[COLUG] AOpen DVD drive issue

[Dave]

On May 11, 2007, at 8:17 AM, William Yang wrote:

> Dave wrote:
>>
>> On May 10, 2007, at 1:30 PM, Thomas W. Cranston wrote:
>>
>>> William Yang wrote:
>>>> Dave wrote:
>>>>> I got a new custom computer (from TCR in Pickerington) for my  
>>>>> wife's
>>>>> office and am having issues with the DVD drive. I burned a DVD of
>>>>> CentOS 5 and it loads ok and brings up the first screen, but  
>>>>> once I
>>>>> select to install from the "CD-ROM" drive, it says it needs a
>>>>> driver. So I created an image of the DVD on my Mac and did an ftp
>>>>> install which worked fine.
>>>>
>>>> Based on the symptoms you've described, I don't think it's a  
>>>> hardware
>>>> problem with the *drive*.  I think it's on your drive controller
>>>> and/or mobo, and I think it's likely to be a software problem  
>>>> you can
>>>> fix without going back to the store.
>
> [...]
>
>> I specifically requested a mobo with one old style serial port since
>> they still use an external serial modem for sending faxes and  
>> since we
>> were buying 5 and I wanted to keep the price down I went with on  
>> board
>> video and on board audio.
>>
>> This is what it is: Intel DG965SSCK - I checked before ordering and
>> according to Intel's site, there's support in recent Linux versions.
>
> Yes, there is support in recent Linux kernels.  However, that  
> support has
> to be turned on through boot-time options (and requires a correctly  
> set up
> BIOS) before it will work.  Remember, just because it *can* be  
> built into
> the kernel doesn't mean it's going to be in every distribution's  
> installer
> image by default.
>
> Please take a look at:
>
> http://www.blindedbytech.com/2006/11/10/how-to-install-fedora- 
> core-6-on-intel-dg965ss-motherboard/
>
> In this article, they note that the problem is exactly what I  
> suggested, a
> JMicron PATA/SATA bridge that's not supported in the installer's  
> default
> settings.  They also provide suggestions on how to get it to work,  
> which
> mirror my own experiences getting things to happen on a different,
> similarly new board.
>
> I believe the workarounds they describe will probably work.  Minor  
> BIOS
> changes and options passed to the kernel will resolve the problem for
> installation purposes.  You just need to make sure you tell the  
> kernel to
> use the drivers.

Thanks - sorry for the delayed reply - I was out of town for a bit.

In addition to all-generic-ide, I also had to add irqpoll and then it  
seemed to work. The machine did lockup once after the install when I  
was doing some configuring. I don't know if it's a driver issue or if  
the memory could be flaky - I've never had flaky memory from TCR in  
the past, but have seen it on other computers. I installed it at my  
wife's office today and told them to let me know if they had any  
problems with that machine (it's a client, not the server and they  
could live w/o it for a few days if they had to). If it locks up  
again, I'll run memtest86 for a while and see what it reports - I ran  
it for 10 minutes w/o any problems, but I know it needs to go longer  
than that to do more thorough testing.


> Contrary to the opinions of some others, I have a hard time  
> claiming the
> hardware is junk, just because the support isn't compiled by  
> default into
> the operating system you're using (when it is available).
>
> There are readily accessible ways to get the hardware to work without
> returning it.  That's not a problem with the equipment.


Agreed. As I said, I told them I wanted a board with an old style  
serial port so I could hook up an external modem for faxing so my  
choices of motherboards was limited. On a related note, anyone have  
experience with the usb to serial port adapters? I found one that  
claimed Linux support.

Dave