atapi/scsi drive question
 

I'm a noob and I'm using a new install of Debian 3.1 kernel 2.6.8 on a machine with two cd drives. Drive 1 is dvd, and drive 2 is cd-rw. I was using xcdroast, and I got a message saying that atapi drives should use scsi emulation. I found a howto page and tried working from that. I added a small file to modprobe.d that said this:

options ide-cd ignore=hdc
options ide-cd ignore=hdd

then I restarted and looked at 'cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info' and found entries for hdd, but not hdc. Then I looked at the howto more. Then I added 'ide-scsi' to '/etc/modules' and upon restarting and looking in 'cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info' I found entries for sr0 and hdd. So close, but yet so far.

I know after changing whatever else I change I have to change the entries in fstab to get my cds to mount right again. I think that can wait till after I figure out what I'm going to do with scsi emulation. Should I scrap the whole thing?

The information you're using applies to the 2.4 kernel, which required scsi emulation. But you're using a 2.6 kernel, so you shouldn't need to do what they're telling you.

Unfortunately, the sarge packages are old and the software might not let you do what, indeed, is possible with your kernel: scrap that silly scsi emulation stuff (I always hated it).

Better wait to hear from someone running sarge, though.

On the other hand, unless you have a compelling reason not to, you could upgrade to etch, which will (I hope) be released as the stable debian 4 in the next month or two, and your current problem will disappear.

I've been using etch for over a year with no problems.

Thanks. to use etch I would have to make sure my 'sources.list' file contained a refference for debian packages marked 'stable' ?? And this would only work after the release date? Thanks. Any other info about scsi on sarge would be apreciated. I did scrap the changes, by the way!!

When etch is released as debian 4, you'd upgrade with "# apt-get dist-upgrade" using your sources as you have them now (stable).

If you want to try etch right now, you'd change "stable" to "testing" wherever it appears in /etc/apt/sources.list ... then do "# apt-get dist-upgrade"

But upgrading this way would replace every package on your system and is not without some risk. My way of making a large change like this is to install fresh on a spare partition, which allows me to refer to the old system for config details and to move data over at my leisure -- but my box is set up to make this easy to do.

You can also do a backup (highly recommended, but unfortunately not so easy when you can't burn optical media) and just give the dist-upgrade to etch a shot; it's very likely everything will be fine.

It seems to me that xcdroast is pretty much a thing of the past now. I've just looked, and gnomebaker, graveman, and k3b are available in sarge. You'll very likely have better luck with one of those.

I've suggested etch because I like it a lot, but that's not by any means the simplest solution for you.

Thanks for the info. I'm pretty new. I have to think over the etch thing. Is there a way to upgrade just a few packages at a time? My modem is slow, I have to say. Maybe a way to find out which packages changed? Do they really all change? Is this possible? Does 'apt-get dist-upgrade' replace every package?

I guess my underlying question is, if I perform a 'dist-upgrade', how long will I spend in the process. Is there a way to stop it and start it up again? Can I use 'apt-get install packagename' on some packages and do a 'dist-upgrade' later and not have to worry about re-installing the same thing... you know?

And I have k3b, and can use it to burn data cds, but for some reason not audio cds. I'm saving that one for another post, though. I suppose it's not related to the scsi problem at all...

It's safe to say that etch will replace every package on a dist-upgrade from sarge. There are other fundamental changes, too, like the move to udev and xorg 7. I think that you can't upgrade a bit at a time without breaking your system.

The best idea is probably to solve your immediate problem with burning audio cd's using sarge. Then when etch is released as stable, you can buy a cd (or set) since your conn is bad.

So ... what kind of audio cd do you want to burn ... cda, mp3?

This is the paragraph I wrote that I was going to post seperately. It's a bit longwinded. If you think it's realy offtopic for this thread I'll post it seperately.

I'm trying to use k3b to copy an audio cd. I'm using a new install of Debian 3.1 kernel 2.6.8 on a machine with two cd drives. Drive 1 is dvd, and drive 2 is cd-rw. I put the audio cd in the first drive, and a blank cd in the second. I click the 'disk copy' button and then in the next dialogue box I click 'start'. Another dialogue pops up that says "Found media: cd-r (empty) Please insert a complete or appendable medium (CD-R(W)) into drive" and then it lists my cd-rw drive "_NEC CD-RW NR-9300A (/dev/hdd)". If I try to get past this dialogue the burn fails. I can burn data cds fine. What is the problem? Any help would be apreciated.

I have been burning for ages with sarge using k3b for dvd and cd. Try that and see if it does the trick.

As for apt-get dist-upgrade.. It breaks everything and then after removing most of the packages you really need fails with a fatal error. Not recoverable.. Full reinstall needed instead.

Like me it's better to wait a few weeks for etch to become stable and then try. At that point there's nothing lost, and all the bugs should be fully ironed out.


While I'm here does anybody have any idea how to fix a new error to do with burning bin/cue and iso images (anything in DAO mode) data and music still burn just fine. It seems to have failed after an attempted install and investigate of Varsha.(dvd authoring application) Here is the k3b fail log.. I have looked in cdrdao drivers file and can't find the one suggested to use, so it's probably not at fault.

Any pointers or advice gratefully recieved.. Thanks

Jan