Sony AIT ATAPI in 2.4.24

[Antony Gelberg <antony@antgel.co.uk>]

Hi all,

We have a server into which we've put a Sony AITi130a/S tape drive.
Recompiled the kernel (2.4.24) to include ATAPI TAPE.  On reboot, the logs
indicate recognition of the drive:
hdd: ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~AÀ~A, ATAPI
TAPE drive
hdd: attached ide-tape driver.
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 12, key =  0, asc = c0, ascq = 81
ide-tape: ht0: can't get INQUIRY results
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 1a, key =  0, asc = c0, ascq = 81
ide-tape: Can't get tape parameters - assuming some default values
ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc = 1a, key =  0, asc = c0, ascq = 81
ide-tape: Can't get block descriptor
ide-tape: hdd <-> ht0: 450KBps, 6*26kB buffer, 4394kB pipeline, 110ms
tDSC

With no tape in the drive, the above doesn't happen - the drive is not
detected as far as I can see.

Subequent attempts to use the drive result in error messages like:
Mar  2 15:07:38 server kernel: hdd: ATAPI reset complete
Mar  2 15:07:38 server kernel: ide-tape: ht0: I/O error, pc =  1, key =
0, asc = c0, ascq = 81
Mar  2 15:09:38 server kernel: ide-tape: ht0: DSC timeout

I was hoping that someone who knows the ide-tape stuff is around, and
could help me with what those hex values and other errors mean, and even
whether there is a chance that this drive is not supported.  I'm going
to upgrade to 2.6.3, but need to wait for an outage.

Please CC me as I'm not subscribed.

Antony