I've spent the last couple of hours trying to determine if a particular external DVD-ROM drive is likely to be supported under linux.

The device I'm interested in is:
www .lgeus.com/Product/CD/GCC_5241P.asp

While I'm aware this *should* be supported under the USB mass storage device subsystem, the fact that it's clearly highly customized hardware worries me - it's not just a slim IDE drive stuck in an enclosure.

Another option I've been looking at is:
www .pioneerelectronics.com/pna/article/0,,2076_4193_23144007,00.html

...but it's probably overkill for what I want.


Anyway - just wondering if anyone could make an educated guess as to whether they think it would work.

99 out of 100 work just fine, there doesn't even need to be a usb-id in the module for them to show up correctly. The much greater concern is just whether your firewiree/usb2 card has full support as its a lot of data pull to yank info off of a DVD to be displayable (at least, talking movies, who really cares about raw data as long as its somewhere between fast and oh my god my pants are on fire).

A DVDrom enclosure system is almost garunteed to work as all it has to be is built to standard. Its the same with real USB hard drives, as opposed to pen drives. CF/SD/SM cards are about the only thing out there that is a crapshoot... well, cameras.

Just buy something returnable, the odds on it not working are very very long.

Cheers,

Finegan

Thanks for your thoughts, finegan.

Great forum, BTW... Will try to lend a hand where I can.