Strange Optical drive problem

[Nigel Henry]

On Wednesday 05 November 2008 13:35, squareyes wrote:
> Nigel Henry wrote:
> > On Tuesday 04 November 2008 03:42, squareyes wrote:
> >> Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
> >>> --- On Mon, 11/3/08, squareyes <squareyes at internode.on.net> wrote:
> >>>> From: squareyes <squareyes at internode.on.net>
> >>>> Subject: Strange Optical drive problem
> >>>> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions"
> >>>> <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> Date: Monday, November 3, 2008, 7:35
> >>>> PM Hi all,
> >>>> have posted this problem before, may some new info.
> >>>>
> >>>> Machine Lenovo 0687  Optical drive will work OK to install
> >>>> both WinXP
> >>>> and Ubuntu 8.04,
> >>>> but once systems installed no longer exists. Will not read
> >>>> any CD's
> >>>> after install in both XP or Ubuntu,
> >>>> but will still look at bootable Disks after either system
> >>>> installed,
> >>>> e.g. will run live gparted cd. Knoppix.
> >
> > Just a thought, as I recollect a similar problem in the past, where if
> > the cdrom was first in the boot list in the BIOS, the optical drive had
> > problems when the machine was booted up.
> >
> > It may be worth a try, to change the boot order, and put the harddrive to
> > boot first, then see if there are any changes when you boot up.
> >
> > My problem was after replacing a broken Sony optical drive, with a new
> > Samsung combo drive.
> >
> > Nigel.
>
> Hi Nigel,
> tried re-organizing boot order,
> Same result, no change.
> Thanks
> Take Care
> Winton

Hi Winton. Sorry that didn't work, but thinking about it my distro wouldn't 
boot with the cdrom drive in first place in the boot ordering, so a different 
problem to yours.

The fact that neither XP, or Ubuntu can see the optical drive seems to 
indicate a BIOS problem, or some setting that needs to be changed for the 
optical drive in the BIOS. It's worth a good look through the various menu 
items in your BIOS.

For example, and the mobo I have on this pc is going to be different to yours, 
but the "Main" menu item in the BIOS shows IDE Configuration.

The mobo has 1 IDE controller which can handle 2 drives (master, and slave), 
and 4 SATA controllers, 2 of which have harddrives connected to them.

Looking at Primary IDE Master, this shows the optical drive [ATAPI  DVD A 
DH21]. Down arrow to this entry, and enter, and there's a bunch of info for 
the optical drive, plus the ability to change some stuff as below.

Type: (currently set to auto), but has options also for CDROM, and ARMD 
(whatever that is.

PIO Mode: (currently set to auto, but with 5 options as alternatives to auto).

DMA Mode: (currently set to auto, and a whole bunch of options).

If the optical drive is seen in the BIOS, it's worth trying different DMA 
Modes. Auto should work, but maybe sometimes you have to set a specific mode.

I'm not doubting the output from lshw, but have a look at dmesg in a terminal. 
It's a long file, and my optical drive shows up some  2/3rds down the file.

Also have a look in the /dev directory/folder. Depending on what your optical 
drive is capable of, you may see symlinks for cdrom, cdrw, dvd, and dvdrw. In 
my case these symlinks are all pointing to hda, which is the block device for 
the optical drive. This is with Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10.

With Hardy Heron 8.04, the same symlinks above point to scd0, which again is 
the block device for the optical drive, but due to changes, newer kernels, 
libata is now being used, and all block devices are now viewed as scsi 
devices, hence the reason that my optical drive on GG is shown as hda, but on 
HH, is shown as scd0.

None of the above may be of any help to you. It would be nice to have your 
laptop in front of me, and I could play around with it. Such is not the case 
though, and I feel a bit like the blind leading the blind.

Sorry I can't be more positive in helping you to resolve your problem.

Nigel.