[sclug] kubuntu probs/questions

[Alex Butcher]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005, Jonathan H N Chin wrote:

> john at stumbles.org.uk wrote:
>> Havn't tried mkisofs or cdrecord, but since nothing's showing up on the
>> system at /dev/hdd (where the Pioneer drive is connected) I guess it's a
>> lower-level problem than k3b itself. I'd have put it down to a hardware
>> fault or system configuration problem, except that the kubuntu live cd
>> finds the drive and writes to it OK!
>
> I had a vague impression that dvd writers present as SCSI devices,
> not as IDE.

No, they turn up as standard ATAPI devices:

# hdparm -i /dev/hda /dev/hdc | grep 'Model\|\/dev'
/dev/hda:
  Model=JLMS XJ-HD165H, FwRev=CH12, SerialNo=
/dev/hdc:
  Model=_NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG, FwRev=2.18, SerialNo=

ATAPI is, of course, the SCSI command set over the ATA physical layer.
Further, cdrecord can now speak directly to ATAPI devices, so it's now
unnecessary to use the Linux kernel's ide-scsi translation layer, and in 2.6
it's been deprecated accordingly. In fact, ISTR I helped someone who was
having problems burning under 2.6 until they /stopped/ using ide-scsi.

Note also, that burning DVDs either requires a) a paid-for copy of cdrecord
b) a (temporary, renewable) free-beer license key for cdrecord c) a copy of
cdrecord patched with unofficial patches to enable DVD writing d) using
growisofs (part of dvd+rw-tools). All the GUIs (with the exception of Nero
for Linux, I suspect) just use cdrdao, cdrecord, growisofs and mkisofs to do
their dirty work, so burning quality will be exactly the same regardless of
which GUI you use (assuming it's not buggy, and you use the GUI correctly!)

To John, I'd check your ATA cabling, jumpering and BIOS configuration (is
the drive/channel enabled in the BIOS) and whether the kernel is somehow
trying to use the ide-scsi layer (look for 'hdd=ide-scsi' or similar in the
kernel boot parameters).

As far as ATA cabling goes, the essentials are:

a) the cable should be no longer than 18"
b) devices should be attached as follows:

    |-----------------------------|-----------|
    Motherboard                   Slave       Master

    If a channel has no Slave device, the attached device must be jumpered as
    Master and attached to the /end/ of the cable.

    Note that the distance between the Slave and Master connectors is shorter
    than between the Slave and Motherboard connectors. The conectors are
    usually colour-coded:
    <http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/ultra_ata_66.html#7>

c) for ATA speeds greater than ATA-33, an 80 conductor cable is necessary.
    In addition to greater speeds, ATA-66 and above also provide CRC checking
    of transfers.

> -jonathan

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher      Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK                      Need reliable and secure network systems?
PGP/GnuPG ID:0x271fd950                         <http://www.assursys.com/>