[ale] problems with Cendyne 32x10x40 USB CD-RW with SUSE, 9.2 and FC3

[Van Loggins]

OK I have an update on the problems I was having with SUSE 9.2 and a
workaround that seems to work ok until the problem is fixed with the
2.6.8 series kernel.

My colleague Sergio Chaves gets the credit for finding this info out,
he first read about it on a brazilian mail list that he subscribes to.
I did some more digging after talking with Sergio and I found the
following notice on the K3b.org website.

"Do not use Kernel 2.6.8

A patch that was introduced into the kernel shortly before the 2.6.8
release makes K3b and also the dvd+rw-tools unusable on Linux (unless
run as root but that is not recommended). The very important GET
CONFIGURATION MMC command is rejected by the kernel for reasons I
cannot see and writing commands like MODE SELECT also fail (K3b cannot
detect CD writers without it) even when the device is opened O_RDWR.
Until this issue has been solved I strongly recommend to stick to
kernel version 2.6.7.

Update: The kernel guys are currently fixing the problem so the next
kernel release should work again. :)

Update 2: The problem is NOT fixed in 2.6.8.1

Update 3: Be aware that kernel 2.6.8 also contains the memory leak
which makes it impossible to write audio cds, even as root. "


I really wanted to use SUSE 9.2 Professional on my workstation at
work, but the problems with burning CDs on my USB CD-RW drive were
driving me crazy. The stock kernel for SUSE 9.2 is from the 2.6.8
series. I decided to try my luck with the stock kernel that comes with
Novel Linux Desktop version 9 which is a 2.6.5 series kernel.
Right now Novell has a 90 day eval download for Novell Linux Desktop 9
if you want to take the time and download it to get the kernel
(support is limited to 90 days but the ISO images are not limited in
any way)

I am not sure if this is the recommended course of action, so try this
at your own risk, but it seems to be working ok for me. K3b sees and
recognizes my USB CD-RW drive where it didn't when I was using the
2.6.8 stock kernel for SUSE 9.2.

According to everything I've read this problem is supposed to be fixed
when the 2.6.9 kernel is released so hopefully the folks at SUSE will
quickly make a new 2.6.9 kernel for SUSE 9.2 available as soon as it
is released and they have a chance to test it.
  
I hope this info helps anyone who might be having the same problems I
have been having.

Have a great day!!

Van

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 07:37:35 -0500, Van Loggins <vloggins at turbocorp.com> wrote:
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 16:15:51 -0500
> From: Jay Loden <jloden at toughguy.net>
> Subject: Re: [ale] problems with Cendyne 32x10x40 USB CD-RW with SUSE
>         9.2 and FC3
> To: Van Loggins <vanloggins at gmail.com>, Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
>         <ale at ale.org>
> Message-ID: <200411171615.51968.jloden at toughguy.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Just curious if you had tried running k3bsetup to see if it can detect the
> drives, or manually adjusting the configuration of k3b to tell it the
> location of the drive.
> 
> Finally, did you make sure that scsi emulation was on for the drive?  I'm not
> 100% sure if you still have to emulate a scsi drive for a burner if you're
> using the 2.6 kernel, but I know that you used to have to enable scsi
> emulation for each drive in the kernel boot options.
> 
> 


-- 
Van Loggins
"Linux Geek In Training"
vanloggins at gmail.com


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