Very Computer

Here is a copy of mail I sent to the Red Hat support about problems
I'm having getting Red Hat 4.2 installation program to recognize my
CD-ROM correctly.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[-- include --]

I am having a problem installing Red Hat 4.2 on my Gateway 2000 486 66
MHz and am stuck.  Thanks in advance for any help.

===================
Problem description
===================

Product:            The Complete Red Hat Linux Operating System

Version:            4.2

Symptoms of the     Installation does not correctly recognize CD-ROM drive
  problem:          

When the problem    Attempting to install Red Hat 4.2 with disc 1 in
  began:            CD-ROM drive.

Changes to system   Completely re-partitioned HDs to run a Linux-only
  when problem      installation.
  began:

Diagnostic info:    When attempting to install from local CD-ROM, have
                    tried selecting two different Sony CD-ROM device
                    drivers - the manual which came with my Gateway
                    2000 only specifies a "Sony CD-ROM Drive Unit" and
                    so I am not absolutely positive as to which Sony
                    drive was installed.  Neither allows me to
                    successfully complete installation.

                    Using cdu31a:
                    =============

                    Autoprobe does not work.  Selecting the option
                    cdu31a_port=0x340, this device driver recognizes
                    my CD-ROM drive.  However, viewing the system log,
                    I see the following:

                    [-- snip --]

                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>end_request: I/O error, dev 0f:00, sector 7048
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>CDU31A: Read error: 0x01
                        <4>end_request: I/O error, dev 0f:00, sector 7050

                    [-- snip --]

                    This let's me continue to second stage install
                    (version 1.1 built Apr 22 1997 16:03.02)

                    Later, when attempting to select packages, even
                    just the basic system, the system log continues to
                    display the same kinds of error messages, and the
                    installation program can not find *.i386.rpm for
                    just about every package, including filesystem,
                    bash, etc.

                    Using cdu 5xx:
                    ==============

                    Autoprobe "works".  However, I get the following
                    messages:

                        mount failed: I/O error [click ok]

                        I could not mount a CD on device /dev/cdu535
                        [click ok]

                    The system log shows:

                    [-- snip --]

                        <6>Sony CDU-535: probing base 340
                        <6>Sony CDU-535: I/F CD-ROM: #### ##### [etc]
                            base address 340, using 65536 byte buffer

                    [-- snip --]

                    The install log shows:

                    [-- snip --]

                        /bin/insmod /tmp/sonycd535.o
                        uncompressing module for installation
                        /bin/insmod /tmp/isofs.o
                        mounting cdu535 on /tmp/rhimage as type
                        iso9660
                        creating directory /tmp/rhimage rc=0
                        making device cdu535 (24, 0) as /tmp/cdu535
                        calling mount(/tmp/cdu535, /tmp/rhimage,
                            iso9660, -1058209791, (nil))

                    [-- snip --]

==================
System information
==================

Manufacturer:       Gateway 2000
Type of CPU:        Intel 486
CPU speed:          66 MHz
Amount of RAM:      8 MB
HDs:                two IDE drives with hda[123] and hdb[123]
                        have 16 MB of swap space enabled and
                        / is mounted on hda1
CD-ROM:             Sony:

                        The adapter card is set up in the following
                        with the following jumper settings:

                        JP1 -- pin 2 w/ base address 340h
                        JP2 -- nothing
                        JP3 -- nothing
                        JP4 -- nothing
Video card:         ATI Local Bus Graphics Ultra Pro w/ 1MB VRAM
Bus:                ISA w/ VESA local bus

--
Damien Kick
--
Damien Kick

So, still having problems, I finally pulled my CD-ROM driver out of
its slot to check for a model number and it is indeed a CDU31A-GW.
Are there any known bugs with the cdu31a device driver?

In article <60mph5$97...@trotsky.cig.mot.com>,

[Follow-ups redirected to comp.os.linux.setup.  Please don't cross-post!]

: Here is a copy of mail I sent to the Red Hat support about problems
: I'm having getting Red Hat 4.2 installation program to recognize my
: CD-ROM correctly.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

<snip>

: Diagnostic info:    When attempting to install from local CD-ROM, have
:                     tried selecting two different Sony CD-ROM device
:                     drivers - the manual which came with my Gateway
:                     2000 only specifies a "Sony CD-ROM Drive Unit" and
:                     so I am not absolutely positive as to which Sony
:                     drive was installed.  Neither allows me to
:                     successfully complete installation.

Here's your fundamental problem:  You don't know for sure what type of
CD drive you _have_.

The correct way to find the answer does _not_ involve the documentation;
it involves a screwdriver.  ;->

Open your PC's case, and find the CD-ROM drive.  Read the exact make
and model directly from the CD-ROM drive's housing.  You may need to
de-cable and physically remove the drive to read this information.
Please do so:  It won't kill you.  Promise.

While you're there, check to see where the cable from the CD drive
goes:  It will go either to your on-motherboard IDE controller connection
or to some (yuck!) port on a sound card or dedicated interface card of
some sort.  (In theory, it could go to a SCSI adapter, but I'd die of
shock if I heard Gateway 2000 had begun using good technology.)

