From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Apr 22 03:06:39 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id DAA26281 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 03:06:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id DAA26276 for ; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 03:06:35 -0700 (PDT) Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id TAA02672; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 19:31:44 +0930 From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199604221001.TAA02672@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: Atapi IDE cdrom support To: lehey.pad@sni.de (Greg Lehey) Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 19:31:43 +0930 (CST) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, lehey.pad@sni.de, wbart3@ktb.net, questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199604220937.LAA07574@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> from "Greg Lehey" at Apr 22, 96 11:37:37 am MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Greg Lehey stands accused of saying: > > 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. Indeed. It's just sad that people buy them and then say "why doesn't your OS support this drive? It's the newest and greatest!". Some poor FreeBSD hacker turns their mind to mush working out how to talk to the drive, and then its obsolete and people are demanding support for a different monster. > Anyway, what kind of Panasonic drive? Part number? ID string? Do > they work with FreeBSD when they work? It's the CR503/CR563 mechanism. The 563 is one of the many drives to wear the "Creative CDROM" label, and I believe that most of them work OK with the matcd driver. The CR503-B was a low-cost SCSI CD that we bought several of, and software-wise they actully work quite well, although when they're confused they tend to reset the SCSI bus and interfere in other devices' transactions. (Read, if one loses the plot, it's time to power-cycle the system). The 563's never got a lot of work before they died - most of the time they were used for installing stuff (Office, various CAD software) and were removed when they repeatedly hung the system or started making scratching noises. So far we're not having too much trouble with the CR504 (the 4x version), but I've slated them all for replacement at the 12-month mark. I lost a disk at home to one of the 503's and I'm not willing to go through that again 8( > Greg -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] Collector of old Unix hardware. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[