Plextor CD-R 16x10x40

[Sinus]

Planning on upgrading and does anyone else have the 16x10x40 running under linux?
Was it automatically detected, :) or did you have to recompile the kernel to get it to work? :(
What distribution are you running with the plextor, Redhat, Mandrake?
Need some answers.
Thanks.

[carlywarly]

I've got the Plextor, running Mandrake 8.0 and I generally use Gnometoaster since it has BurnProof support. It is automatically detected and it runs like a dream.

[Sinus]

Thats wonderful news.
A big thanks.
Gnometoaster? Is it software already included with Mandrake 8 or will have to go to specific web site download and install?
Good to know Gnometoaster is burnproof.

[ 20 July 2001: Message edited by: Sinus ]

[bdg1983]

Nice to have burnproof, but it's really not necessary on Linux.

I have the HP8250i on my main work pc and have burned roughly 400 cd's by now without creating a coaster.

I'm able to burn a cd while web browsing, downloading a iso image, working on AIX using Xnest and more without ever getting a hiccup from the HP.

Windows? Start the burn process and go do the laundry.

[Sinus]

The CD Burner software/proggie included in the distribution, should do the job fine?
I'm just asking questions so I don't have to experience any hardware and software conflicts/dependencies.
I apologize if asking of such questions bother some people, I just need to know. ;)
Thanks.

[Cod]

I've got this exact same CD-RW - it seems like a great drive (I've used it under Windows).

I'm having great difficulty mounting it under Linux though unfortunatly (Suse7.1).

I've edited the fstab file and inserted the following line:
/dev/hdd1 /cdrw auto ro,noauto,user,exec 0 0

(when I use dmesg the RW appears as /dev/hdd1/).

Unfortunatly when I try and mount it (on the desktop or in the terminal) I get the error message
mount: special device dev/hdd1 does not exist

This is all probably really obvious to u guys but I only installed Linux the other day so don't slap me too hard - thx

:)

[carlywarly]

Gnometoaster is on the Mandrake CDROM, by the way. I quite agree about burnproof, though, it doesn't seem to be necessary because of the multi-tasking abilities of Linux.
My fstab file has line -
/mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom supermount fs=iso9660, dev=/dev/cdrom 0 0
If you're not using supermount, leave that out. You must tell the kernel what kind of file system is at this mount point - the iso stuff, and I also think that cdrw is not a valid device, try cdrom ( I could be wrong ).

[bdg1983]

With a ide CDRW you need to enable scsi emulation and load a couple of modules. Using scsi emulation will actually change the device name of the CDRW to scd0 or 1 or perhaps sr0 or 1.

The NHF on the subject (http://linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/software/cdrecord_cdr.html) should answer some of your questions.

[Sinus]

What the?!! Dear Gawd, thats the kind of crap I hope to avoid. Wheres the sense in that?
Thats very uneccessary to do all that just to get any piece of hardware to run.
I would like it very much to have the plextor detected and function like it should be, a IDE CDRom/ burner.
The Plextor CDRom/burner and the DVD drive will be the only drives I'll have outside of my hard drive.
Surely, these mentioned drives shouldn't be hard for linux to automatically detect at installation of the OS and run fine/flawlessly thereafter with the software provided in the distribution.
Please someone tell me who is actually a user running Mandrake 8 or Redhat7.1, that didn't have to do all that crap, to get their 16x10x40 plextor and DVD player to run flawslessly under linux.

[Cod]

Thanks for the help guys - I'mve managed to mount the bugger now :)

Just had to take the 1 out of hdd1 - doh!

I was tempted to re-install and have everything detected at setup but in the end I decided that it would help my understanding of the O/S and thus help with future problems to do it the 'hard way' ;)

Only problem is the burning software still doesn't know the device exits/is a burner.

I guess this might be solved by my putting the iso information in the fstab file.

Is this number different for CD-rw's and CD-ROMS.

Cheers people - :D :cool:

[bdl]

Just another vote for the Plextor 16/10/40 - a really nice CDRW and audio extraction rates are really fast. Just as mdwatts suggested, you must have this drive emulate a SCSI drive prior to use. It's almost a no-brainer with the HOWTO's. ;)

[bdl]

Originally posted by Cod:
<STRONG>
Just had to take the 1 out of hdd1 - doh!

