tlug: More CDROM miseries in Wales

[Dennis McMurchy <denismcm@example.com>]

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tlug note from Dennis McMurchy <denismcm@example.com>
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  Hi all,

  Thanks Jim for the very helpful advice regarding my Welsh friend's
CDROM recognition problem.  I forward his latest on the problem:

  Jim Tittsler wrote, partly quoting you or me:
> >   CD-Rom... on IRQ15, Port 170, Model 468-021
> > The Linux Install diskette (I booted it, but this time I aborted before
> > anything was actually installed) detects it like this:-
> >   hdd:  CDA468021, ATAPI CDROM drive  ide0 at 0x1f
>                                                 ^^^^ probably 0x1f0
> >   The kennel rebuild went very smoothly (though I chose rather wildly
> > between the various options), and I selected ATAPI CD-Rom. And, as you
> 
> Which hopefully means he said yes to "Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support"
> (and also yes to "ISO9660 filesystem" but that will only be a problem
> after detecting the drive :-).  You will also want to exercise caution
> if you have an IDE chipset that has only a single FIFO for both of the
> interfaces.  In particular say Yes to the CMD640 and RZ1000 configuration
> options if you have either or if you aren't sure.

I didn't get asked about any of these things --  I just selected ATAPI
CDrom and that seemed to be an end to the matter. Perhaps there's
something wrong with the setup program?

-----------------------------(begin quotation)
> > In the "Initializing block devices" section, it deals with the two hard
> > disks and the floppy, but no mention of hdd or cdrom - UNLESS the
> > following obscure line
> >      ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7, 0x3f6 on irq 14
> > is an attempt to detect it. The IRQ is different, but "ide0" and the
> > memory address (or whatever those letters are) look similar to what the
> 
> That is the "primary" IDE interface, at ports 0x1F0~1F7 IRQ14, the
> "secondary" IDE interface is located at ports 0x170~177 and uses
> IRQ15.
> 
> (You can include ide?=port,upper_port,irq on the command line (as in
> linux ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15), but since those are
> the default values, it shouldn't be required.)
See below** about this.

> What *may* be required is mentioning the drive location, especially
> if you have a non-standard setup (like a CD-ROM set as slave and no
> master device on that interface)... try booting your new kernel with
> a command line for LILO or loadlin like:
>   linux hdd=cdrom

I had tried this before (after reading an article on Linux installation
difficulties in Computer Shopper magazine). But I tried again, just for
the record, and the boot goes smoothly, & includes these lines:-
  hdd: no response (status = 0xff)
  hdd: ATAPI cdrom (?)
It also included this line (which I think was absent from my usual boot,
which detected only ide0):-
  ide1 at ox170-0x177,0x376 on irq15
which is the irq where Windows & MS-DOS find the CDrom.
But attempts to mount /mnt/cdrom, /cdrom, /dev/hdd, etc still fail with
the message "hdd is not a block device".

  Perhaps I need to get around the bug in the install setup (the failure
to ask for details of the CDrom) by manually editing some config
file(s). Isn't there something like an autoexec.bat that will bypass the
crappy autodetection and just tell the kernel what devices actually are
there? Or could I just add some parameters. ** Was JimT's idea that the
following would REPLACE any mention of "hdd" or "cdrom"?
> You can include ide?=port,upper_port,irq on the command line (as in
> linux ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15), but since those are
>the default values, it shouldn't be required.)
Anyway, when I booted using "linux hdd=cdrom", these ide parameters were
correct.

-------------------------(end quotation)

  If anyone can help on this, I'd be very grateful.  I'm stumped (although
I have wondered if this could a PnP problem - I don't if his CDROM drive
is such a beast or not, probably not, eh.

  Cheers,
         Dennis 

Next TLUG meeting is Saturday October 11, 1997
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