ATAPI seagate STT8000A Tape drive

[jereme <jereme@drjcomputing.com>]

Hi All,

   I just aquired a Seagate ATAPI STT8000A tape drive and would like
   to make it work on a debian 2.2 system running 2.2.14, (was a 2.1,
   haven't gotten around to setting up new kernel).

   dmesg shows:
   hdd: Seagate STT8000A, ATAPI TAPE drive

   and then, at the very end:
   hdd: driver not present
   hdd: driver not present
   hdd: driver not present

   I know nothing about ATAPI tape drives, (and very little about
   SCSI) .  Searching about the web and looking through dmseg and some
   info's leads me to believe that i should  be able to use some
   traditional tool, (would like to use tar) and give it a device
   file, this is what i would like to due.  I have never used taper or
   any of it's ilk and i have a gaggle of backup related script that i
   would like to continue using.
   
   I have read about various rewinding and non-rewinding devices but i
   have _NONE_ of them in my /dev dir.  (looked for n* h* r*  all
   fruitless). 

   I have the latest version of MAKEDEV, (starting to graspp
   here... :)  but what major/ minor to use, regradless, making new
   device files is something i have not really done.

   Where to go next?  Can someone refer me towards some useful docs.
   Thanks for the help, truly appreciated.

-jereme
   
   
   
-- 
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Jereme Corrado <jereme@restorative-management.com>
Network Administrator 			
Restorative Management Corp.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend and inside of a dog,
it's too dark to read."