tlug: Problems with CDROM detection in Caldera Lignux

[Dennis McMurchy <denismcm@example.com>]

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tlug note from Dennis McMurchy <denismcm@example.com>
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  Hi gang,

  I hope you won't mind me forwarding an email message from a friend
of mine in Wales who is not on the list.  I encouraged to explore 
Lignux, suggesting he try Slackware (since that's all I know and use),
but he's gotten into Caldera Lite (Ultralite??) or something and seems
to be stuck on problems that shouldn't be.

  It seems that the install disk detects the CD drive fine, but no
way can he get the installed version to recognize it.

  Hope someone can suggest something.  I'm a bit stumped, really.

  Thanks.

Dennis McMurchy, 
Sointula, B.C. / Tojinmachi, Fukuoka
Canada           Japan

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Well, I followed your suggestions & instructions & built myself a new
kennel. Before doing that, I checked two other things:-
Windows (3.1 & 95) recognises my CD-Rom. and detects it like this at
boot-up:-
  CD-Rom... on IRQ15, Port 170, Model 468-021
The Linux Install diskette (I booted it, but this time I aborted before
anything was actually installed) detects it like this:-
  hdd:  CDA468021, ATAPI CDROM drive  ide0 at 0x1f
and then successfully installs a million programs from the Caldera CD.

  The kennel rebuild went very smoothly (though I chose rather wildly
between the various options), and I selected ATAPI CD-Rom. And, as you
predicted, it booted happily from floppy first time (and apparently now
includes SCSI support, but I haven't tested this). (I did include
sound-card support, but as you predicted, this failed on boot-up because
of a wrong IRQ).
  Unfortunately, though the boot sequence is recognisably different from
the previous one, it's identical in not mentioning CD-Roms at any point.
In the "Initializing block devices" section, it deals with the two hard
disks and the floppy, but no mention of hdd or cdrom - UNLESS the
following obscure line
     ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7, 0x3f6 on irq 14
is an attempt to detect it. The IRQ is different, but "ide0" and the
memory address (or whatever those letters are) look similar to what the
Install diskette reported. If so, can you suggest whether there's any
point trying to mount it? (I didn't try, because I'm always afraid of
messing something up on what is, after all, my work computer. Of course,
most of my data is backed up on M/O disks, and I can reinstall most of
the OSes & software.) Or can I force Linux to accept different
parameters?
  I'm starting to feel the effort/result ratio with Linux is approaching
infinity... 


Next TLUG meeting is Saturday October 11, 1997
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