CDROM / DVDRW serious problem

[Patkos Csaba]

I use Mandriva 2006.0 free DVD and I have the following problem:

• I have 1 LG DVDRW (4167b) on ide1 master
  
• one CDROM - Compaq (something old - 24x I think) on ide1 slave
  

When I put in a dvd in the dvdrw or a cd in the cdrom I can read them without problems. But, if I try to start any kind of disk burning tools (like K3B, XCDRoast, ERoaster etc) all fails at device detection. They just hang up and I can't kill all the processes, which then remain active even after restart. I can not mount any more cd or dvd drives. The only solution to kill the process is to disable ide1 channel from bios, boot linux, enableing again, boot again.

 

Then, I have some strange messages in /var/log/messages:

 

Mar 18 03:31:48 localhost kernel: hdd: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x02)

Mar 18 03:32:48 localhost kernel: hdd: lost interrupt

Mar 18 03:32:48 localhost kernel: cdrom_pc_intr, write: dev hdd: flags = REQ_STARTED REQ_PC REQ_FAILED REQ_QUIET

Mar 18 03:32:48 localhost kernel: sector 0, nr/cnr 0/0

Mar 18 03:32:48 localhost kernel: bio 00000000, biotail 00000000, buffer 00000000, data 00000000, len 0

Mar 18 03:32:48 localhost kernel: cdb: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Mar 18 03:32:48 localhost kernel: hdd: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x02)

Mar 18 03:33:48 localhost kernel: hdd: lost interrupt

Mar 18 03:33:48 localhost kernel: cdrom_pc_intr, write: dev hdd: flags = REQ_STARTED REQ_PC REQ_FAILED REQ_QUIET

Mar 18 03:33:48 localhost kernel: sector 0, nr/cnr 0/0

Mar 18 03:33:48 localhost kernel: bio 00000000, biotail 00000000, buffer 00000000, data 00000000, len 0

Mar 18 03:33:48 localhost kernel: cdb: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Mar 18 03:33:48 localhost kernel: hdd: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x02)

Mar 18 03:34:48 localhost kernel: hdd: lost interrupt

Mar 18 03:34:48 localhost kernel: cdrom_pc_intr, write: dev hdd: flags = REQ_STARTED REQ_PC REQ_FAILED REQ_QUIET

Mar 18 03:34:48 localhost kernel: sector 0, nr/cnr 0/0

Mar 18 03:34:48 localhost kernel: bio 00000000, biotail 00000000, buffer 00000000, data 00000000, len 0

Mar 18 03:34:48 localhost kernel: cdb: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Mar 18 03:34:48 localhost kernel: hdd: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x02)

Mar 18 03:35:00 localhost CROND[5395]: (mail) CMD (/usr/bin/python -S /usr/lib/mailman/cron/gate_news)

 

As you can see, the errors appears only on HDD - the CDROM. These messages are the generated every few seconds.

Also I observed that the HAL deamon can start without problem, but at shutdown it is shown as FAILD to STOP.

 

What I did sinse now:

• tryed specifying i/o ports and interrupt as kernel parameter
  
• different kernel options suggested all over the internet
  
• even use ide-scsi option - which I founf out not to be working with kernel 2.6.12
  
• different bios configurations for cdrom (EnhancedDMA / Max PIO / PIO 0)
  

I'm not new in linux, but this problems seems to be too much for mee. Please help ... any ideeas are welcome.

 

By the way ... I have a Compaq EVO 300D PC with P3@1100MHz, 256+128MB RAM, 160GB HDD, ATI 9250 AGP video card

Edited March 18, 2006 by Patkos Csaba

[Ixthusdan]

You need to place the cd devices on seperate ide channels. The chipset is the problem.

[Patkos Csaba]

You need to place the cd devices on seperate ide channels. The chipset is the problem.

 

I tryed it ... I put: ide0 master = harddisk, ide0 slave=cdrom and ide1 master = dvdrw

 

Now, linux does not start ..... after loading the graphical interface it hangs up. The only solution is to reset from the power button.

 

I would like to mention, that I have a WinXP installed also, and there are no problems useing my optical devices.

 

My ide device is: Intel® 82801BA Ultra ATA - 244B

I/O controller is: Intel® 82815 - 1130

CDROM is: COMPAQ LTN486S

DVDRW is: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B

 

These information is from windows, but linux detects my hardware (at least it did when it was working) exactly the same.

[AussieJohn]

Because you moved the position of your hard drive containing your Mandriva of course Mandriva will be confused, because the information in /boot is no longer correct nor is the information in /etc/fstab correct anymore either.

The only reason Windows comes up correctly is because it assumes that it is always Primary Master and goes from there.

 

Others will tell you to make cli changes in the boot up procedure. My suggestion is the simplest and easiest.

Put in your No1 CD of Mandriva and do a "pretend" upgrade. When you get to the settings part near the end of the routine, which only takes about 10 mins, you can make all the boot loader settings you want. You can then check everything else also as a bonus.

The major advantage is that you can SEE what changes you are making instead of blindly typing instructions which only requires a single mistype to screw things up bigtime.

 

Cheers. John.

[Ixthusdan]

John's method is simple. A pretend upgrade makes no changes to you system. And windows must be first position or it won't work! So what you are observing is no surprise. If you want to make the edits, your devices on hda and hdb have changed to hdb and hdc (this is my configurationas well) Look in the fstab and just change those entrires. It will be something like "dev/hda /mnt/cdrom ..." which you would make "/dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom.." Note the only edit is in the very beginning. Your hard drive, which contains all your partitions, are now going to be on hda.

