A previous change was introduced to prevent data loss during a power-on reset when a tape is present inside the drive. This change set the "pos_unknown" flag to true to avoid operations that could compromise data by performing actions from an untracked position. The relevant commit is: Commit: 9604eea5bd3ae1fa3c098294f4fc29ad687141ea Subject: scsi: st: Add third-party power-on reset handling As a consequence of this change, a new issue has surfaced: the driver now returns an "Input/output error" even for empty drives when the drive, host, or bus is reset. This issue stems from the "flush_buffer" function, which first checks whether the "pos_unknown" flag is set. If the flag is set, the user will encounter an "Input/output error" until the tape position is known again. This behavior differs from the previous implementation, where empty drives were not affected at system start up time, allowing tape software to send commands to the driver to retrieve the drive's status and other information. The current behavior prioritizes the "pos_unknown" flag over the "ST_NO_TAPE" status, leading to issues for software that detects drives during system startup. This software will receive an "Input/output error" until a tape is loaded and its position is known. To resolve this, the "ST_NO_TAPE" status should take priority when the drive is empty, allowing communication with the drive following a power-on reset. At the same time, the change should continue to protect data by maintaining the "pos_unknown" flag when the drive contains a tape and its position is unknown. Signed-off-by: Rafael Rocha <rrochavi@xxxxxxxx> --- drivers/scsi/st.c | 5 +++-- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/drivers/scsi/st.c b/drivers/scsi/st.c index 0d8ce1a92168..be881d5bac05 100644 --- a/drivers/scsi/st.c +++ b/drivers/scsi/st.c @@ -834,6 +834,9 @@ static int flush_buffer(struct scsi_tape *STp, int seek_next) int backspace, result; struct st_partstat *STps; + if (STp->ready != ST_READY) + return 0; + /* * If there was a bus reset, block further access * to this device. @@ -841,8 +844,6 @@ static int flush_buffer(struct scsi_tape *STp, int seek_next) if (STp->pos_unknown) return (-EIO); - if (STp->ready != ST_READY) - return 0; STps = &(STp->ps[STp->partition]); if (STps->rw == ST_WRITING) /* Writing */ return st_flush_write_buffer(STp); -- 2.39.3 (Apple Git-146)
