Hello - I've been working w/ linux for many years, but have never had
the occasion to work with any sort of tape backup software on the
platform until now, so I'm pretty clueless about how to
access/configure/etc tape devices.  Here's my current setup:

I have a Dell Powervault 120T hanging off of an Adaptec SCSI card. 
The card is recognized by the OS, as well as the tape changer.  Here's
how the device shows up in proc:

host root # cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: QUANTUM  Model: ATLAS10K2-TY367L Rev: DA40
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 03
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ADIC     Model: FastStor DLT     Rev: D116
  Type:   Medium Changer                   ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
  Vendor: QUANTUM  Model: DLT7000          Rev: 2561
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02

The tape device is a 6-tape changer, but only 5 tapes are accessible
from the front of the device, so I'm only planning on using 5 tapes.

Are there any "beginner's guides" out there that could hold my hand
for a few days until I get my head around amanda?

BTW, I'm running gentoo linux, a 2.6.7 kernel, and amanda 2.4.4_p3.

Thanks!
-Erik Anderson