OT?!: Newbie finally getting time to get tape drive working

Hi all.  I've been reading for weeks now, and finally have gotten amanda and my 
(exabyte) X80 Robot system to hi priority.

Here are a few off topic questions that had me stumped today:

I was told to go back (before Amanada) to get  MT working. (low level before 
high level [amanda]

I had to take a BIG step backwards.   I need to get the darn thing installed.

(Sun Sparc/Solaris)
Exabyte tells me that I need to:
a) do a probe-scsi all (with Tape off, and presumably no cable connected)
b) connect drive/cable, power on
c) boot, edit my /kernel/drv/st.conf file with some Mammouth-specific parameters
d) do a boot -r (to rebuild drivers )
e) I should then see /dev/rmt rebuilt with many differnent files.
f) I should then be able to do a mt -f /dev/rmt/0 status to see if drive 
responds.

no go.   The doc says if I dont see output from status cmd, I should wipe the 
/dev/mnt directory, recheck the st.conf and redo a kernel rebuild.

So:  I dont get this.  here are some interesting factoids:
1) the X80 has a LVD(low voltage differential) interface, as well as 3 LVD 
mammoth tapes in the changer.
2) the SUN (R420--sorry) has a symbiosis SCSI (Differential) card in slot PCI1.

PS: Is there a reliable way to know how to identify different scsi cables?  or 
perhaps a pointer to a good website...

At any rate.  

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated,

I realize this is technically off topic, since it's not even amanda related, 
but heck.   I didnt think it would make me get this FAR down...

Cheers:
Mitch Bruntel


--contents of st.conf:
 This file contains configuration entries for both officially supported
# devices of Sun Microsystems and many 3rd party devices.
#
#
#lots of pre-existing stuff deleted, but get no errors anymore...) 

tape-config-list= "EXABYTE Mammoth2", "Exabyte Mammoth2", "EXB-M2"; EXB-M2 = 
1,0x36,0,0xde39,1,0x28,0;

#MB- could it supposed to be ONE line?
#

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=0 lun=0;

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=1 lun=0;

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=2 lun=0;

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=3 lun=0;

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=4 lun=0;

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=5 lun=0;

name="st" class="scsi"
        target=6 lun=0;
#
#       In case there are wide tape drives, one can use these targets
#
#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=8 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=9 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=10 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=11 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=12 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=13 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=14 lun=0;

#name="st" class="scsi"
#       target=15 lun=0;

# This line adds support for Fibre Channel Tapes
name="st" parent="fp" target=0;