I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive, and 50-pin to
68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon cable to attach
to the new drive. When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot)
recognized that the HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not
see the new tape drive. In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the
vendor exchanged it.
Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize
presence of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator,
as before, and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were
matched with the old HP drive.
The system still sees the controller. The relevant portion of dmesg:
sym53c8xx: at PCI bus 0, device 18, function 0
sym53c8xx: setting PCI_COMMAND_PARITY...(fix-up)
sym53c8xx: 53c810a detected
sym53c810a-0: rev=0x12, base=0xfebf6f00, io_port=0xe800, irq=18
sym53c810a-0: ID 7, Fast-10, Parity Checking
ncr53c8xx: at PCI bus 0, device 18, function 0
ncr53c8xx: IO region 0xe800 to 0xe87f is in use
scsi0 : sym53c8xx - version 1.3g
scsi : 1 host.
scsi : detected total.
And /proc/pci confirms it:
Bus 0, device 18, function 0:
SCSI storage controller: NCR 53c810 (rev 18).
Medium devsel. IRQ 18. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=8.Max
Lat=64.
I/O at 0xe800 [0xe801].
Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfebf6f00 [0xfebf6f00].
However, /proc/scsi/scsi only has this:
Attached devices: none
I'm planning on taking the system down again this afternoon, reseating
all the cables, and verifying the switch and address settings. Does
anyone have a suggestion for other things to try? I've included the
output of lshw below, in case it helps.
At Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:50:54 GMT Bill <bill@none.none> wrote:
>
> Hi, All.
>
> I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
> Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive, and 50-pin to
> 68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon cable to attach
> to the new drive. When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot)
> recognized that the HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not
> see the new tape drive. In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the
> vendor exchanged it.
>
> Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize
> presence of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator,
> as before, and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were
> matched with the old HP drive.
Does the host controller's 'BIOS' see the tape drive? That is, does it
show up in the POST output on the console?
You *may* have to set some jumpers on the drive to get it to behave with
a narrow (50-pin) connection.
--
Robert Heller -- Get the Deepwoods Software FireFox Toolbar!
Deepwoods Software -- Linux Installation and Administration http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Web Hosting, with CGI and Database heller@deepsoft.com -- Contract Programming: C/C++, Tcl/Tk
"Robert Heller" <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote in message news:770a3$46854fae$404a99a1$28180@news.news-service.com
> At Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:50:54 GMT Bill <bill@none.none> wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi, All.
> >
> > I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
> > Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive,
> > and 50-pin to 68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon
> > cable to attach to the new drive.
Any reason in particular why that should work?
> > When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot) recognized that the > > HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not
see the new tape drive.
> > In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the vendor exchanged it.
How can you tell when it couldn't have worked anyway.
> >
> > Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize
> > presence of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator,
> > as before, and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were
> > matched with the old HP drive.
>
> Does the host controller's 'BIOS' see the tape drive? That is, does it
> show up in the POST output on the console?
> You *may* have to set some jumpers on the drive to get it to behave with
> a narrow (50-pin) connection.
No Heller, only if the SCSI controller is 16-bit wide and even then it
can be solved with setting wide negotiation off in SCSI BIOS setup.
(Provided that the drive can even power-up with the upper-byte unbiased).
If the controller is narrow -which is the most likely- he has to bias the
upper byte of the tapedrive SCSI interface that was left unconnected.
That can be done with a special narrow->wide converter with upperbyte termination. The new drive is LVD and needs the diffsens
signal to work properly, another possible requirement for the adapter.
However that can usually be corrected also with a jumper on the drive.
"Bill" <bill@none.none> wrote in message
news:2Ebhi.18621$RX.16934@newssvr11.news.prodigy.n et...
> Hi, All.
>
> I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red Hat
> 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive, and 50-pin to 68-pin
> SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon cable to attach to the
> new drive. When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot)
> recognized that the HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not see
> the new tape drive. In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the vendor
> exchanged it.
>
> Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize presence
> of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator, as before,
> and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were matched with the
> old HP drive.
Make sure that the tape drive is jumpered at a SCSI address below 7. If it's
higher then your adapter will be unable to address the drive.
Robert Heller wrote:
> At Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:50:54 GMT Bill <bill@none.none> wrote:
>
>> Hi, All.
>>
>> I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
>> Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive, and 50-pin to
>> 68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon cable to attach
>> to the new drive. When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot)
>> recognized that the HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not
>> see the new tape drive. In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the
>> vendor exchanged it.
>>
>> Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize
>> presence of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator,
>> as before, and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were
>> matched with the old HP drive.
>
> Does the host controller's 'BIOS' see the tape drive? That is, does it
> show up in the POST output on the console?
>
> You *may* have to set some jumpers on the drive to get it to behave with
> a narrow (50-pin) connection.
Nope; the controller shows up, but with no devices attached. As far as
I can tell, there are no jumpers or switches that pertain to narrow/wide
connections.
However, Folkert's suggestion that a proper narrow/wide adapter is
required is probably the answer.
>>> I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
>>> Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive,
>
>>> and 50-pin to 68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon
>>> cable to attach to the new drive.
>
> Any reason in particular why that should work?
No, other than the vendor saying it would work. Blind, and naive, faith.
>>> When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot) recognized that the > > HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not
> see the new tape drive.
>
>>> In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the vendor exchanged it.
>
> How can you tell when it couldn't have worked anyway.
Well, the lights on the drive were blinking in a pattern that suggested
a hardware failure within the drive, and it would not accept a tape.
The vendor agreed that it was faulty and provided a replacement, which
did not blink any errors, and did accept a tape, though the narrow SCSI
controller did not recognize that it was attached.