Only problem is the burning software still doesn't know the device exits/is a burner.

I guess this might be solved by my putting the iso information in the fstab file.

Is this number different for CD-rw's and CD-ROMS.

</STRONG>

You may as well take out the hdd also, and replace it with scd0 or link /dev/scd0 to /dev/cdrw, something along those lines and use that instead. Once you get the drive to emulate a SCSI drive, the device will change from an IDE to (guess what??) a SCSI device.
Generally speaking, a CDROM under IDE will not have a device number as hdd's do, such as your example with hdd1. The SCSI device, on the other hand will have a number to tell the system which device it is on the chain. If it's the first SCSI CDROM it will be scd0. I've also seen it referred to as sg0, the first 'generic' SCSI device.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again; its generally thought to be a good idea to have the IDE CDR or CDRW as the master device on that controller. You have it as a slave device on the secondary IDE controller. Changing it to the Master may help improve performance somewhat. Just a suggestion, YMMV.

[Sinus]

I know another user has chimmned in on this thread and their questions have been answered and their problem has been resolved.
Of course this information will be helpful to any user including myself.
With all this said and realized, your telling me or anyone else, that whether it's a plextor or any other brand, their CDR, in order to get it to play audio CD's/install software/burn CD's whether in user mode or in root, or even at the installation of the OS it(CDR)won't get detected like it should, and were gonna have to tweak some files to get it to work like it should under linux?
Is that what your saying? If so.

Holy Cow people I thought we were living in the new millennium!
I love linux and have used it times in the past, but most everytime I do a hardware upgrade I have to uninstall it, because linux struggles with hardware detection and compatibilty of that new hardware.
I have to wait for linux to catch up.
Meaning, I usually have to wait for a new kernel to be released the will properly detect the hardware and allow it run correctly. Or, got to wait for a new release of XF86 so I can use my new video card. I'm most certainly not going to spend my time reading "How TOs" because that in itself doesn't make good sense to me.
Really, think about it whats the point?
Why would anyone want to deliberately experience difficulty or get out the "how to" manuals to install and get their new hardware to work.? They don't. Their excited and anticipating and pumped to see and get their new hardware performing.
BOOM, just the opposite happens.
Is it just me, but that doesn't seem very brillant.

Now lets do this again, somebody/anybody running Redhat7.1 or Mandrake 8 using a Plextor CDR 16x10x40 and A DVD player and Radeon card have these detected at installation and running fine(playing audio CD's/installs software/burns CD's)without file tweaking? Theres got to be some people out there that have the stated hardware running successfully without hassles. Otherwise, why would the linux community bother developing an OS that can't easily meet the simple needs of new users and experienced users alike?

If the answer is no, due to the incomatibility of a the kernel to detect and run this hardware flawlessy, and I must wait for a newer release, then so be it.
I'll buy my Plextor CDR and DVD player and Radeon and use windows 98SE untill linux catches up, whether it several versions/releases down the road, waiting isn't the problem.
My needs are very simple and I don't believe I'm asking to much from linux OS.
Thanks.

[ 22 July 2001: Message edited by: Sinus ]

[ 22 July 2001: Message edited by: Sinus ]

[speck]

Originally posted by Sinus:
<STRONG>What the?!! Dear Gawd, thats the kind of crap I hope to avoid. Wheres the sense in that?
Thats very uneccessary to do all that just to get any piece of hardware to run.
I would like it very much to have the plextor detected and function like it should be, a IDE CDRom/ burner.
The Plextor CDRom/burner and the DVD drive will be the only drives I'll have outside of my hard drive.
Surely, these mentioned drives shouldn't be hard for linux to automatically detect at installation of the OS and run fine/flawlessly thereafter with the software provided in the distribution.
Please someone tell me who is actually a user running Mandrake 8 or Redhat7.1, that didn't have to do all that crap, to get their 16x10x40 plextor and DVD player to run flawslessly under linux.</STRONG>

I built a new box with RH 7.1 and the Plextor 16x10x40 drive. I did not need to change anything (fstab, etc) to get it burning cd's. It was autodetected during install and after downloading some progs (gcombust, cdrtools and cdlabelgen), I was burning cd-r's at 16x. So Plextor 16x10x40, most current RH OS, no problem.

