Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:13:16 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: troubles with my optical drive on old thinkpad.... Message-ID: <20100710031316.e324bbed.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20100708182305.GA78236@thought.org> References: <20100708182305.GA78236@thought.org>
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On Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:23:08 -0700, Gary Kline <kline@thought.org> wrote:
>
> guys,
>
> i only have a couple more black cd-r discs left; have wasted many since
> i WAS ABLE to install PC-BSD. the optical [dvd/cd] drive =does= read
> my ancient 5.3 CD set, but it reads nothing i burn. i have tried
> burning 8.0 bootonly.iso on the laptop (via k3b), and tried the same
> from my twin optical drives here on my desktop.
>
> can anybody suggest what i'm doing wrong?
First of all, let's check the basics. You have CDs that can be burned
without errors, but can't be read afterwards, in multiple drives. This
indicates that the writing process is okay, but maybe the content of
the writing process is wrong.
So let's first check that.
Use the command
% cdcontrol -f /dev/acd0 info
If /dev/acd0 is your default drive (which can be set using the environment
variable CDROM), you don't need the -f parameter.
to get a TOC listing of the CD in the drive. This doesn't involve any
mounting, just reading. It should give something like this:
% cdcontrol info
Starting track = 1, ending track = 1, TOC size = 18 bytes
track start duration block length type
-------------------------------------------------
1 0:02.00 57:57.56 0 260831 data
170 57:59.56 - 260831 - -
This example is taken from a FreeBSD 7.0 CD #1. It shows one data track.
This is correct, as the CD has been created from an ISO.
But a defective ISO, or just a plain file, would result in a similar
output, so let's next verify what's on the CD - fs-type-wise.
% file - < /dev/acd0
/dev/stdin: ISO 9660 CD-ROM filesystem data
'FreeBSD_Install ' (bootable)
Okay, an ISO is on it. Good.
The final step is to try to mount it. I'll give the full set of options
here, you usually don't have to do that because of an entry in /etc/fstab
(which you don't have when using HAL's automounting).
% sudo mount -t cd9660 -o ro /dev/acd0 /media/cdrom/
% df -h /media/cdrom/
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/acd0 509M 509M 0B 100% /media/cdrom
Excellent. Now we could also "ls -R /media/cdrom" to see a listing of
all the files, but that's not needed, as the CD is obviously working.
% sudo mount /media/cdrom
% cdcontrol eject
If you can verify your CDs with THOSE steps, they are okay, as they are
valid data CDs. You should be able to reproduce that with ANY drive.
If you can't (e. g. no file, no mount), check the process of how you've
initially created them. Just for testing, have a blank CD handy, and do
this (obviously stupid) exercise:
1. As you're going to use cdrecord, make sure ATAPICAM is in your kernel,
or the module atapicam.ko is loaded.
# kldstat -v | grep atapicam
45 ata/atapicam
In this example, I have ATAPICAM in the kernel. Otherwise, use
# kldload atapicam.ko
to dynamically load it.
2. Make sure to have sufficient permissions for cd and xpt devices. If
in doubt, test as root (which I'll do in this example, so no further
checking).
3. Prepare a valid ISO:
# cd /usr
# mkisofs -r -J -o /tmp/foo.iso src/
This will create a file system with the contents of /usr/src. You can
choose any other directory for testing, but I think /usr/src is good
as it doesn't containt too much stuff, so it should be quite quick.
Make sure you have approx. 500 MB on /tmp. If not, use any other
directory with sufficient space; I usually use my 10 GB /scratch
partition for such things.
4. Find out the SCSI ID for your CD recorder.
# camcontrol devlist
<HL-DT-ST blahblah> at scbus2 target 0 lun 0 (cd0,pass0)
In this example, it is 2,0,0; the corresponding files are /dev/cd0
and /dev/pass0 (which you need +w permission for). If there's no such
output, go back to square 1. :-)
5. Insert the blank media, let the drive settle, and record the ISO:
# cdrecord dev=2,0,0 speed=16 -v -eject -tao -data
The ISO should now be recorded to the CD. The recording speed is
defined to be 16x. Most drives know the best speed by theirselves,
but it's not always compatible with the media. Some say they are 48x,
but aren't. So 16x is a good speed - not too fast, not to slow.
Make sure to see the options for cdrecord: The CD has to be created as
"track at once" (-tao), and it will also be closed, so you can't append
any new data. But for this test, it's not needed. It's also defined to
be a data CD (not a music CD).
This test is just a "basic minimum variables" test. As much as possible
is predefined, so there's fewer room for mistakes. That's why I'm not
giving pictural instructions for GUI programs - there's so much one
can't check, and also so much one can do wrong by accident. So I rely
on a kind of highly controlled environment... :-)
Please try this and post the results - especially if anything strange
comes up.
--
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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