Tape Drive Not Detected

You added a Tape (LTO) destination, clicked Save & test, and got this:

"No tape drive detected. Turn on the virtual tape drive (or connect an LTO drive)."

Hiberden distinguishes several tape states (no cartridge loaded, cartridge needs formatting or mounting, LTFS service stopped), so "no drive detected" means exactly that: Hiberden cannot see a tape drive at all. Answer the virtual-drive question first, then go to the branch for your operating system. If you saw a different tape error instead, such as "Tape drive check failed", the same branches cover the usual causes.

First, did you mean to use the virtual drive?

This part is the same everywhere. If you are evaluating Hiberden without tape hardware, you do not need a physical drive at all. Turn on the built-in virtual drive: Settings > Tape > "Use a virtual tape drive". The toggle takes effect the next time Hiberden starts, so restart the app after switching it on, then run Save & test again.

The virtual drive is self-contained and needs no vendor software. It exists for evaluation: it lets you write an archive to a cartridge, read it back, verify it, and restore it with no hardware attached, but a virtual-tape copy is not protected storage. See Virtual tape drive.

For a real drive, use the branch for your system below. The three are genuinely different: what Hiberden can discover for itself, what you have to type in, and what has to be installed first all change by platform.

Windows

1. Is IBM LTFS installed?

A real LTO drive requires vendor LTFS software. On Windows, Hiberden works with IBM's LTFS (Single Drive Edition). LTFS is IBM software, not part of Hiberden: installing Hiberden does not install it for you.

Hiberden auto-detects LTFS in its standard install locations. If you installed it somewhere unusual, point Hiberden at it under Settings > Tape, where you can set a custom path.

The virtual drive does not need LTFS. Only real hardware does.

2. Is the LTFS Windows service running?

An installed LTFS whose Windows service is stopped is a distinct state, and Hiberden detects it separately from a missing drive. When that is the case, the app shows the stopped-service state and offers a one-click "Start service" button. Fresh LTFS installs often need this (a service start, or a reboot) before the drive appears.

If clicking "Start service" resolves it, run Save & test on the destination again. You want the "● Connected" badge.

3. Is the drive actually on the bus?

If LTFS is installed and its service is running but Hiberden still sees no drive, the problem is usually physical. Check, in order:

Cabling: the cable between the drive and your HBA is seated at both ends.
HBA: the host bus adapter is installed and Windows recognizes it.
Power: the drive is powered on. External drives need to be on before Windows can enumerate them.

If Windows cannot see the drive, Hiberden cannot either.

Linux

On Linux this is more often a settings or permissions problem than a hardware one, because there is nothing here for Hiberden to discover on its own. Installing on Linux has the full setup; the checks below are the ones that decide whether a drive shows up at all.

1. Set the device path. Linux gives Hiberden nothing to list.

Open-source LTFS on Linux has no command that enumerates drives, so Hiberden cannot offer you a list and asks for the device file instead. Open Settings > Tape and fill in both fields:

Device path. The drive's device file, for example /dev/sg0. This one is required. Left blank there is nothing for Hiberden to open, and every tape operation refuses.
Mount point. A folder to mount cartridges at, for example /mnt/ltfs. It has to exist already.

Drive settings apply at the next app start, so restart Hiberden, then click Re-check on the LTFS card in Settings.

2. Install LTFS. Ubuntu and Debian do not package it.

Installing Hiberden does not install LTFS, and no Ubuntu or Debian repository carries it, so you build it once from source on the machine with the drive. It takes a few minutes, and the recipe, including the ICU step that stops most first attempts, is in Installing on Linux.

Confirm the build from a terminal before you blame the drive:

ltfs -o device_list
mkltfs --help

If those two do not run for you, Hiberden will not find a drive either.

3. Add your account to the tape and disk groups, then log out.

LTFS opens the drive through a device file your account cannot read by default:

sudo usermod -aG tape,disk "$USER"

Log out and back in afterwards. The change does not reach a session that is already open, and an app started from that session keeps the old permissions, so "I ran the command and it still fails" is almost always a missing re-login. Note that disk is a broad group: fine on a machine dedicated to archiving, worth a thought on a shared one.

4. Confirm FUSE is present.

LTFS mounts the cartridge through FUSE and cannot work without it:

ls -l /dev/fuse

5. With a real drive, install the .deb rather than the AppImage.

The AppImage carries its own copies of some system libraries and hands them to the programs it starts, which can stop the tape tools from running.

macOS

Installing on macOS has the full setup; the checks below are the ones that decide whether a drive shows up at all.

1. An empty drive list does not mean the drive is absent.

macOS can enumerate drives, unlike Linux: Hiberden asks LTFS for the device list and shows what comes back. But if that request fails for any reason, LTFS not installed, an older build that does not know the option, or a command that hangs long enough to be cut off, Hiberden treats the result as an empty list rather than as an error. A broken enumeration and a drive that is not there look exactly the same in the app, so check it yourself in Terminal:

ltfs -o device_list

If the command is not found, the problem is your LTFS install and not the drive. If it runs and lists a drive, LTFS can see the hardware and the gap is in the settings below.

2. Install macFUSE and LTFS.

Tape on macOS needs both, and neither one ships with Hiberden. macFUSE has to be approved under System Settings > Privacy & Security and the Mac restarted afterwards, sometimes twice. LTFS is a source build. Installing on macOS covers both, including the linker flags the build needs.

3. Fill in Settings > Tape.

Drive number or serial. Not a path. Leave it blank to use the first drive, or enter the number or serial that ltfs -o device_list printed for the one you want.
Mount point. A folder to mount cartridges at, for example /Volumes/ltfs. It has to exist already.