Funky DVD / Drive Behavior
Hi, Recently I began to have trouble with YaST refusing to use the SuSE 10.0 commercial DVD for new package installations. It claimed there wasn't a distribution on the device, though clearly there was, as I'd installed from it many times already. Examining it via the shell seemed to show everything being in order, but when I went to look at .../media.1/media, I got this: % cat /media/SU1000_001/media.1/media cat: /media/SU1000_001/media.1/media: Input/output error Since I have two DVD recorders in this system, I switched to the other one and when using that drive, everything's working fine. YaST will install from that drive and cat shows the expected contents of the .../media.1/media file. Experimenting further, I tried these commands: % dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/null bs=4096 1048575+1 records in 1048575+1 records out 4294965248 bytes (4.3 GB) copied, 534.002 seconds, 8.0 MB/s % dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/null bs=4096 2082936+0 records in 2082936+0 records out 8531705856 bytes (8.5 GB) copied, 1089.81 seconds, 7.8 MB/s /dev/hda is the misbehaving drive and /dev/hdc is the one that works. Hda is a Sony DRU-720A dual-layer writer, hdc is an older Sony DRU-510A single-layer writer (both are capable of reading dual-layer media). Both are IDE drives configured as masters of the two separate IDE buses of my mainboard. There are no slaves on those buses and all other mass storage is on SCSI. It seems very odd that while no error was reported, reading stopped on hda after 4.3 GB while hdc when the full 8.5 GB. One might suppose that hda couldn't handle the layer switch yet reported no error when it should have done so. Another oddity I noticed when conducting these experiments was high CPU usage when accessing hda. It turns out its DMA had gotten turned off somehow. I reenabled it and ran the test again. Aside from going about twice as fast, nothing changed. Has anybody seen symptoms like this? Can you shed any light on what might have happened to the malfunctioning drive to account for these peculiar symptoms? Thanks. Randall Schulz
On 01/12/05, Randall R Schulz <rschulz@sonic.net> wrote:
Hi,
Recently I began to have trouble with YaST refusing to use the SuSE 10.0 commercial DVD for new package installations. It claimed there wasn't a distribution on the device, though clearly there was, as I'd installed from it many times already. Examining it via the shell seemed to show everything being in order, but when I went to look at .../media.1/media, I got this:
% cat /media/SU1000_001/media.1/media cat: /media/SU1000_001/media.1/media: Input/output error
Since I have two DVD recorders in this system, I switched to the other one and when using that drive, everything's working fine. YaST will install from that drive and cat shows the expected contents of the .../media.1/media file.
Experimenting further, I tried these commands:
% dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/null bs=4096 1048575+1 records in 1048575+1 records out 4294965248 bytes (4.3 GB) copied, 534.002 seconds, 8.0 MB/s
% dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/null bs=4096 2082936+0 records in 2082936+0 records out 8531705856 bytes (8.5 GB) copied, 1089.81 seconds, 7.8 MB/s
/dev/hda is the misbehaving drive and /dev/hdc is the one that works.
Hda is a Sony DRU-720A dual-layer writer, hdc is an older Sony DRU-510A single-layer writer (both are capable of reading dual-layer media). Both are IDE drives configured as masters of the two separate IDE buses of my mainboard. There are no slaves on those buses and all other mass storage is on SCSI.
It seems very odd that while no error was reported, reading stopped on hda after 4.3 GB while hdc when the full 8.5 GB. One might suppose that hda couldn't handle the layer switch yet reported no error when it should have done so.
Another oddity I noticed when conducting these experiments was high CPU usage when accessing hda. It turns out its DMA had gotten turned off somehow. I reenabled it and ran the test again. Aside from going about twice as fast, nothing changed.
Has anybody seen symptoms like this? Can you shed any light on what might have happened to the malfunctioning drive to account for these peculiar symptoms?
Thanks.
Randall Schulz
-- Personally, my suspicions would be with the laser lens. Maybe its calibration has gone awry or something? That's purely off the top of my head...
-- ============================================== I am only human, please forgive me if I make a mistake it is not deliberate. ============================================== Take care. Kevan Farmer Linux user #373362 34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR
On Wednesday 30 November 2005 10:16 pm, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Hi,
<snip>
Hda is a Sony DRU-720A dual-layer writer, hdc is an older Sony DRU-510A single-layer writer (both are capable of reading dual-layer media). Both are IDE drives configured as masters of the two separate IDE buses of my mainboard. There are no slaves on those buses and all other mass storage is on SCSI.
How are these drives jumpered? Master/slave/cable-select and is the IDE cable a dual or single drive type. If its a dual drive cable is the drive plugged into the end of the cable? Try switching the master/cable-select jumper even if it is jumpered as the master device on the end of the cable. This is very IDE controller and system BIOS dependent. I have seen IDE devices work and then fail until the master/slave/cable-select jumper was changed to the other way. They haven't failed after that.
It seems very odd that while no error was reported, reading stopped on hda after 4.3 GB while hdc when the full 8.5 GB. One might suppose that hda couldn't handle the layer switch yet reported no error when it should have done so.
Another oddity I noticed when conducting these experiments was high CPU usage when accessing hda. It turns out its DMA had gotten turned off somehow. I reenabled it and ran the test again. Aside from going about twice as fast, nothing changed.
I was on a roll yesterday with recommending www.CDFreaks.com for CD/DVD drive firmware updates. It is worth your time to check your drives there.
Has anybody seen symptoms like this? Can you shed any light on what might have happened to the malfunctioning drive to account for these peculiar symptoms?
Similar issues. Turned out to be CD/DVD drive firmware and/or bad media. Where was the media burned that fails in this drive? Was it burned in this drive?
Thanks.
Randall Schulz
Kevan might be right about the laser getting out of alignment. I have never seen that happen though to a CD/DVD drive. Power supply or other electronics on the device usually dies before that happens in my experience. Stan
On 02/12/05, Stan Glasoe <srglasoe@comcast.net> wrote:
Kevan might be right about the laser getting out of alignment. I have never seen that happen though to a CD/DVD drive. Power supply or other electronics on the device usually dies before that happens in my experience.
Stan
I mentioned that because, in my experience - I used to run a PC lab with over 120 PC's in it all with Sony optical drives - Sony drives seem to be rather fragile. -- ============================================== I am only human, please forgive me if I make a mistake it is not deliberate. ============================================== Take care. Kevan Farmer Linux user #373362 34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR
participants (3)
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Kevanf1 -
Randall R Schulz -
Stan Glasoe