Date: Mon, 22 Apr 96 11:37:37 MDT From: Greg Lehey <lehey.pad@sni.de> To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Cc: lehey.pad@sni.de, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, wbart3@ktb.net, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Atapi IDE cdrom support Message-ID: <199604220937.LAA07597@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> In-Reply-To: <199604220928.SAA02444@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>; from "Michael Smith" at Apr 22, 96 6:58 pm
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> > Greg Lehey stands accused of saying: >>> >>> Many people are using the FreeBSD ATAPI driver with no >>> problems at all, however because it doesn't work with the vast majority >>> of drives, and hasn't been heavily tested, it's generally considered >>> wise to mention this up front. >> >> Isn't it about time to get a list of drives which are known to work? >> Lots of people find themselves in the situation of wanting to buy a >> CD-ROM drive, and for one reason or another they can't buy SCSI. It >> would be nice to be able to say which do (and which do not) work. > > The problem here is that the average ATAPI CDrom has a product life of > about three months. By the time that it's been bought and tested, it's > been replaced by the "new model", which has its own unique quirks. > > In some cases, the same model name (can anyone say "Creative CDrom") > has been applied to several quite significantly different models. > >>> Calling ATAPI drives "technology" of any sort is a bit of a joke. >> >> OK, so ATAPI is currently buggy, but in fact they're quite high-tech >> devices. It's just a reflection of the market that they're so >> unreliable. > > I suggest you look closely at the innards of a modern CDrom, or perhaps > ask yourself how they can produce such an allegedly high-tech device > with incredibly high model turnover at the sort of prices we're seeing > now. > > The answer is simple - cut every possible corner. My old $200 Sony Discman > works better than every one of the ten or so CDroms that I've spent any > time with in the last year or so. A pity it doesn't have a SCSI > interface 8) > > I have a small pile of Panasonic 2x mechanisms that have developed > intermittent and gradually worsening read aberrations over the last > year or so, which I can only attribute to fatigue in the small pieces of > spring wire that hold the optics in position. These have lost so much > of their original resilience that the optical assembly can be heard to > bounce _off_the_disk_ when they get really confused. At this point, > there's about a 50% chance that they will eject the disk, still spinning > at full speed. > > How much would a better grade of wire have cost? Or another week testing > the firmware before shipping? Obviously enough that they decided they > couldn't afford it. (And _don't_ ask about floppy drives 8) As I say, "It's just a reflection of the market that they're so unreliable." People buy the things. If that weren't the case, they'd improve them. Anyway, what kind of Panasonic drive? Part number? ID string? Do they work with FreeBSD when they work? Greg
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