Your having found drivers that kinda-sorta work may indicate that
you simply _aren't_ picking the right drive type, in the installation
program.

: CD-ROM:             Sony:

:                         The adapter card is set up in the following
:                         with the following jumper settings:

What _kind_ of adapter card?  Is this a regular ol' IDE host adapter,
or is it some Sony-proprietary one?  If the latter, have you verified
that Linux supports it?  Check the Red Hat hardware compatibility list at
<http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl/intel/rh42-hardware-intel.html>.

--
Cheers,                                     The Viking's Reminder:
Rick Moen                                   Pillage first, _then_ burn.
rick (at) hugin.imat.com              

From the RedHat list of supported hardware:
[-- snip --]

Quote:> 4.4 CD-ROMs

> Supported CD-ROMs

> The following types of CD-ROMs are supported:

>      all ATAPI compliant IDE CD-ROMs
>      ATAPI-compliant multi-disc CD-ROMs (`CD changers' or `jukeboxes)
>      all SCSI CD-ROMs on a supported SCSI adapter
>      the BackPack parallel-port CD-ROM
>      proprietary CD-ROMs:
>          Sony CDU-31A, Sony CDU-33A

So, supposedly, my CD-ROM drive should've been supported.  The adapter
card was a Sony-proprietary card.  However, the base address being
used by the card seemed to be the same as that used by a Sony CD 535 -
both in terms of the auto probe for sonycd535 working correctly and
that gateway technical support (over the phone) had incorrectly given
me base addresses of 0x220, 0x230 (something like that - paraphrase)
for my adapter card, which is the normal setting for CDU31A, I'd
imagine?  Other than that, I'm not exactly sure what adapter card was
being used since I never found printed text on the actual card.  I'm
still confused on that point and I think my box was set up unusually.
For example, the user docs mention my video card as an ATI Mach 32 but
the video card calls itself a Diamond SpeedStar Pro, with a Cirrus
CLGD5426 chip on it [shrug].

Anyway, the problem was solved by getting ahold of an IDE/ATAPI
Mitsumi 2X, secondary IDE controller, and installing them instead.
Worked without a hitch, except for the coronary.  I got an e-mail from
someone who had experienced similar problems with the same Gateway
486-66 I have, with the same CD-ROM setup and, from the posts to this
newsgroup, it doesn't look like problems with CDU31A are unusual.
However, I am still curious if this problem with the CDU31A driver was
specific to my particular old hardware configuration or somewhat
generic for this CD-ROM.
--
Damien Kick

: So, supposedly, my CD-ROM drive should've been supported.  The adapter
: card was a Sony-proprietary card.  However, the base address being
: used by the card seemed to be the same as that used by a Sony CD 535 -
: both in terms of the auto probe for sonycd535 working correctly and
: that gateway technical support (over the phone) had incorrectly given
: me base addresses of 0x220, 0x230 (something like that - paraphrase)
: for my adapter card, which is the normal setting for CDU31A, I'd
: imagine?  Other than that, I'm not exactly sure what adapter card was
: being used since I never found printed text on the actual card.

My guess would be that the adapter card was almost-but-not-quite
supported by the drivers & autoprobing code in your kernel.  It's
possible there's some kernel component and possibly boot-time
parameters that would have made it work, but we may never know,
since you got replacement hardware.

: I'm still confused on that point and I think my box was set up unusually.
: For example, the user docs mention my video card as an ATI Mach 32 but
: the video card calls itself a Diamond SpeedStar Pro, with a Cirrus
: CLGD5426 chip on it [shrug].

I figure that, in case of doubt, the inscription on the chipset wins.  ;->

: Anyway, the problem was solved by getting ahold of an IDE/ATAPI
: Mitsumi 2X, secondary IDE controller, and installing them instead.
: Worked without a hitch, except for the coronary.

Really the best remedy for the primary problem.  (A careful diet and
medically-supervised exercise may help with the second.)

--
Cheers,                    Facta tua Restitueri ad Status Pristinus Eius.
Rick Moen                       (May your data be restored to
rick (at) hugin.imat.com       its original pristine condition.)

This may or may not be related, but I was trying to install Red Hat 4.2 on a
friends machine (486-66, 16Mb RAM, 2 IDE drives) last weekend and he has a
Sony CDU-33A. Problem: Red Hat would not recognize the CD-ROM drive. The
system is a dual boot DOS / Linux. The DOS drivers supplied for the CD-ROM
worked fine. However, under Red Hat I could not get it to recognize the
drive. I pulled apart the machine to verify the controller card was set to
0x340. It was. I even changed it to 0x320 and tried that. Every single time
initialization would fail stating it could not find any device. I even took a
look at the driver source code with no luck. The first address it probed was
0x340, followed by some others including 0x320.

Dumbfounded, I worked around the problem by copying the RedHat install image
onto the DOS drive and mounting that drive in Linux and installing from
that.  Red Hat 4.2 is now fully installed on the machine, however I still
cannot recognize that CD-ROM.

When I first put Linux on this machine a few years ago I was able to detect
the CD-ROM. That was with a 1.x Slackware or Yggadrisil installation.

Anyway, does anyone have a clue as to why Linux won't recognize the CDU33A
when I know what it's base address is for certain?

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