DVD drive no longer working

neocookie · 12-12-2005, 12:05 PM

Hi all

My DVDRAM drive seems to have stopped working. I'm not too sure why, as I've not changed any settings or anything. Just come to burn a backup and both GnomeBaker and Graveman can't use the drive. GnomeBaker can see it but doesn't register anything's in there, and Graveman's just being ignorant.

My fstab file looks like the following:

Code:

/dev/cdrom      /cdrom          iso9660 ro,user,noauto          0       0

Do I have to change this file to let linux know that its an IDE drive but make it use it as a SCSI drive?

Any tips would be great.

Cheers!

Zeistler · 12-13-2005, 06:55 AM

First you should check that the device has the proper permissions by doing a ls -l /dev/cdrom. If /dev/cdrom is just a shortcut and it probably is then you need to check the permissions of the device it is pointing to. The permissions should look something like this brw-rw-rw- with read and write privileges for everyone.

As for the SCSI-emulation, you need to check the /etc/lilo.conf file to see if there's a line that says append="hdc=ide-scsi" or something like that.

neocookie · 12-13-2005, 07:04 AM

Thanks for the reply.

I get this:

Code:

box:~# ls -l /dev/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 3 May  8  2005 /dev/cdrom -> hdc

So r/w permissions are available to all.

Checking the lilo.conf file shows that the append="" isn't being used. Should I add the line you suggested and see how I go?

This is a debian box, so will using append="hdc=ide-scsi" work as expected?

Thanks again!

Zeistler · 12-14-2005, 04:30 AM

SCSI-emulation is ONLY needed if you are using a 2.4 kernel. The 2.6 kernel or newer don't need it. When you see this "/dev/cdrom -> hdc" when doing ls -l /dev/cdrom that means it is a link and then you need to check the permissions on the object it is pointing to, not the link itself because a link has no permission restrictions at all.

So you need to do this: ls -l /dev/hdc to check the permissions of the object the link points to.

neocookie · 12-14-2005, 05:03 AM

I'm on 2.4.

If I add the append item to the lilo.conf, will lilo fail on boot if the option is wrong?

Zeistler · 12-14-2005, 05:58 AM

This is how the section that boots my 2.4 kernel looks like in /etc/lilo.conf

image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = linux
append="hdc=ide-scsi"

I don't think adding the wrong append will break anything but I'm not sure. Once you have stored the file and done a lilo command to change the MBR you also need to change the link /dev/cdrom to point to /dev/scd0 instead since that will be the correct device when SCSI-emulation is enabled.

neocookie · 12-15-2005, 10:22 AM

What should I be expecting from ls -l /dev/cdrom and /etc/fstab once I've done the update to lilo?

My drive isn't even being recognised now, though it was before (just not being used correctly).

neocookie · 12-16-2005, 05:54 AM

OK, updating lilo seems to have not worked, however using append="scsi" allows me to eject the drive. Can't do anything else with it, but at least there's some movement.

Can anyone offer up any other suggestions?

Zeistler · 12-16-2005, 08:33 AM

Try and mount it manually like this:

login as root: su root
mount the drive: mount /dev/scd0 /cdrom -t auto

check /cdrom to see if there's something there.

neocookie · 12-17-2005, 05:57 AM

Doesn't work. I get:

Code:

box:~# mount /dev/scd0 /cdrom -t auto
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
box:~# mount /dev/scd0 /cdrom -t iso9660
mount: /dev/scd0 is not a valid block device
box:~#

This is while lilo is set to append="ide-scsi".
Anything else I can try?

Zeistler · 12-19-2005, 04:11 PM

Ok that should be append="hdc=ide-scsi" note the hdc section. You need to tell Linux which block unit it should use.

neocookie · 12-19-2005, 05:24 PM

Sorry, it is set to append="hdc=ide-scsi", with no joy.