[wplug] CDRW problems

[Vanco, Donald]

Russ Schneider wrote:
> Ok, I have a Backback USB CDRW running on Mandrake 9.1.
> 
> Now with 8.2 this happened all the time, and this is the first time
> in a long time that this has happened in 9.1.
> 
> Sometimes, the system just won't recognize that the CDRW is there. 
> The SG module doesn't pick it up to create sg0, nor does it mount to
> /mnt/cdrom2 (I also have a CDROM which mounts to /mnt/cdrom) like it
> usually does. 
> 
> The f*cked up part is, that if I boot into Windows, use Adaptec's CD
> writing software, it'll work just fine, and then when I boot back into
> Linux, it'll work again.
	Does this happen regardless of whether or not there's any kind of
media in the drive?  Likewise - does the "LM doesn't see the device" ever
change dependent on any kind of disk being in the drive at boot?

> 
> Now, there's got to be something that Adaptec's software or MS Windows
> is doing with my CDRW that I just don't know about but could do in
> Linux. 
	Really doubtful...

> Any theories as to what it could be?
	Well, my dislike for Mandrake is somewhat legendary, and these types
of befuddling HW issues are what pretty much cause that sentiment - but
that's not what you want to hear.  My guess is that the probing at boot just
isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing.
Random thoughts?
	Have you upgraded kernels lately (i.e. do you have multiple kernels
you can test this against?
	What's the behavior based on booting / not booting with both blank
media and/or some generic audio or data CD present?
	What's in modules.conf (e.g. is ide-scsi, etc ALWAYS loaded)?


> In case anyone wants to know, here's the output from dmesg:

> scsi0 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.2.8
>          <Adaptec 2902/04/10/15/20/30C SCSI adapter>
>          aic7850: Single Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 3/253 SCBs
	So - this box has 3 permanent" IDE drives _and_ a SCSI controller?
	Is there any chance it's just a matter of the SCSI device ID
changing when you insert the CD-RW?  Do you also have a USB floppy?  Or any
other kind of USB (and seen as SCSI) mass storage device you occasionally
attach - like a flash key or something?
	
> usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0xac9/0x0) is not claimed by any active
> driver.
> Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
> usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
> USB Mass Storage support registered.
	Well - it's here (if it is, in fact, USB device 2) - but it's not
getting bound to the drivers (mass storage, ide-scsi, etc)

> hdc: ATAPI 48X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache
> Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
	This is a "permanent" device on the IDE chain - right?

	Have you looked in pertinent sections under /proc when all this is
going on?  In other words - you need to make sure that when the system
doesn't see the burner that it's not merely a driver issue - that it's
_really_ not even being seen on the bus.....

HTH
Don