Speck

[bdl]

Originally posted by Sinus:
<STRONG>
With all this said and realized, your telling me or anyone else, that whether it's a plextor or any other brand, their CDR, in order to get it to play audio CD's/install software/burn CD's whether in user mode or in root, or even at the installation of the OS it(CDR)won't get detected like it should, and were gonna have to tweak some files to get it to work like it should under linux?
Is that what your saying? If so.

..blah blah rant rave blah...
</STRONG>

A couple of points:

In order to mount the drive and use it as any other CDROM device, playing CD's, reading data, you dont have to do anything. Just use the device as a regular CDROM. If you want to run the CDR/CDRW as it is originally intended, to burn CD's, then it must emulate a SCSI device. This is no different than what the same drives do under Windows, its just that Win hides this from you in the software and ASPI layer. Obviously this is what Windows is for, making things easy for you; if you want to complain about loading a couple of mods in order to do this, then you have my permission to use Windows.

That having been said, I should tell you that I've been using Linux and BSD for a few years, I didn't just install Mandrake this morning. I learned on FreeBSD and Slackware, basically doing everything by hand. More recent distros like Redhat/Mandrake or SuSE do everything for you; if you like, by all means run one of these distros and you probably won't have to deal with the CDRW 'problem' of setting it up to emulate a SCSI device. I will always be of the mindset that BSD and GNU/Linux are meant to be powerful and flexible, not easy to use. Just my 2/100. YMMV.

[Cod]

Can somebody point me in the direction of the mentioned how-to re: emulating a SCSI device 'cos I can't seem to find it.

I'm considering chaniging the CD-RW to be the secondary channel master but its performance in Windows is fine so far so I'll leave it for now thx :)

Thanks loads for your help :)

BTW - I like doing things the hard way sometimes - simply 'cos it's more satisfying when you get it sorted.
Also - want to use Linux for burning CD's cos Windows won't see my old CD-ROM (and yes - I tried re-installing Winsows) since installing the CD-RW (Linux now sees both).

[bdl]

Originally posted by Cod:
<STRONG>Can somebody point me in the direction of the mentioned how-to re: emulating a SCSI device 'cos I can't seem to find it.

</STRONG>

CD-Writing HOWTO (http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO.html)

[Sinus]

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to upset or anger anyone, but I finally got a straight answer to my question/s.
God love ya, "Speck and "bdl" I appreciate you both, thats all I needed to hear an answer one way or another.
Now, this actually gives me something to look forward to, and thats a good thing cause I really want to use linux only. :)
If I can just get some people to give me a straight answer on my post/thread on "DVD player" I'll be set.
Thanks.

[bdl]

Originally posted by Sinus:
<STRONG>I'm sorry, I didn't intend to upset or anger anyone, but I finally got a straight answer to my question/s.
</STRONG>

Not a problem, I was simply trying to explain where I'm coming from. I'm so used to doing most things by hand or "the hard way" that it's second nature. I don't bother to use packages for most things, I compile source code, for example. Nowadays with Mandrake and SuSE being what they are, alot of the things I've gotten used to doing are no longer necessary, they're done for you. Even so, I'll always use Debian or Slack or a BSD variant, I just like it better that way. ;)

[Sinus]

"bdl", You have earned my respect. ;)
Your knowledge and thoroughness will be very helpful to many at this BBS, including myself.
Thanks.

[Cod]

Thanks very much - I'll try it out tonight :) :)

[Sawz]

a quick way to do this is as follows...

/sbin/modprobe ide-scsi

if that doesnt work then try:

/sbin/insmod ide-scsi
/sbin/modprobe ide-scsi

If both don't work then you need to get and compile the module, just search for ide-scsi and you should be set.

Or you can just go to www.kernel.org, (http://www.kernel.org,) download the newest kernel, read the README file it contains after you extract it and just recompile your kernel.

This is a widespread topic on all linux boards I see(for new GNU/Linux users anyway) Thats why there are so many thouroughly detailed how-tos on the matter