User guide

Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System
6464215-01, Rev B
January 2006
Verifying Communication with the Tape Drives 9
Verifying Communication with the Tape Drives 0
You must ensure the st driver sees the all the tape devices. If you have added
a tape device, you must verify that the
st driver sees the new device.
You do this by displaying and reviewing the kernel initialization information
which contains
st driver initialization and attachment of SCSI tape devices.
Displaying the Kernel
Initialization
Information
0
You can display the kernel initialization information by using any of the
following three methods:
Reviewing the Kernel
Initialization
Information
0
All three of the methods show you the same information. The information
looks similar to one of the following:
• RHEL3 output looks similar to the following:
Attached scsi tape st0 at scsi2, channel 0, id 4, lun 0
st0: Block limits 4 - 16777212 bytes.
st: Version 20030406, bufsize 32768, max init. bufs 4, s/g segs 16
• SuSE9 output looks similar to the following:
Attached scsi tape st0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 3, lun 0
st0: try direct i/o: yes (alignment
512 B ), max page reachable by HBA 1048575
st: Version 20040318, fixed bufsize 32768, s/g segs 256
Method Instructions
View
st information
during boot-up.
At boot-up, Linux displays kernel initialization
information, including the
st driver initialization
and attachment of the SCSI tape devices. The
information scrolls by quickly; if you miss it, try
one of the other two methods.
Read the Kernel
Message Buffer Log.
The kernel message buffer log contains the most
recent kernel logs. Look in
/var/log/dmesg.
Remember: The kernel message buffer is limited in
size; therefore, when the buffer becomes full, old
logs are discarded.
Execute the
dmesg
command to view
the Kernel Message
Buffer Log.
Executing the
dmesg command is another way to
open the kernel message buffer log. Execute the
following command:
# dmesg | less
See “Read the Kernel Message Buffer Log” above
for more information about the log.