Mandrake 9.2 Warning

I was zipping through slashdot and came across a very suprising article, that I think needs to be circulated here to possibly save some hardware. It seems Mandrake 9.2 kills LG based cd drives upon attempting the install process, and a reboot shows the drive to be completely dead. Here is a direct quote from the Mandrake Errata Page

Quote:

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Error scenario: Installing 9.2 and being told unable to install the base system and subsequent reboot reveals that CD-ROM drive is physically dead.
Why: According to LG Electronics, their ODD (Optical Disc Drive) products do not support Linux nor do they test with Linux. Unfortunately, many Dell computers (possibly others) come with these CD-ROM drives.

Solution: Currently there is no solution or work-around for this issue; it is still under investigation. Damage occurs even when doing a network install. At this point, please do not install Mandrake Linux 9.2 on any computer containing a LG-based CD-ROM drive or it will damage your CD-ROM drive! We are actively looking for a solution to this problem.

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Nice post, thanks for the info

Does this apply only for mandrake linux? Or would this dc rom also die on any other *nix based systems?

I will look into this and let you know.

Cheers.

Syini666. Thank you for that information. I use Manrake 9.1 for testing purposes, and usually try out each new version, and oops, I have an LG CDRW. I am not a software person, but you would think that they would be able to pinpoint exactly what changes were made in ver 9.2 to cause this to happen. Hope between them, they get a fix for it soon. thanks again

instronics, i have a computer with an LG cd rom and rw , it has RH9 and i haven't had any problems

I'm confused as to how the software can damage the hardware, coz if that were possible, a virus could destroy such hardware with ease. Call me ignorant, but I never really thought that software could kill hardware. (Ignoring Firmware)

This thread at MandrakeUsers.org Board may be of help. There is a link for a firmware upgrade that might help prevent the problem as well as a list of "troublesome" drives.

Quote:

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ried:
COMPAQ CRD-8322B(CP1)
CRD-8400B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx1)
CRD-8400B (machine: IBM PC 300 PL)
CDR-8400B(mi)
CRD-8400C
COMPAQ CRD-8402B
LG CRD-8480C (machine: Old Dell XPS T650r)
GCR-8481B (machine: Dell Optiplex gx270; rom: 1.06; date: jun 2003)
CRD-8482B (machine: Dell Optiplex GX1)
GOLDSTAR CDR-8482B (machine: HP Vectra VL400; firmware: 1.01)
CRD-8482B (Dell Precision 220, rom: 1.05)
LG ???? (machine: HP Vectras VL4xx)
GCC 4480B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM (firmware 1.00 - upgrading firmware to 1.01 workarounds
problem)

work:
LG GMA-4020B DVD-RW
LG GCC-4120B CDRW/DVD
LG CD-RW CED-8080B DVD/CD-R/RW/CDROM
LG CD-RW CED-8120B (motherboard: ASUS K7M)
HL-DT-ST GCC-4480B (machine: Shuttle SB 62 G2 - i865/ICH5; firmware 1.01 - WARNING,
firmware 1.00 is reported to have the fry problem!) HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B
(motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe) HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8161B (motherboard: Soyo)
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B
HL-DT-ST GCE-8481B CD-CDRW (chipset: SIS 651/962)
HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8520B
HL-DT-ST GCE-8520B (motherboard: ASUS P4P800)

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This newsgroup thread might have the clue:

Quote:

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It's probably writing to bits of the register for the device that is intended to reprogram the EEPROM or similar. Some network cards had this problem a looong time ago. ...

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What's interesting was the comments from the Mandrake Cooker list (I believe that's their developers/tester list). This particular driver/module had been in the pre-releases. So why wasn't it picked up there? I'm guessing that people were told, as from what I saw on some of the threads I researched, that was weird coincidence. Evidentally when you replace the drive 3 times and it happens 3 times, you have to wonder at that point.

The details of what specifically is happening is still sketchy at this point. At LinuxQuestions.org there is a thread on this and they have contacted Mandrake to get specific details (no response yet since this is happening over a weekend). I expect the details will emerge during this week.

Not that I'd use Mandrake, but I passed through this info...

Thnx Syini.

More scuttlebutt from another Google Newsgroup. I personally think that Mandrake is at fault for this but LG does hold some responsibility. If they are making CDRoms that do not hold to standards (that is, accepting information in the wrong place) they should also respond to this.

Even more scuttlebutt...

Thank you , Ms Mittens for the update. Plenty of good debate on the subject. I just feel sorry for anybody who has already been caught out, being unaware of this problem, and no doubt there will be potentially many more, who possibly do not keep updated

Whew!!! Looks like I may have dodged a bullet. Was on the fence about trying either Mandrake or RH. Took the RH 9.x plunge. Now, I'm glad I did. Built an nmap/ethereal machine.

Anyway, this is reminicent of the problems with the S3 video cards a few years ago.. I had no end of problems with installing several of the Linux distros on systems that used any of the S3 video implementations or chipsets. One install attempt blew out the monitor.

Yeah, operating systems can get to areas in hardware that can cause damage.

Well.. Here it is. The final decision on what the cause was from Mandrake's Errata Site

Quote:

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The problem was that the kernel would send a FLUSH_CACHE command to the LG CD-ROM drive which would make the drive inoperable by overwriting its firmware. This is because LG CD-ROM drives are not compliant with the ATAPI specification. The specification does not require an implementation of the FLUSH_CACHE command in the driver, and returning an error (or doing nothing) would have been the correct behaviour for the drive. Likewise, reusing a command is against the specification and LG has reused the FLUSH_CACHE command to modify the firmware of the drive, but they are unwilling to disclose exactly what the command does. This FLUSH_CACHE command is supposed to be supported only by CD-RW or DVD-RW devices; the LG-based CD-ROM devices are understanding this command as the UPLOAD_FIRMWARE command.

A new kernel (2.4.22-21mdk) has been released that fixes this problem in the kernel, although the CD-ROM devices are still not up to specification. New CDs and ISOs will be available shortly to correct these problems; they will come with the new kernel.

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Visit the errata page for links to patches, etc. :D

It strikes me as I read this that a) LG sees itself as having no fault in this b) LG creates CDRom drives (and other drives) that do not meet industry standards.