Reconfiguring System Query

[pmpatrick]

OK. That makes sense. If you want to try to get everything working you'll have to edit both /etc/fstab and /etc/lilo.conf. For lilo.conf, go to the "linux" label section and go down to the append line. Delete all entries on the line of the form "hdx=ide-scsi" and add "hde=ide-scsi". This will provide scsi emulation for your cd burner on /dev/hde changing it to /dev/scd0. Next open fstab and on the cdrom2 line change /dev/hde to /dev/hdg. That will be the entry for your dvd drive.

[willisoften]

Thanks guys I'm good to go. WAHEY!

 

Actually it takes me about 30 minutes to reinstall from scratch and it took me around 3 hours to sort this out!

 

Plus whatever time I spent messing around this morning.

 

My last job is to enable the DVD for copying on the fly and I'm finished until the next time! It's too late tonight to edit even one more file. So I'm calling it a day.

Thanks for your patience.

 

fstab:

 

none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0

none /mnt/cdrom2 supermount dev=/dev/hdg,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,umask=0 0 0

 

lilo:

append="devfs=mount hde=ide-scsi hdg=ide-scsi ??

[pmpatrick]

Your append line is wrong; drop the /dev/hdg=ide-scsi. It should read:

 

append="devfs=mount hde=ide-scsi"

 

However, if you did a fresh install of Mandrake, it should have picked up the hardware and there should be no need for editing the files.

[willisoften]

Up the the moment I haven't reinstalled.

 

But I'm coming close! Ihave now got back both devices. I need to check out the CD writer actually burns! I think it will but I need to get a couple of discs and try it out.

 

(I've now corrected the append line for the CDWriter.)

 

But to copy from the DVD ROM to the CD Writer wont I have to enable the DVD as a scssi device as well.

 

Do I do this with another append line. I thought I could do it like:

 

/dev/hdg=ide-scsi added to the append line

 

Sorry to bother you yet again but I find that the Mandrake documentation doesn't quite answer these points.

[pmpatrick]

If you want scsi emulation on the dvd drive, then leave the append line alone and edit the cdrom2 line substituting "/devscd1" for "/dev/hde". Running scsi emulation changes hdx to scdx. I'm not sure you'll be able to play dvds on it in scsi. You certainly won't be able to enable dma on the drive which is often necessary for smooth dvd play.

[pmpatrick]

Forget to tell you one important thing. If you've made any changes to lilo.conf since your last boot, be sure to run the following in a console as root before rebooting:

 

# lilo -v

[willisoften]

Thanks to everyone, I've reconfigured yet again!

 

Unfortunately IDE 3 and 4 really don't seem to be compatible with Mandrake. Quite a few CDs later I've realised that they didn't fixate properly. Using Nero things seemed to be fine except that when I tied packet writing the machine crashed and rebooted! The nero info tool caused the exact same behaviour.

 

My apologies. My testing strategy wasn't thorough enough I accepted things were working when it just looked as though they were.

 

I've moved the CD-Burner again it's now a slave on ide 1 (hdb)

 

This is working fine in XP but alas not in Mandrake. I think it will be ok when I shift the dvd drive to be a slave on ide 2.

At least it worked when I disconnected the DVD from ide 4.

 

Looking on the bright side I now know more about lilo.conf and fstab than I ever did before!

 

 

My apologies. My testing strategy wasn't thorough enough I accepted things were working when it just looked as though they were.

 

I buggered about without a proper plan. I didn't even look at my own notes that would have told me that the reason I had everything connected to IDE 1 and 2 in the first place were the problems I originally had when I built the damn machine. I'm old enough to know better, so sorry to have bothered you all and thanks for your kindness.

