On Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 08:41:55AM +0000, Michal Pasternak wrote:
> Richard Rauch [Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 01:35:17AM -0500]:
> > First problem, I found that cdrecord didn't believe that cd2 was
> > able to work.  It didn't say, as I recall, "device not found," or
> > such.  It gave the same "not supported" message whether I tried to
> > use cd0, cd1, or cd2.  (I have a real CD drive and a DVD drive,
> > separate from the CD-RW.  Don't ask.  (^&)
> 
> cdrecord is not supposed to work with /dev/ entries; you should do 
> "cdrecord -scanbus" at the beginning and then, use the 3 numbers (bus,
> target, LUN) as a parameter to dev=x,x,x on cdrecord's commandline, eg:
> 
>    cdrecord dev=15,0,0 -data file.iso

That's what cdrecord's docs say (or used to say?).  It has never been
necessary for NetBSD in the past.  (Actually, the docs say that the
x,y,z notation is "preferred"; the program's "--help" output mentions
something about /dev, as do NetBSD-specific examples.  In the past, I
have never been able to get the x,y,z notation to work, and /dev
notation is clearer & simpler.)

The NetBSD home-page has some info on using cdrecord, and it still
recommends using the /dev notation (and does not even mention the
strange notation that cdrecord's docs prefer).


> > Eventually, for some reason, it occurred to me to chec /dev/cd*,
> > at which point I discovered:  I only have cd0 and cd1!  No wonder
> > it didn't work.
> 
> > I have some possible explanations:
> > 
> >  * The media is bad (does this happen?).  The CD-RW drive seems to have
> >    a hard time deciding what to do with the media.  Maybe the media is
> >    somehow so badly manufactured that it's not able to be recognized/used?
> 
> Did you include "blank=fast" or "blank=all" parameter before burning that
> CD-RW?

I believe that that is only necessary with CD-RW media.  This is CD-R media
in a CD-RW drive (16-6-4 speed).  If need be, I can replace the drive,
but it seems a shame...I never burned that many disks with this drive.
I hope that I can clean solve the problem in-place.

The CD-R media doesn't show any sign of alteration.  Normally, after burning
a CD, you can see the where some tracks have been burned, and the rest is
still blank.


> 
> >    The media is old, but has just been sitting in its jewel box in
> >    a CD tower.  It is, of course, unused.
> 
> Well, might be broken.

Media or drive?

I've tried about 3 disks, and the CD-RW media (never used before) that
came with the drive.  It won't even recognize the CD-RW, and the other
media takes a while before it finally puts up the green light---and
although it seems to give no errors when I try to burn, the resulting
CD-R media seems to be unaltered by the process.

I also tried putting in old CD-R media that has data on it (which
the CD-RW drive won't recognize, but which I can mount in my CD or
DVD drive).

Likewise, a music CD and old software CD do not appear to be recognized
by the CD-RW drive.

It looks like media can be ruled out.  The drive may be broken, dirty,
or (remotely possibly) unhappy sitting at cd2 rather than cd1 or cd0.


> Also, speed setting is important, when burning CD-RWs. Make sure you don't
> exceed the maximal burning speed; the safe setting should be about 4x
> (speed=4 parameter to cdrecord).

The drive can do 6x for CD-R.  I tried burning at 6, 4, and even 1x
speed.  Nothing useful seems to have happened.

I also tried popping in a never-used CD-RW, but couldn't even get
it to recognize that it had media present ("blanking" failed; the status
light stayed orange rather than going green).


> >  * The drive needs cleaning (possible).  This would explain why the thing
> >    has a hard time recognizing media (harder than I thought it did in the
> >    past).
> 
> Test it a bit with different CDs (non-RW ones, different brands) before
> opening it ;)

I don't have a large supply of media, and it's the middle of the night
(well, very early morning) here.  I can't go to the store to try others,
but I can power the box down take the side of the case off, and pull
a cable from the CD drive...(^&


> > I'm going to try a long shot and power down, disconnect the regular
> > CD, and see if being renumbered to cd1 helps the situation.  (Given
> 
> I still don't understand how did you manage to cdrecord to use /dev/cd*
> entries.

Because it works.

I've never used cdrecrod's x,y,z notation in the past.

Skimming the cdrecord docs, they imply that x,y,z is "preferred",
presumably over a /dev/* name.

Anyway, it's always worked in the past, and it *certainly* knew
which device node to address (it span the disk while it burned).

I suspect that it may just be a bit of dust in there, but don't have
the means to clean it at the moment.  I'll try pulling the cable on the
regular CD drive...


> Michal Pasternak :: http://pasternak.w.lub.pl

-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/