Re: dc395x: can't write to tape

[Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>]

> > Jan  5 22:50:18 helium kernel: dc395x: sg_update_list: sg_to_virt failed
>
> This doesn't look good. However, after a brief look at the code, I cannot
> say what exactly went wrong there. Jamie?

I didn't mention it before, but I've gotten that particular message for a long 
time, even when the tape drive used to work.  I reported on it several months 
ago on this list 
(http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-scsi&m=108039964822342&w=2) in 
connection with a balky CD burner, which I've since junked.  After some work 
and upgrading my kernel, I got the CD burner working again, but the flood of 
sg_to_virt failed messages continued.  Jaime finally recommended that I just 
disable them, which I did until I got rid of the CD burner.  Maybe 
relevant...

> > Jan  5 22:50:18 helium kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Info fld=0x67,
> > Current st0: sense = f0  4
>
> Sense key 4 - hardware error.
>
> > Jan  5 22:50:18 helium kernel: ASC=80 ASCQ=98
>
> Additional sense code 0x80 - vendor specific.
>
> So, the sense codes indicate a hardware problem on the tape drive, but the
> first message might mean a software bug. You don't have highmem on that
> machine (> 1GB RAM), do you?

CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is enabled in the kernel, and I have 1 GiB of RAM.

Thanks,
Andrew.