(*** This bug was imported into bugs.kde.org ***) Package: kdat Version: 2.0.1 (using KDE 3.0.0 ) Severity: normal Installed from: RedHat RPMs Compiler: gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.96-110) OS: Linux (i686) release 2.4.18-4 OS/Compiler notes: My tape device is on /dev/st0 and is properly accessible through tar. KDAT does not seem to detect the tape inside it. Have very few options to debug this any further. Thanks (Submitted via bugs.kde.org) (Called from KBugReport dialog. Fields KDE Version manually changed)
This bug has arisen 5 times before according to the bug list, (Bug numbers 1167, 1681, 2444, 2678, 24913 as well as this one). Each time, the bug has been reported resolved, but each time it has recurred. The problem is that when a tape is in the drive, KDAT reports a mount error: 'There appears to be no tape in the drive /dev/nst0' There is of course and until now, I hadn't been able to overcome this. I've been trying to get KDAT to work ever since I first started playing with Linux (about 2 years now). I've tried everything I could think of, including running KDAT as root. I aways got the same result. When I checked the bug lists, I saw that there were previous bugs reporting this problem, so waited and hoped for a fix (and went back to mt and tar). Recently, the subject of KDAT arose again and a couple of us on our local LUG mailing list went to town on it. What I did notice today was that /dev/nst0 was a member of group 'disk': terry@silver:/dev> ls -la /dev/nst0 crw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 128 2002-09-09 21:24 /dev/nst0 User 'terry' wasn't a member of group disk, so I added it to the account. KDAT now works perfectly! Why should that be! I've always thought that user root could do anything, so when KDAT originally refused to work when I logged in as root, I didn't pursue permissions as a possible cause of the problem. So, in summary, I can't get it to work when I log in as root, but I can if I log in as me, providing that I'm a member of the group that my tape device is (eg /dev/nst0). It will also work, for me, if the permissions on /dev/nst0 are opened right up, but it won't work for root whatever I do. This is a problem, because I cannot backup anything owned by root, unless I first create a file that can be read by terry. (I could also create a backup user, but that seems to be the wrong thing to do.) If this is indeed a bug, hopefully this report will help get it sorted. If in fact its just a configuration problem, can I suggest that the Help provides a bit of guidance in this area and perhaps another update to the error message to point the user at the appropriate configuation.
Subject: scsi tape not detected although works with tar alone I am the current maintainer of kdat, having inherited it about the time that KDE 3.0 came out. It is very well written: I can't take credit for that. It compiles and runs under KDE 3.0: I can take credit for that. Many thanks to Terry Coles for a scholarly and careful approach to the "no tape" problem. All of the previous cases seem to have responded simply to naming the tape device correctly. Most people use tape drive /dev/st0-/dev/nst0, while the default for kdat was and is /dev/tape. The permissions problem appears to be a new one. I can't explain why there is a problem. I routinely run kdat as root specifically to be able to do a complete backup of the selected files/directories. > I've always thought that user root could do anything, Yup, I always thought so too. Perhaps someone wiser can explain the discrepancy. Until then, Terry's suggestion stands and I will add it to the Help text (when I get around to revising it) and to the error message. Please keep me posted of any other problems with kdat. I don't have a lot of time to work at it, but it's good to have a list of things to work on when time does become available.
I found a work around this problem. I "manually" mount the tape using mt load before calling kdat with (I disbaled automatic load on start - just to be sure) kdat & This seems to allow kdat to work. Unfortunately, it ONLY works for root! Hope this helps
I tried the mt load workround; unfortunately there seems to be multiple versions of mt around. I have GNU Version 2.5 (out of the box from SuSE 8.1). This does not support 'load'. Presumably other versions do. I don't suppose KDAT is relying on mt load at any point.... ?
I am using mt that came with RedHat (current upgrade 8). It identifies itself as "mt-st v. 0.7". Note that I can only use it while log-in as root (su). It seems to use the device /dev/tape, but you can override the device with -f. Hope this helps
I have the same problem with KDAT 2.0.1 not detecting the tape (the drive is /dev/st0 and set as such in options). Actually, I don't think it's actually TRYING to detect the tape. A workaround that works for me is to select "Format" and then bomb out when the "All data currently on the tape will be lost. Are you sure you want to continue?" prompt comes up. KDAT then recognises the tape. Cool. I'm running it as a normal user, so you don't need rootly powers for this one. Looks like whatever it does before deciding to do some formatting is what it should do when it tries to detect a tape. ;-) Simon
Is this bug still present in a recent version of KDE, such as 3.5.8 or KDE 4 RC2?
Closing due to no response. Please reopen if this bug can be reproduced with KDE >= 4.0.1