CD-ROM drive not working on a Compaq Proliant ML 330

olspookishmagus · 08-04-2006, 01:07 AM

Hello once more.
This time I will post a question regarding an issue I am dealing with, where I work.

There was an old server here, which was bought before I got here and that it was marked to be thrown away. I recollected it, made the dust go away using an air compressor and I have trying to set it up to be an experimental web server.

It's an relatively old server, specifically a HP (Compaq) Proliant ML 330.

The problem is that I can't read anything from the CD-ROM drive.

The Linux distribution installed is Debian 3.1 and the linux kernel is 2.6.8-2-386.

And here's what I am trying to do:
I double click on the Computer icon on the Gnome desktop and a windows pops-up that contains the following items: Floppy 1, CD-ROM 1, Filesystem and Network. Then when I double click the CD-ROM 1 icon I get a message box that says:
Mount Error
Unable to mount the selected volume
When I click on the Show more details what I see is:
mount: special device /dev/hda does not exist

This got me searching the server case internals a bit and I have discovered some odd things about it.
But before that, here's the lspci output:

Code:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: ServerWorks CNB20LE Host Bridge (rev 05)
0000:00:00.1 Host bridge: ServerWorks CNB20LE Host Bridge (rev 05)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21152 (rev 03)
0000:00:0f.0 ISA bridge: ServerWorks OSB4 South Bridge (rev 4f)
0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: ServerWorks OSB4 IDE Controller
0000:01:04.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c895a (rev 01)
0000:01:05.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 08)
0000:01:06.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
0000:01:07.0 System peripheral: Compaq Computer Corporation Advanced System Management Controller

So, inside the box there are: one HDD, one FDD, one Iomega ZIP Drive, one CD-ROM drive and last but not least there is on big server feature board (as described in the server documentation) that stretches from the back of the server case to the front. Of course there is also the server's motherboard.

The HDD gets connected with a SCSI cable to the server feature board on it's SCSI connector and nothing else is on the SCSI cable.

The FDD, the ZIP Drive and the CD-ROM are all connected with the following odd connection. There is one IDE cable that is connected to what is documented as a diskette drive connector and a primary IDE connector on the server motherboard. This is sort of a special IDE cable that is split and it's width is different on each end.

More specifically: the cable starts connected to the server's motherboard Primary IDE connector, splits, the one end goes to the FDD and the other end goes up connects to the ZIP drive then to the CD-ROM drive and finally connectes on the diskette drive connector.

I'll have to note here that I had no problem transferring files using the FDD, I've never tried to transfer anything using the ZIP Drive but as you may already have noticed it's not listed on the icons showing when I double click on the Computer icon and that the CD-ROM is a CRD-8402B that bears the Compaq mark but all searched point that it's vendor it's LG. Also note that I've removed the CD-ROM and installed it somewhere else and found out that it can read the intented CD-ROM disc.

So, any ideas anyone?
Thanks in advance!

lazlow · 08-04-2006, 01:29 AM

Ok, not clear on this: Is the part the goes into the cdrom drive a "standard" ide? If so, I would move it to another computer and check it out. Blowing all that dust around could have gotten into the drive or maybe that is why it got "retired".

Lazlow

olspookishmagus · 08-04-2006, 01:36 AM

The part of the cable that connects to the CD-ROM drive is identical to an IDE cable, but this cable is not a standard IDE cable.

I would connect the CD-ROM drive only but that is not possible since the already existing cabling is providing connection to both the CD-ROM drive and the FDD using one cable. Using a standard IDE cable I would have to leave either the CD-ROM drive or the FDD without connection.

I have clarified that part, that I did move that CD-ROM drive to another PC where I verified that the drive is working properly and that it can read the intended CD-ROM disc.

lazlow · 08-04-2006, 12:07 PM

Sorry, I read it as you checked the disk and not the drive (my bad). Could you use a standard cable just to check to make sure the special cable had not failed? If you can boot to the cdrom (pretty iffy on that old of a system) you could just live without a floppy.

Lazlow

olspookishmagus · 08-06-2006, 07:29 AM

Let me fill on some more details, then. This machine's configuration is the one it was shipped from HP (Compaq that times) which means I didn't add the CD-Rom drive on and as I was told it was working with the original configuration. Furthermore this server was working perfectly with Red Hat 7.1 installed so I guess that it must be some configuration issue, what I am dealing with.

As for using a standard cable, I have to say that I fear it might now work since it the standard IDE cable does not have to be conencted to the motherboard twice while the existing cable gets connected twice to the motherboard and added to this suppose I get it working with a standard IDE cable, that would mean much trouble since whenever I have to work with the CD-Rom or the FDD I would have to open the case and install the appropriate cables.

lazlow · 08-06-2006, 10:44 AM

If the problem proved to be the cable you could just order/make a new one.

Try a CLI mount. Take a good look at dmesg. Maybe it is expecting the cdrom to be at /dev/hdc (standard if ide HD is intalled) for whatever reason.

The other thing I would consider is using a newer destro. The current kernels are in the 2.6.17 range. This will give you a lot more active people supporting (familiar with) your system.

Lazlow

olspookishmagus · 08-07-2006, 03:27 AM

Once more, this machine with this configuration had all the devices operational using an even older distibution based on an even even older kernel.

But, what is a CLI mount?

lazlow · 08-07-2006, 11:43 PM

Sorry, CLI=Command Line Interface(manual terminal mount).

But do you know what was customized/dialed in in order to run 7.1? HP might have shipped custom modules/setups with the machine for 7.1. If you have the 7.1 install backed up, it might be worth reinstalling it to see if there was anything "goofy" about how it was installed.

Did you take a good look at dmesg? In 7.1 I THINK that atapi device were still being addressed as scsii devices. ie listed under /dev/sda type instead of /dev/hda type.

lazlow

olspookishmagus · 08-08-2006, 02:53 AM

I will post once more and then I'm off for holidays until Monday, 20th of August.
So please reply and I will come with a response about that time.

To do a manual mount I need to know the device name. I can't figure how to see which devices are available but here's some outputs that I feel might help.

Here is the output of dmesg | grep hd[a-z]:

Code:

SCSI device sda: 17773524 512-byte hdwr sectors (9100 MB)
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex

here is the output of dmesg | grep sd[a-z]:

Code:

Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda1 ro
SCSI device sda: 17773524 512-byte hdwr sectors (9100 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Adding 377488k swap on /dev/sda7.  Priority:-1 extents:1
EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
EXT3 FS on sda9, internal journal
EXT3 FS on sda8, internal journal
EXT3 FS on sda5, internal journal
EXT3 FS on sda6, internal journal

and this is the output of ls etc/proc/ide/:

Code:

drivers

and finally, this is the output of ls /etc/proc/scsi:

Code:

device_info  scsi  sym53c8xx

I feel sad however, when I'm off to holidays whilst there is a war going on on this planet.

lazlow · 08-08-2006, 02:57 AM

lspci is the only thing I can think of right now. Have a good trip.

Lazlow

olspookishmagus · 08-08-2006, 07:54 AM

But,... the lspci output however is posted on my initial post.

lazlow · 08-08-2006, 09:31 AM

Yeah, sorry it was late. Ide controller is being detected.

lazlow