Date:        Tue, 7 Oct 2003 02:19:39 -0500
    From:        Richard Rauch <rkr@olib.org>
    Message-ID:  <20031007071939.GA21083@olib.org>

  | > cdrecord is not supposed to work with /dev/ entries;

That comment was utter nonsense - better would be to say that the author
of cdrecord believes that relying on /dev/entries is bad for the health
(he's wrong, but never mind) and prefers to make people go scan busses
(assuming they somehow know enough about computer busses to know which
to scan) find a set of meaningless numbers, and use those.

  | That's what cdrecord's docs say (or used to say?).  It has never been
  | necessary for NetBSD in the past.

And isn't necessary now either.    What's more, if that was the problem
you'd be having totally different symptoms.

  | I believe that that is only necessary with CD-RW media.

Yes, you can't use blank with CD-R.

  | 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.

Does it look as if the drive is writing (write led lights, and all
that) ?

  | > Well, might be broken.
  | Media or drive?

Could be either, but your descriptions are pointing at the drive.
(where "broken" includes "all kinds of gunk around the laser").

  | 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).

That is not a good sign.

  | 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.

As long as you have the correct device created for cd2, it will be fine
(NetBSD only makes cd0 and cd1 because it is very rare for people to
have more than 1, and sometimes 2, CD type drives - I also have 3 (the
same as you do, CD, DVD, CDRW, on one system - on another I have 5
(4 * CD, 1 * CDRW)).

The wrong device (just like using a bad dev= to cdrecord) would give
different symptoms however.

What does cdrecord say when it is recording?   It tends to be quite
verbose usually...

  | 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...(^&

That isn't going to help.

  | 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.

That is what I'd suspect too - a drive with an openning (just not air tight,
it doesn't need to be wide open - any CD counts) is going to accumulate
all kinds of gunk (the fans inside the case are forcing air out - it, and
associated dust, fluff, ... has to get in somewhere...) and if it isn't
getting uses regularly, it is very likely to need cleaning.

kre