[Patkos Csaba]

Maybe I was missunderstood. Originaly my harddisk WAS ide0 master - alone, after changeing cdrom configuration, it REMAINS ide0 master with ide0 slave - cdrom added. So, root device was not changed!!! Only the cd-rom became - or it should - from hdd -> hdb ... correct?

 

Now I'm back at the original config: ide0(hda) = harddisk master, ide1(hdc) dvdrv master and ide1(hdd) cdrom slave.

 

I made some google search for my chipset, and it should be fully supported in kernel 2.6.12 ... but I sow some issues on kernel 2.6.10 regarding the IDE controller.

 

I'm asking you to help in the following issues:

• one k3b session is impossible to kill even after repeted reboots - my messeges file is GROOOOOOVING BIIIIIIIG wiht all thet hdd error messages. HOW COULD I KILL THET PROCESS??? (these are not working: kill -9 PID, reboot with "init 6", killing it from ksysguard - of course all these as root)
  
• if there is a driver issue, or a missing kernel patch ... where can i find the necesary software for my chipset (I looket so far at intel, compaq/hp and kernel.org without any success)
  

My intel chipset, I think, should be something common and obviously it is not very new ... at least a few years old... how it is possible to not have full support for a 2-3 years old chipset??? I was just wondering ...

[AussieJohn]

Even if your Windows hard drive has been on Primary Master all along, using the routine I suggestted wil still likely help to solve your problem so please don't ignore it just because you had not moved your hard drive.

 

Our confusion emphasises the point that when you give details of your setup that they should be complete, after all none of us here at MUB are psychic. At least I am not.

Cheers. John.

[Patkos Csaba]

OK, I'll try the update trick tomorrow, and I'll be back with the results ... i hope it will work.

 

For now I just want to specify that I have only one harddisk at ide0 master ... and it will remain there :D

On that harddisk I have 3 windows partitions and 2 linux partitions. The first partition is "Windows C" (20GB), the second is "linux /"(19GB), then 1 GB swap, and the other windows partitions.

[Ixthusdan]

In your orginal post, you yourself said that your cdrom devices were on ide0 and ide1. I was simply responding to the information provided.

 

No where did I say that this was a kernel problem. This is a chipset problem. Can it be fixed? Perhaps with different hardware, but, why mess with that? Simply place the cdrom devices on seperate channels. Anyone that builds computers (as I do) is aware of this potential issue, which is why we do not place cdrom devices upon the same channel if we can avoid it. The preferred placement is hdb and hdc. With clients who have 3 cdrom devices, I always lable which one to read from so that the read device is on a different channel from the burner.

 

The messages will stop when the system is working correctly.

 

Post the content of your /etc/fstab, and we can tell you the edits to make. That way, when you make the neede changes, it will boot just fine.

 

You do not need more than 500KB swap.

[ianw1974]

I have both my CD/DVD drives on the same IDE channels without any problems. Normally separating them is to sort out read/write issues, because you are spreading the load across two IDE channels, as opposed to having a bottleneck across one channel when using both devices.

 

As ix says, splitting them should fix the problem since your log seems to show it's related to this.

[Patkos Csaba]

No where did I say that this was a kernel problem. This is a chipset problem.

If it is a chipset problem why it is working on Windows? I think ... maybe I'm wrong ... it is a driver problem.

 

I'm going to try to separate the 2 cd devices now. My fstabis:

/dev/hda3 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrw auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,rw 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,rw 0 0
/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_e ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,rw 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

 

And I'm going to change it this way:

/dev/hda3 / ext3 noatime 1 1
/dev/hdb/mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,users,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrw auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-1,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,rw 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/win_d ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,rw 0 0
/dev/hda7 /mnt/win_e ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-1,rw 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

 

Anyway I'm ready to try the "update trick" also. Be right back....

[Patkos Csaba]

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

thank you all ... finaly it works ... at least now. I hope it will keep working

 

But, nothing is perfect ... k3b still can't write ... somethig like it can not set the write speed ... but that's not a problem for me, I like the most XCDRoast and that works just fine.

 

The strange thing is, that ... "KSysGuard" applet in the taskbar gave me some .xml file error and ... it is gone ... I can start it, but I can not see any information about CPU or MEMORY. Anyway this is a little sacrifice for the cd devices getting run and work ...

 

Thanks again.

[Ixthusdan]

Good!

 

So you know, windows does not make use of the system bios like linux. This means that hardware manufacturers are being encouraged by windows to not be concerned about this. The long term plan is to no have a bios. Of course, then only windows could boot the hardware and run a computer.

 

This chipset problem does indeed manifest itself in windows. Some machines crash with no explanation and others have a reduced speed in trying multi cd device functions. Many windows "mystery problems" are related to windows running on bad hardware.

 

Run k3b setup.

[Patkos Csaba]

Solved the ksysguard applet problem too...

 

But I observed, that, now the CDROM's (ide0 slave hdb) led indicator is blinking fadely ... even if it is no cd inside, when i put a cd inside it mounts very slow 1-2 minutes, and i see again those strange errors, but finaly it mounts and it works ... i think it will never be better then this and I thank you again for your help.

[scarecrow]

alt+F2 and then

kcmshell k3bsetup

 

X-CD Roast is a fine example on how ugly a GTK 1.X application can be... factly even bashburn is way prettier!