Hi,

I have used k3b with much luck on this box. I has a plextor 716a dvd +-RW and a LG dvd reader cd rw. The plex is master /dev/hdc and LG is /dev/hdd.

Xcdroast will detect the plex but not the LG. The LG shows up as HL-DT-ST - RW/DVD GCC-4520B in k3b.

I read this at xcdroast.org/faq

2. Why doesn't X-CD-Roast find all of my hardware? (CD-Burners/CD-ROMs/DVD-Drives)

A common problem is that X-CD-Roast fails to detect your CD-Writer or any additional CD-ROM devices you might have. Current Linux distributions install by default a special mode for CD-Writers, but not for common CD-ROM drives. This results in that your Writer is useable, but your extra CD-ROM drive is not.
It fix that problem and to get all of your devices working, you have to install that "special" mode for all of them (Not just the CD-writer). That mode is called "scsi-emulation" and can be easily activated. SCSI-devices are fine by default and need no special handling. ATAPI/IDE, parallelport and USB devices need to installed via scsi-emulation.
A common way how to install scsi-emulation on Linux is described a few lines further down.

*** Please note the new direct ATAPI support on linux, as mentioned at the end of this section. It is different for 2.4.x and for 2.6.x kernels.

Please see section 2 of the CD-Writing-HOWTO how to configure your kernel on Linux. (a bit outdated!)

If you use not Linux but any other OS, you have to check the cdrecord documentation how to access your writer.

Note about configuring SCSI-emulation in Linux:

The trick are these two lines (Examples for two drives which are connected as master and slave on the secondary IDE controller):

Line for /etc/modules.conf

options ide-cd ignore='hdc hdd'

(This tells the IDE-driver to ignore the two devices you want to use within X-CD-Roast)

-

Line for /etc/lilo.conf (add anywhere before any "image=" lines)

append="hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi" (Kernel 2.2.x and most 2.4.x)

or

append="hdc=scsi hdd=scsi" (Kernel 2.4.x only, if the above line does not work)

(And this tells the kernel to install scsi-emulation for two drives)

-

If you use grub instead of lilo you might try something like that:

Example line for /boot/grub/grub.conf or /etc/grub.conf

kernel /vmlinuz-2.2.19 ro root=/dev/hda6 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi (Kernel 2.2.x and most 2.4.x)

or

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.7-10 ro root=/dev/hda6 hdc=scsi hdd=scsi (Kernel 2.4.x only, if the above line does not work)

You might have to load the scsi-emulation driver manually with the following command.

/sbin/insmod ide-scsi; /sbin/insmod sg

Now X-CD-Roast should detect your drives.

Please note that you want to change your /dev/cdrom link from /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd to /dev/sr0 or /dev/sr1, because the device files changed through the different driver.

Note:

Starting with version 0.98alpha12 there is experimental support for direct ATAPI support on linux kernels 2.4.x. Now X-CD-Roast should detect all your devices out-of-the-box on all current linux distributions. Please note, that the ATAPI interface does not support DMA transfers at all and therefore you might have high system load using it.
(Please see also question Nr. 28.)

For newer kernels 2.5.x or 2.6.x the automatic scanning might not work. If this is the case for you, you have to give all devices manually in the setup of X-CD-Roast, by clicking on "Manually add device" and entering the device name of your CD-Writer. (e.g. /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd)

Note 2: (NEW!)

On non-linux systems you have to enter often a manual device-ID to have your writer detected by cdrecord. See the documentation of cdrecord for details. Such an ID can be entered in the X-CD-Roast setup with the "Manually add device" button. Alternatively you can use the -f command line option. (see man page)

Should I do this. Could it wreck anything or should I try this new part?

What is the output from running
(you need to be root)

Cdrecord-Clone 2.01.01a01 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Joerg Schilling
NOTE: this version of cdrecord is an inofficial (modified) release of cdrecord
and thus may have bugs that are not present in the original version.
Please send bug reports and support requests to <cdrtools@packages.debian.org>.
The original author should not be bothered with problems of this version.

cdrecord: Warning: Running on Linux-2.6.15-27-386
cdrecord: There are unsettled issues with Linux-2.5 and newer.
cdrecord: If you have unexpected problems, please try Linux-2.4 or Solaris.
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.33
Using libscg version 'debian-0.8debian2'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial version of libscg (debian-0.8debian2 '@(#)scsitransp.c 1.91 04/06/17 Copyright 1988,1995,2000-2004 J. Schilling').
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'ATA ' 'ST3300622AS ' '3.AA' Disk
0,1,0 1) *
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) *
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *

Hmmm, well as you can see, that confirms that your system is only seeing the one drive. If I were you I'd suggest checking all the connections as the next step: verify that both the power and data cables are securely seated (I'd unplug them and reseat them just to be sure), verify that the jumper settings are correct for both drives (from what you've described the plex should be jumpered to master and the LG should be jumpered to slave - I would not recommend using cable select), and when booting up verify that the lights on both drives blink briefly (the problem could simply be that the drive is defective) Good luck with it

Edit: I forgot to mention that with respect to your original question about adding SCSI emulation, Yes, it's safe to do. On the 2.4.x kernel it was necessary, but on the 2.6.x kernel it should not be necessary (although having it won't hurt anything) I'd verify the cables, etc, first as I described above, but if that doesn't work we can address the possible SCSI emulation

These drives are reponding and work well. I also do not trust cable select.

I have four drives on and intel 865 chipset. Two opticals(see above)and a segate 40 gig pata Primary Master and a 300 gig segate sata 0.

I run / on the 40 and /home on the 300.

p.s thanks for your time.