Re: [parisc-linux] Boot-up challenges on a 715/75

[Joel Soete <soete.joel@tiscali.be>]

Hello Max,

M. Grabert wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Nov 2003, Steve Bromwich wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Grant Grundler wrote:
>>
>>
>>>On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 08:38:00PM -0400, Steve Bromwich wrote:
>>>
>>>>I believe HP machines use a 512 byte sector CD drives (with the standard
>>>>being 2048 byte). I'm not sure off-hand if the TEAC supports 512 byte
>>>>sectors. Your best bet may be to borrow a CD off a Sun machine, if you
>>>>have access to one.
>>>
>>>I'm only aware of HP using 2k sectors for CD-RO.
>>
>>Well, this is just from my own personal experience on a 715/75 (which has
>>now sadly bitten the dust). A google around would tend to support this
>>theory, for example:
>>
>>http://lists.parisc-linux.org/pipermail/parisc-linux/2000-September/009345.html
>>"Last posting to the list was about my SCSI CD-ROM not booting the
>>HP-UX INSTALL CD.  Well, it turns out that NECs are in 2048 byte sector
>>mode whereas HP requires 512 byte mode.  SUNs and SGIs also require 512
>>byte sector mode.  So I just borrowed a SUN external CD-ROM..."
>>
>>
>>>I've never heard of 512 byte sectors in a CD Drive.
>>>Is that a feature unique to CD-RW?
>>
>>It's the standard for Sun boxes (at least, on all my Sparcstations). This
>>of course means I don't have any SCSI 2048 byte CD drives to verify my
>>statement! If anyone else would like to verify it I'd be interested, and I
>>suppose it might not be a bad idea to add it to the FAQ if true as I'm
>>sure it'll bite someone else down the road.
> 
> 
> I have several risc boxes (SGI O2, Alpha AS500, Dec 5000, Sun SS20s and HPs),
> all of them use 512bytes/sector. I'm actually not aware of any non-intel
> platform that uses 2048bytes/sector for SCSI CD-drives.
> 
hmm excepted HP (trust me, when I build a custom cd with Ignite to 
upgrade our ws (about 80 of various model: 712, b132, b180 & c110) from 
10.01 to 10.20, I have to take care of this detail to build the basic fs)

> I once ran into the problem that I couldn't boot from CD using an old Sun
> SPARCstationLX, since the SCSI CD-drive was set to 2048bytes/sector.
> 
> Most SCSI-CD drives have a switch/jumper to select the default
> bytes/sector (ie. 512 or 2048). Most 'newer' drives support to be switched
> to either mode via software. 'Newer' meaning less than 8 years old.
> 
> However old workstations (like the old SPARCstation I presume) don't
> support to switch the SCSI-CD-drive to the 512 mode, so you HAVE to set
> the jumper on the back of the drive.
> 
> I doubt you'll find any SCSI CD-drives on the market (second hand or new)
> that are so old that they support only one of these modes. I bought a
> TEAC CD-writer and a Pioneer CD-drive in a ordinary PC shop about 6 years
> ago, and they support both modes (and I even couldn't find any that couldn't).
> They work with all SCSI machines I have.
> 
> 
Thanks for those all info (well I don't have to manage a so wide range 
of ws supplier) but I ignored this before ;)

Joel