On Tue, 2005-08-09 at 11:14 -0400, Matt Hyclak wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 09, 2005 at 10:51:51AM -0400, LaValley, Brian E enlightened us:
> > Can someone point me to a good educational site for /dev information?  I
> > have attached a tape drive to my machine, but I can't find the special
> > files. I know it should be nst* but they don't exist.  Do they have to be
> > created manually?
> > 
> 
> You will probably want to let us know what OS/Distro you're running to give
> us a better idea where to point you.

Since you're looking for /dev/nst*, I'm going to assume you're Linux,
like I am. If not, ignore the following at give the list more info, as
Matt suggests.

And not only Linux, but one with udev or equiv.

They aren't created manually. If your kernel is compiled with mag tape
support (most are, AFAIK) and if the module is loaded (mt, I think) and
if your tape drive is one Linux supports (every SCSI I've tried and at
least one USB, in my experience) and if the drive is connected properly,
the kernel will find it at boot and udev will
create /dev/st0, /dev/nst0, etc.

I assume you're running udev because otherwise the device files would
very likely be there, but any attempt to use them will result in an
error.

Is there a man mt? If not, that's an indication that the system doesn't
support tape -- it didn't install the magtape control program.

-- 
Glenn English
ghe AT slsware DOT com