<snip>
> No Heller, only if the SCSI controller is 16-bit wide and even then it
> can be solved with setting wide negotiation off in SCSI BIOS setup.
> (Provided that the drive can even power-up with the upper-byte unbiased).
>
> If the controller is narrow -which is the most likely- he has to bias the
> upper byte of the tapedrive SCSI interface that was left unconnected.
> That can be done with a special narrow->wide converter with upperbyte termination.
> The new drive is LVD and needs the diffsens
> signal to work properly, another possible requirement for the adapter.
> However that can usually be corrected also with a jumper on the drive.
Okay, so a proper narrow/wide adapter is required. I've done a bit of
Googling for such a device, and found this one:
Rob Turk wrote:
> "Bill" <bill@none.none> wrote in message
> news:2Ebhi.18621$RX.16934@newssvr11.news.prodigy.n et...
>> Hi, All.
>>
>> I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red Hat
>> 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive, and 50-pin to 68-pin
>> SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon cable to attach to the
>> new drive. When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot)
>> recognized that the HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not see
>> the new tape drive. In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the vendor
>> exchanged it.
>>
>> Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize presence
>> of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator, as before,
>> and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were matched with the
>> old HP drive.
>
> Make sure that the tape drive is jumpered at a SCSI address below 7. If it's
> higher then your adapter will be unable to address the drive.
>
> Rob
Yes, it's configured with ID 3, just like the old DDS3 drive. But
thanks for the suggestion.
"Bill" <bill@none.none> wrote in message
news:d7fhi.9433$c06.6592@newssvr22.news.prodigy.ne t...
> Hi, Rob.
>
> Rob Turk wrote:
>> "Bill" <bill@none.none> wrote in message
>> news:2Ebhi.18621$RX.16934@newssvr11.news.prodigy.n et...
>>> Hi, All.
>>>
>>> I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
>>> Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive, and 50-pin to
>>> 68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon cable to attach
>>> to the new drive. When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot)
>>> recognized that the HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not
>>> see the new tape drive. In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the
>>> vendor exchanged it.
>>>
>>> Having fitted the new drive, the system still does not recognize
>>> presence of a tape drive on the controller. The cable has a terminator,
>>> as before, and the equivalent switch settings on the tape drive were
>>> matched with the old HP drive.
>>
>> Make sure that the tape drive is jumpered at a SCSI address below 7. If
>> it's higher then your adapter will be unable to address the drive.
>>
>> Rob
>
> Yes, it's configured with ID 3, just like the old DDS3 drive. But thanks
> for the suggestion.
>
> -Bill
Then I'd suspect the 50/68 converter. Not all are equally well built, and
adding single-ended into the equasion doesn't help. Try to find an older
wide-SCSI SymBIOS/LSILogic SCSI adapter based on the 53C8xxx chipset, and
put that in your system.
"Bill" <bill@none.none> wrote in message news:h6fhi.9432$c06.9266@newssvr22.news.prodigy.ne t
> Hi, Folkert.
>
> > > > I finally outgrew the old HP DDS3 (model C1554A) tape drive on my Red
> > > > Hat 6.2 server. I purchased a Sony SDT-10000 DDS4 drive,
> >
> > > > and 50-pin to 68-pin SCSI adapter to allow the existing 50-pin ribbon
> > > > cable to attach to the new drive.
> >
> > Any reason in particular why that should work?
>
> No, other than the vendor saying it would work. Blind, and naive, faith.
>
>
> > > > When I replaced the tape drive, the system (at boot) recognized that the
> > > > HP drive was no longer in the system, but did not see the new tape drive.
> >
> > > > In fact, the new drive was faulty, and the vendor exchanged it.
> >
> > How can you tell when it couldn't have worked anyway.
> Well, the lights on the drive were blinking in a pattern that suggested
> a hardware failure within the drive, and it would not accept a tape.
> The vendor agreed that it was faulty and provided a replacement, which
> did not blink any errors, and did accept a tape, though the narrow SCSI
> controller did not recognize that it was attached.
OK, no argument with that.
But that now may indicate that the drive may well be able to power-up in
narrow mode anyway, without the upperbyte termination and not the cause
of the problem.
>
> <snip>
>
> > No Heller, only if the SCSI controller is 16-bit wide and even then it
> > can be solved with setting wide negotiation off in SCSI BIOS setup.
> > (Provided that the drive can even power-up with the upper-byte unbiased).
> >
> > If the controller is narrow -which is the most likely- he has to bias the
> > upper byte of the tapedrive SCSI interface that was left unconnected.
> > That can be done with a special narrow->wide converter with upperbyte
> > termination.
> >
> > The new drive is LVD and needs the diffsens
> > signal to work properly, another possible requirement for the adapter.
> > However that can usually be corrected also with a jumper on the drive.
> Okay, so a proper narrow/wide adapter is required.
Yup. But for that price I would have liked it to handle the diffsens
signal also, which apparently it doesn't.
Could be ignorance by the seller though and not a necessary precaution.
> Any recommendations for a reliable source?
No.
For that price I would look at pulled or OEM excess wide LVD SCSI
controllers offered at Ebay.
In article <h6fhi.9432$c06.9266@newssvr22.news.prodigy.net> , Bill
<bill@none.none> writes
>Okay, so a proper narrow/wide adapter is required. I've done a bit of
>Googling for such a device, and found this one:
I'd suggest that instead of fudging the drive to make it work on a
narrow adapter, it'd be best to replace the adapter with a wide one.
For example, Adaptec 2940UWs are available used very cheaply and are
well supported in Linux. Don't forget you will also need a wide cable
and terminator.
DDS4 drive not found 
Linear Mode
