Bug#517330: linux-image-2.6.26-1-686: ide-tape hangs for 180s on boot and disables the cdrom

[Moritz Muehlenhoff <jmm@inutil.org>]

tags 517330 moreinfo
thanks

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 04:14:09PM -0800, Tzvetan Mikov wrote:
> Package: linux-image-2.6.26-1-686
> Version: 2.6.26-13
> Severity: normal
> 
> Upgrade from Etch to Lenny. The computer has an IDE tape attached to 
> hdd (slave). The cdrom is at hdc (master). It all worked fine under 
> 2.6.18.
> 
> Under 2.6.26 ide-tape hangs during boot at:
> "[    5.776016] ide-tape: hdd <-> ht0: Seagate STT3401A rev 3"
> After about 180 seconds the boot continues somehow, but as I understand 
> it, the cdrom task is still frozen, so the tape and more importantly the
>  CDROM are not working.
> 
> So, the problem is threefold:
> - long delay on boot
> - tape no longer working
> - cdrom no longer working
> 
> I found a report on LKML that looks to be describing exactly the same
> problem:
> http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/9/21/148
> 
> The situation is dire since we have this same tape drive on many systems
> and so far I haven't found a way to at least disable it via any 
> configuration means. The "hdd=none" boot parameter has no efect. 
> Blacklisting ide_tape in modprobe.d also doesn't affect it.

Hi,
The next release of Debian (6.0, code name Squeeze) will be based
on 2.6.32. Please test the current 2.6.32 from unstable/testing and tell
us whether the problem persists. If so, we should report it upstream
to the kernel.org developers.

The 2.6.32 kernel is available from packages.debian.org and can
be installed in both Debian stable, testing and unstable
installations.

Thanks,
        Moritz