Configuring Linux to Support a Tape Drive

The ease of configuring Linux to support a tape drive depends on the Linux distribution and version, the type of drive, the interface it uses, and whether the drive is present when Linux is installed or is added later. If you use a modern, mainstream ATAPI or SCSI drive with a recent Linux distribution, installation will likely be straightforward. If you use an older distribution, an obsolescent or proprietary drive, or a drive that uses an interface other than ATAPI or SCSI, you may encounter significant problems getting the drive to work, if indeed you can get it working at all. You can use the following tape drives with Linux:

Travan, DDS, and AIT tape drives

Recent Linux releases natively support a wide variety of Travan, DDS, and AIT tape drives with ATAPI or SCSI interfaces. If you install and configure the drive and interface properly before you install Linux, the Linux installer will likely recognize the drive and automatically configure Linux to use it. In fact, Linux often does a better job than Windows 2000/XP of recognizing and configuring Travan, DDS, and AIT tape drives.

If you install a tape drive in a system with Linux already installed, log in as root and run the hardware detection utility (e.g., Kudzu in Redhat or Mandrake and Discover in Debian). If the drive is supported, the utility detects the drive, installs drivers, and automatically configures Linux to use the drive. If the drive is not recognized, check the web sites ...

Get PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.