[pmpatrick]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I think your problems might be with your Promise controller. I have a Promise Ultra 100 controller card that I put in a pci expansion slot a couple years ago because I needed a couple of extra IDE ports. I cannot put any cdrom or dvd drive on the two Promise IDE ports. If I do, my box won't even boot in either windows or linux much less work. Basically, I have four IDE ports, two on my motherboard (IDE1 & 2) and two on the Promise card (IDE 3 & 4). Things I've learned along the way either from my own experience or from corresponding with others using this card:

 

1. No CD, DVD or CDWriter drives on IDE 3 or 4;

2. Avoid putting anything on IDE 4 if possible.

 

Here's my current configuration which works fine:

 

DVD drive: IDE1(master)

CDWriter: IDE2(master)

Windows HD: IDE3(master)

Linux HD: IDE3(slave)

 

Hope this helps. Since mine is an older expansion card and yours sounds like a newer integrated controller on your MB, I don't know if my experience has any relevance to your situation.

[willisoften]

I think your using Windows with FAT 32?

 

I have xp on NTFS (not my fault). I rebuilt this machine from a shop bought basic model about a year ago. I already had sound card a good sound card, video board, ADSL modem, monitor, keyboard, CD Writer, spare hard drive etc etc. So I bought a box that booted and added the rest of the stuff myself.

 

I couldn't get a guarantee without an OS and the cheapest OS was XP as opposed to 2000 I wouldn't ever get 98 again no matter what the price. Foolish to worry about it as the work I did certainly voided any guarantee!

 

I have always booted this machine from the linux drive to avoid having to install lilo or grub over xp's boot record.

 

(This was one area that filled the old forum when XP hit the shelves)

 

It might be possible to do it the other way round though Put Linux on IDE 3 as master and Windows as slave. Appeals to me! I'll give it a try as soon as I get my course work finished.

[willisoften]

1. Interested to know why you think that it's better to leave IDE 4 alone? I was considering putting Windows on 4.

 

2. Would it be a good idea to carefully edit fstab and lilo.conf before I swap everything round again?

 

I have actually read quite a lot of docs on this subject and still confusion rules!

 

If I boot from raid do I change the precedence of the IDE channels?

 

I presume that I have to tell linux where it is in both lilo and fstab. If I move it to IDE 3

 

so lilo.conf :

boot = /dev/hdc

root = /dev/hdc1 and so on for all the devices?

append=" devfs ....... hda=idescsi"

[pmpatrick]

Sorry for not responding sooner. Somehow lost track of this thread. The IDE 4 thing is based upon my experience with the card I have. I had a friend that could not get a linux install to go with anything on IDE 4 but when he removed the drive, everything was fine. Like I said, it may have no relevance to you with your obviously newer Promise controller. However, Promise controllers are not listed under supported hardware, at least mine isn't, and they are known to be problematic at times.

[willisoften]

By now I've tried most things! Some of my earlier assumptions about the cd-writer were misfounded as the CD-Writer proved to be faulty.

 

It seems to me that you are right in that Windows does not like to be a slave. Though seems happy on any channel BUT with Linux on IDE 3 and Windows on IDE 4 everything was OK except CD burning which became problematic (although at this time I still had the failing CD burner).

 

Linux seems happy anywhere, perhaps this is because you can get into fstab and tell it where things are rather than relying on on some hidden sort of autodetection in Windows.

 

Currently CD-Burner on 1 DVD on 2 , XP on 3 Linux on 4. Linux is still the boot drive. This setup seems to be working well.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

One of the early problems with the CD Writer did come from faulty media

I wonder if continually trying to use these discs hastened the Writers demise? I had used these budget discs for a couple of years so I didn't really believe that the media could be causing a problem.

 

After hunting through dozens of help files and possibly hundreds of cd burning forums I found:

 

CD-R's are scanned for an ID the ID is in the form of the sector where recording can start. This ID sets certain burning parameters which are then used to setup the CD-Writer and I presume the software as well.

 

So if the signals your burner recieves are unrecognised or don't match or whatever the first thing you get in Nero is "Possible Read Error"

 

In Gnome-Toaster it's something like "Burner Returns Sector 150!"

 

The really cracker thing about both these programs is they don't tell you anything about the error. In fact both are happy to continue on and produce decorative but totally useless silver discs!

 

I'm happy now. Maybe I'll rivet the case back together and leave it alone forever. :D