1) Fix Bugzilla 149979. Patch is available. Then based on the "ide-scsi" workaround, we can close this issue. 2) Compile module support for "ide-tape" into RHEL 4 in a future Update. Can someone from RH comment on possible solutions and POR ?
Bugzilla 149979 is on the mustfix list for U2. Assuming that happens, it appears to be a reasonable resolution for this bug. I'll mark this bug as depending on 149979.
Since 149979 fixes the kernel panic this issue is a request to have the ide- tape driver compiled by default.
Comment #8 > Bugzilla 149979 is on the mustfix list for U2. Assuming that happens, it appears to be a reasonable resolution for this bug. Sounds right. Given the "ide-scsi" woes we are experiencing, I have to question the reason RH choose to leave the "ide-tape" driver out of RHEL 4 kernel ? Was it inheritance from upstream or was it Q&A issues or someting else ?
Can someone from RH respond to the question posted in comment #10 ?
There have been plenty of bad experiences with the ide-tape driver (e.g. BZ 104453). ide-scsi was considered the better of the two alternatives, from a quality and maintainability perspective.
Thanks for the response. We are investigating internally what those "other problems" are in ide-tape since that comment was made by someone from Dell in comment #9 from BZ 104453.
As per the previous agreement, I have closed the It associated with this bug since we now have a functional workaround i.e. use the ide-scsi driver. The ide-scsi driver kernel panic issue (IT76670 / BZ149979) appears to be resolved in U2 Beta. RH, please close this bug.